The Pip is getting really into books these days, and SteelyKid has been into them for a good while now (she’s four-and-a-half, after all…). At some point last week, she asked about my writing, so I got down a copy of How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog and showed her her name in the… Continue reading Sunday Morning, Chateau Steelypips
Month: March 2013
How Good Is My Starbucks Cup?
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post over-analyzing some everyday situation, because I’ve been too busy to do any silly experiments. We’re on break this week, though, so I took a little time Monday to bring excessive technology to bear on the critically important scientific question: how good is my insulated Starbucks cup?… Continue reading How Good Is My Starbucks Cup?
I Teach for Free, They Pay Me to Grade
Over at Unqualified Offerings, Thoreau has a bit of a rant about what students perceive as grading on a “curve”: Moreover, many students have only the foggiest idea of what a curve is. Many (though probably not all) of their high schools had fixed grading scales with fixed percentages for each letter grade. The A/A-… Continue reading I Teach for Free, They Pay Me to Grade
Hey, Ho, Ohio: Two Talks at Wright State, Thursday March 28
Kind of short notice, but if you’re in the appropriate bits of Ohio, you might be interested to know that I’m giving two talks at Wright State this Thursday. At 11am, I’m doing the Physics Department Colloquium in 202 Oelman Hall, “Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How… Continue reading Hey, Ho, Ohio: Two Talks at Wright State, Thursday March 28
A Plan and a Story
OK, here’s my idea: We put a leash on Emmy and we put her up on top of this rock that’s on top of all these other rocks. Then she jumps down into these petals. so she’ll be safe. And you pull on the leash so she jumps down a little faster. I’m down here… Continue reading A Plan and a Story
Modern Physics and Scientific Thinking
Yesterday’s big post on why I think people should embrace scientific thinking in a more conscious way than they do already (because my claim is that most people already use scientific thinking, they’re just not aware that they’re doing it) is clearly a kind of explanation of the reason behind my next book, but what… Continue reading Modern Physics and Scientific Thinking
Why Should You Think Like a Scientist?
As you may or may not know, I’m currently at work on a book called How to Think Like a Scientist. This raises the fairly obvious question in the post title, namely, why should people think like scientists? What’s the point? In a sense, this is (as Ethan Zuckerman pointed out at lunch the other… Continue reading Why Should You Think Like a Scientist?
Why, SteelyKid? What Are We Going to Do Tomorrow Night?
OK, Daddy, guess what? Here’s my idea. We get a stick of wood and we put a timer on it, then we get a big rock and put it on the end. We have to put feet on the big rock, so it can stand on the stick. Then when the rain comes down, down,… Continue reading Why, SteelyKid? What Are We Going to Do Tomorrow Night?
Against Kaku-ism
I had lunch with Ethan Zuckerman yesterday, and we were talking about technology and communicating science to a mass audience, and Michio Kaku came up. Specifically, the fact that he’s prone to saying stuff that’s just flat wrong, if not batshit crazy– see this angry post from 2010 for an example. It was amusing, then,… Continue reading Against Kaku-ism
On College Matching
We’re entering the heart of College Admissions Season– the offers are out, and students are doing the high-stress decision thing– which means it’s time for the New York Times to begin their annual series of faintly awful reports on the state of academia. And right on cue, there’s this weekend’s article about poor students who… Continue reading On College Matching