Month: July 2013

Think Like a Physicist

Enrico Fermi posing by a blackboard, from http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=439&bodyId=485

There was a flurry of discussion recently on campus about “critical thinking,” and how we sell that idea to prospective and current students. This was prompted by a recent report arguing for the importance of the humanities and social sciences (which I found really frustrating in ways that are neither surprising nor important for this… Continue reading Think Like a Physicist

What Is Squeezing?

Because nothing makes a physics post like a dated pop-culture reference. From http://www.whipple.org/photos/charmin.html

In the Physics Blogging Request Thread the other day, I got a comment so good I could’ve planted it myself, from Rachel who asks: It’s a term I see used a lot but don’t really know what it means – what is a “squeezed state”? What does “squeezing” mean? (in a QM context of course…)… Continue reading What Is Squeezing?

Science Is Not Solitary

There was another round of the “who counts as a scientist?” debate recently, on Twitter and then on the Physics Focus blog. In between those, probably coincidentally (he doesn’t mention anything prompting it), Sean Carroll offered a three-step definition of science: Think of every possible way the world could be. Label each way an “hypothesis.”… Continue reading Science Is Not Solitary

See You Monday

SteelyKid's room.

The picture above shows the new sign on SteelyKid’s door. She had to ask us how to spell the words– she’s not five for another month, yet– but she is now the proud owner of a hand-lettered “DO NOT ENTER” sign for her bedroom. About half a dozen years earlier than I was hoping for…… Continue reading See You Monday

4th of July, Niskayuna (SteelyKid and The Pip)

The kids with fake bones at the AMNH evolution exhibit.

It’s Independence Day here in the US, so here are some patriotic kid photos for you. “Wait a minute,” you say, “That featured image doesn’t have any flags or fireworks or gilled meat products! How is that patriotic?” “Ah,” I reply,”It was taken at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC last weekend.” Game.… Continue reading 4th of July, Niskayuna (SteelyKid and The Pip)

Science Is Hard?: “A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout”

Screenshot of text from the paper discussed.

There was a brief flurry of discussion yesterday kicked off by Matt Yglesias posting People Don’t Major in Science—Because It’s Hard, which more or less says what the title would lead you to believe (either title, since he’s blogging for Slate where they like to give pages titles that don’t match the post titles…). This… Continue reading Science Is Hard?: “A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout”

The Department of Persecution Studies

In my darker moods, I sometimes suspect that all academics, regardless of their specialty, are engaged in the same pursuit: searching out and exposing the systematic oppression of… whatever department or program the faculty member speaking at the moment happens to belong to. No matter what field of study they work in, faculty seem to… Continue reading The Department of Persecution Studies

Disappearing Quotes: Sophisticated Sports Coverage

One of the great frustrations of my intellectual life, such as it is, is the problem of the disappearing quote. This is a function of having acquired a broad liberal education (in the sense of “liberal arts college” not the sense of “person to the left of Rush Limbaugh”) in a somewhat haphazard manner. My… Continue reading Disappearing Quotes: Sophisticated Sports Coverage