Uncertain Principles Archive
Physics, Politics, Pop Culture; formerly on ScienceBlogs
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 […]
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…) […]
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.” […]
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… […]
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. […]
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 […]
Having said that I want to focus more on positive stuff, and talking up cool things in science, I’m going to make an effort to do more write-ups of research papers. I’ve got a few ideas along those lines, and of course I get regular emails from journals and press offices bringing other papers to […]
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 […]
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 […]