This topic is an addition to the original list in the introductory post for the series, because I had thought I could deal with it in one of the other entries. Really, though, it deserves its own installment because of its important role in the history of laser cooling. Laser cooling would not be as… Continue reading Tools of the Cold-Atom Trade: Optical Pumping and Sisyphus Cooling
Month: August 2013
260 Weeks
Long-time readers will remember that I used to do weekly kid-blogging, posting pictures of SteelyKid with a reference animal, Appa the sky-bison from the Avatar cartoon. I stopped a couple of years ago, because SteelyKid started being reluctant to pose for the pictures every week. I got her to pose for a few yesterday, though,… Continue reading 260 Weeks
Why Do Small Science?
I spent an hour or so on Skype with a former student on Tuesday, talking about how physics is done in the CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider. It’s always fascinating to get a look at a completely different way of doing science– as I said when I explained my questions, the longest author… Continue reading Why Do Small Science?
Five! YEARS!
SteelyKid was born five years ago today. I’d try to be clever and schedule this for exactly five years to the minute of her time of birth, but I’ve mercifully forgotten exactly when the delivery was, only that it was early in the morning after a very, very long night. Here’s what she looked like… Continue reading Five! YEARS!
Tools of the Cold-Atom Trade: Optical Lattices
Last time in our trip through the cold-atom toolbox, we talked about light shifts, where the interaction with a laser changes the internal energy states of an atom in a way that can produce forces on those atoms. This allows the creation of “dipole traps” where cold atoms are held in the focus of a… Continue reading Tools of the Cold-Atom Trade: Optical Lattices
Physics Research Survey and Contest
One of my colleagues at Union is doing a physics education research project with a summer student, and is using an online survey to collect data. Obviously, the more people respond to the survey, the more scientific it becomes (subject to the limitations imposed by relying on self-selected Internet samples, of course), so I offered… Continue reading Physics Research Survey and Contest
Physics of the Bouncy-Bounce
SteelyPalooza came off very well, despite high disaster potential. We were, after all, inviting a dozen five-year-olds plus assorted siblings to our house, on a day when Kate and The Pip were out of commission due to coxsackie virus. Everything went smoothly, though: the kids loved the bouncy-bounce, SteelyKid’s playset and playhouse, and the six-person… Continue reading Physics of the Bouncy-Bounce
SteelyPalooza!
SteelyKid turns five next Wednesday (F/X: “FIVE! YEARS!” like an incredulous Jeremy Piven in Grosse Point Blank), but we’re having her party today. This is a distinction we’ve worked hard to get across, and I expect to hear her explain to other kids and their parents about 39 times today (“It’s not my birthday today,… Continue reading SteelyPalooza!
Dorky Poll: Document Preparation Software
The Pip is home with coxsackie virus today, and we’re having a big party for SteelyKid tomorrow (her fifth birthday is next week), so I’m too busy to do more cold-atom blogging today. So instead, we’ll consider one of the great linguistic conundra of modern physics: The document preparation system LaTeX is pronounced: This is… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Document Preparation Software
We Need Scientific Thinking, Not Scientific Commentary
Thursday’s tempest-in-a-teapot was kicked off by an interview with Dan Vergano in which he suggests science reporting is a “ghetto:” The idea, and it comes from the redoubtable Tom Hayden, is that science reporting has largely become a secret garden walled off, and walling itself off, from the rest of the world. Instead of reporting… Continue reading We Need Scientific Thinking, Not Scientific Commentary