Month: November 2014

High Precision, Not High Energy: Video

Back in August, I gave a talk in Stockholm at the Nordita workshop for science writers, about precision measurement searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. There’s now video of this online: The video quality isn’t great, but if you’d like a clearer look at the slides, I’ve posted them on SlideShare. The talk was… Continue reading High Precision, Not High Energy: Video

Return of the Revenge of the Project for Non-Academic Science

I’ve been doing a lot of darkness-cursing lately (mostly off-line), so we could stand to have a little candle-lighting. It’s been a few years since I last did a round of profiles of scientists outside academia, so let’s see if that will fly again… So, if you 1) Have a degree in a STEM field… Continue reading Return of the Revenge of the Project for Non-Academic Science

Eureka: Bridge to Dark Matter

Screen shot from the video, showing me explaining the spectra of rotating galaxies.

The first time you hear about dark matter, it sounds kind of crazy– asserting that we’re surrounded by tons of invisible stuff is usually a good way to get locked up. But the process of its discovery is surprisingly ordinary: it’s just what you do when you play cards. Here’s the second green-screen video I’ve… Continue reading Eureka: Bridge to Dark Matter

Benefits of an Academic Day Job

The central quad at Union; the big building in the center is the Nott Memorial, the obligatory building-on-the-letterhead that every college must have.

I’ve been quieter than usual here, partly because I’ve been crushingly busy, but primarily because most of the things I want to talk about, I can’t. Not yet, anyway. But I’m still alive, and this murderous term will be over soon, at which point blogging will pick up a bit. I will throw in a… Continue reading Benefits of an Academic Day Job

Eureka: Quantum Crosswords

Me in front of a green-screen crossword puzzle, talking about science.

My new book comes out one month from yesterday, or four weeks from tomorrow. Of course, yesterday was Sunday, and tomorrow’s a federal holiday, both lousy times for promotional posts, so I’ll drop this in today instead. Here’s a promotional video I put together, about how the history of quantum mechanics can be compared to… Continue reading Eureka: Quantum Crosswords

General Relativity With Toddler Toys

The high-tech materials used to demonstrate spacetime curvature in Friday's Gen Ed class.

A couple of times last week, I mentioned on Twitter that I was going to demonstrate relativity with toddler toys and string. This was an inspiration that hit late on Thursday, when I was trying to think of a better way to explain embedding diagrams (the technical term for those stretched-rubber-sheet pictures that everybody uses… Continue reading General Relativity With Toddler Toys

Quick Interstellar Thoughts

I’m teaching a Gen Ed course on relativity this term, which means I’m spending the last few weeks of the term discussing black holes. Which, in turn, means there was no way I couldn’t use that story about Kip Thorne calculating the appearance of a black hole for the movie. Especially since I have the… Continue reading Quick Interstellar Thoughts

Happy Pip Day

The Pip explaining to the world in general that today is his third birthday.

Exactly three years ago today, The Pip arrived, in a manner that will allow him to kill Macbeth should that become necessary. This is the age where kids first become aware of the concept of birthdays, so he’s just a tiny bit excited about this. He’s a fast-developing Little Dude, chattering more and more every… Continue reading Happy Pip Day

Playground Physics: Angular Momentum, Video Homework

SteelyKid helping me demonstrate angular momentum.

I’m teaching relativity in a course with an astronomy prefix, which means I’m obliged to talk about stars and stuff. Yesterday’s lecture was about neutron stars, and how their existence was confirmed by the discovery of pulsars (with the story of Jocelyn Bell Burnell included). This requires some discussion of angular momentum to explain how… Continue reading Playground Physics: Angular Momentum, Video Homework