Sparks Fly Over Shoestring Test Of ‘Holographic Principle’ ” “The beauty of it is that we have the people who can come up with this low-risk, high-reward experiment,” says Fermilab’s Raymond Tomlin. “It’s one shot, and if you discover something you go to Stockholm [to collect a Nobel Prize]. And if you don’t see anything,… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-16
Author: Chad Orzel
Necessary Cuteness
We found out yesterday that one of my great-aunts, who recently moved out of a retirement community because she wanted to live by herself, fell and banged her head badly. While she apparently seemed okay at the time, a short while later she collapsed, and is vanishingly unlikely to recover. While it seems weird to… Continue reading Necessary Cuteness
Links for 2012-04-14
Microsoft Word is cumbersome, inefficient, and obsolete. It’s time for it to die. – Slate Magazine Nowadays, I get the same feeling of dread when I open an email to see a Microsoft Word document attached. Time and effort are about to be wasted cleaning up someone’s archaic habits. A Word file is the story-fax… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-14
Ten Years Before the Blog: 2002-2003
As threatened a little while ago, this is the first of ten hopefully weekly posts looking back at the ten years this blog has been in operation. This one covers the period from the very first post on June 22, 2002 to June 21, 2003. When I started doing this look back, I was more… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2002-2003
EBooks and Agencies
The big publishing news this week is the US Department of Justice bringing an anti-trust suit against the major book publishers and Apple for allegedly colluding to force the “agency model” of ebook pricing on Amazon and other retailers, resulting in higher prices for consumers. I already links dumped an article about the detailed charges,… Continue reading EBooks and Agencies
Why So Many Books About Quanta?
I’m re-instituting the quota system for the moment– no blogging until I make some substantive progress on the current work-in-progress– but I’ll throw out a quick post here to note a media appearance: Physics World has a podcast about books on quantum physics up today: Since its inception in the early part of the 20th… Continue reading Why So Many Books About Quanta?
Links for 2012-04-12
What Is Science? From Feynman to Sagan to Curie, an Omnibus of Definitions | Brain Pickings So, what exactly is science, what does it aspire to do, and why should we the people care? It seems like a simple question, but it’s an infinitely complex one, the answer to which is ever elusive and contentious.… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-12
The Electric Life of Michael Faraday by Alan Hirshfeld
A passing mention in last week’s post about impostors and underdogs got me thinking about Michael Faraday again, and I went looking for a good biography of him. The last time looked, I didn’t find any in electronic form, probably because the Sony Reader store has a lousy selection. I got a Nook for Christmas,… Continue reading The Electric Life of Michael Faraday by Alan Hirshfeld
A Question for the Biologists: Origin of The Origin?
I’ve had limited success with this query on Twitter, probably because not that many people were reading late last night when I posted this, but I can give a little more context here, so it’s worth repeating: As part of something I’m working on but won’t talk about yet, I’m interested in learning something about… Continue reading A Question for the Biologists: Origin of The Origin?
Links for 2012-04-11
Denim and Tweed: Asking permission Last May, the Republican-controlled state legislature voted to amend the Minnesota Constitution, adding a thirteenth section to the “Miscellaneous Items” of the Constitution’s Article XIII to declare, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota.” The Democratic governor’s veto… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-11