Third of the five research categories within DAMOP that I talked about is Quantum Phenomena. This is a little bit of a catch-all, as there are a few different things going on in this area. They are all unified, though, by the fact that they end up making quantum mechanical effects manifest in some way,… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About Quantum Phenomena?
Author: Chad Orzel
Links for 2011-07-01
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Spiked Cities “Having followed [Richard] Florida on twitter for a while, I’ve noticed that his position goes beyond noting creative clusters. There’s a general pro-urban, anti-suburban flavor to his thought. Add a few bike paths and a vibrant gay community, and you’ve pretty much found his recipe for growth.… Continue reading Links for 2011-07-01
Thursday Random Artsy Photo Blogging 063011
SteelyKid’s away at Grammy and Grampy’s this week, so I can’t take a Toddler Blogging photo for this week. I do, however, have this random artsy shot from last Saturday’s trip to the Bronx Zoo: This is from the Children’s Zoo section. She’s going up the stairs to the upper platform, where there’s a twisty… Continue reading Thursday Random Artsy Photo Blogging 063011
What’s So Interesting About Extreme Lasers?
The second in the DAMOP research categories I talked about is “Extreme Lasers,” a name I was somewhat hesitant to use, as every time I see “Extreme [noun],” I get a flash of Stephen Colbert doing air guitar. It is, however, the appropriate term, because these laser systems push the limits of what’s possible both… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About Extreme Lasers?
Links for 2011-06-30
YouTube – âªWits with Neil Gaiman, Adam Savage, and Gollum: “I Will Survive”â¬â The Internet is a very, very strange place. (tags: silly internet video music movies television) Confessions of a Community College Dean: Yes, College is Worth It “One way to test the truth of the proposition that college isn’t worth it is to… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-30
What’s So Interesting About Ultracold Matter?
The first of the five categories of active research at DAMOP that I described in yesterday’s post is “Ultracold Matter.” The starting point for this category of research is laser cooling to get a gas of atoms down to microkelvin temperatures (that is, a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero. Evaporative cooling can… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About Ultracold Matter?
What Advantage Do “Insiders” Offer?
Out in Minnesota, Melissa expresses some high-level confusion over the preference for people with a small-college background: In the past few months, I have been involved in several conversations where someone mentioned that a particular faculty member or administrator was or was not an alum of a small liberal arts college (SLAC) in a manner… Continue reading What Advantage Do “Insiders” Offer?
Links for 2011-06-29
Chuck Klosterman on Led Zeppelin’s last stand – Grantland “4:52 to 5:24: brrrrrrringgggggg … brrrrrrrrrringggggggg “Hello?” “Hi. Is this John Paul Jones?” “Yes. Yes it is. Why are you calling me in the middle of this song?” “I just noticed you had a telephone on your keyboard, so I thought I’d give you a buzz.… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-29
What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?
That’s the title of my slightly insane talk at the DAMOP (Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society) conference a couple of weeks ago, summarizing current topics of interest in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. I’ll re-embed the slides at the end of this post, for anyone who missed my… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?
Links for 2011-06-28
But it doesn’t move! | The Renaissance Mathematicus “All in all to believe in heliocentricity at the beginning of the 17th century was literally an act of blind faith and those that opposed it did so on solid scientific grounds and not purely out of some sense of religious bigotry as is often claimed by… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-28