Career Advice: 10 Tips for Junior Faculty – Inside Higher Ed The usual mix of sound general advice and “Thank God I don’t work at a big university/ in the humanities.” (tags: academia jobs tenure inside-higher-ed) 6 Civil War Myths Everyone Believes (That Are Total B.S.) | Cracked.com “Now, we know what you’re thinking: What… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-26
Author: Chad Orzel
Dog Physics On TV: Set Your DVR
I learned today that the National Georgraphic Channel video I mentioned last week has actually already aired on the network. It was last week’s episode of the series “Naked Science,” titled Living in a Parallel Universe. I haven’t seen it, obviously, but it’s running again, tomorrow (the 26th), at 4pm (Eastern (US) time). Set your… Continue reading Dog Physics On TV: Set Your DVR
You Will Never Die
If I ever decided to abandon any pretense of integrity or credibility, and just shoot for making a bazillion dollars peddling quantum hokum, the particular brand of quantum philosophy I would peddle has already been laid out, in Robert Charles Wilson’s Divided by Infinity. In the story, the narrator is given a copy of a… Continue reading You Will Never Die
PNAS: Will Hendrick, (Former) Biomedical Technician
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Will Hendrick, who worked as a lab tech before returning to school. (This may seem like an odd inclusion, but there are people who do this sort of thing forever, so I think it’s valid.) The goal is… Continue reading PNAS: Will Hendrick, (Former) Biomedical Technician
Links for 2011-05-25
News: Major Decisions – Inside Higher Ed “For 15 broad categories of majors, such as engineering, physical science, and business, the report explores the median and quartile pay, the percentage of the major comprising women and minorities, and the percentage of individuals from that major who went on to get graduate degrees. The report also… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-25
Lessons in Applied Data Archaeology
I’m teaching our upper-level lab course this term, where I do a two-part experiment on laser spectroscopy. The first part is to calibrate the free spectral range of a homemade Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the second part is to use that Fabry-Perot as a frequency marker to calibrate a diode laser scan across the rubidium hyperfine… Continue reading Lessons in Applied Data Archaeology
PNAS: Amy Young, Saponifier
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Amy Young, who runs her own soap-making business. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.–post-doc–academic-job track.) 1) What is your non-academic job?… Continue reading PNAS: Amy Young, Saponifier
Links for 2011-05-24
Is the Launch Speed in Angry Birds Constant? | Wired Science | Wired.com “Does the Bird’s Launch Speed Depend on the Angle? If the bird is indeed shot from an elastic cord, then technically the bird should go faster when shot horizontally than when it is shot straight up. Why? Physics.” (tags: science physics education blogs… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-24
When Aliens Attack
As I have admitted previously, I have a fondness for tv shows about UFO’s, the loonier the better. So, when I learned that there was a show called When Aliens Attack airing last night on the National Geographic channel, I was all over that. I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint– it brought… Continue reading When Aliens Attack
Links for 2011-05-23
Matt McIrvin’s Steam-Operated World of Yesteryear – Children’s/science museums north of Boston “Boston has lots of great places to take kids to see/interact with cool stuff; there’s the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science, and the Boston Children’s Museum, all of which are justly famous. But they’re a long enough trip for us that… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-23