I’m not entirely sure why I keep responding to this, but Bruce Charlton left another comment about the supposed dullness of modern science that has me wondering about academic: The key point is that a few decades ago an average scientist would start working on the problem of his choice in his mid- to late-twenties… Continue reading Academic Autonomy: How Much Freedom Do Post-Docs Have?
Author: Chad Orzel
Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
While I’ve seen him on tv a bunch of times (both on NOVA and on the Comedy Central fake-news shows), I have somehow managed not to read anything by Neil deGrasse Tyson before. I’m not sure how that happened. After his appearance on The Daily show last year, and especially after the Rubik’s Cube thing… Continue reading Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
links for 2009-06-29
Cocktail Party Physics: dial-a-scientist "It all started Wednesday, when I got an email from Brandon Webb, who handles PR for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UT Dallas. He wanted to know if I could talk to a reporter who wanted to know whether a Styrofoam cup could break a windshield. (That’s an… Continue reading links for 2009-06-29
How Not to Break Into Publishing
One of the fun thing about being at home for a weekend is that I get to see a close-up view of the death of the American newspaper. When I was a kid, Binghamton had two daily papers, the Sun-Bulletin and the Evening Press, published in the morning and evening, respectively (bet you couldn’t’ve guessed… Continue reading How Not to Break Into Publishing
Graduation Speech: Think Like a Scientist
The following is the (approximate) text of the speech I gave Friday night at the Whitney Point High School graduation. Or, at least, this is what I typed out for myself Thursday night– what actually comes out of my mouth on Friday might be completely different. That’s why they do these things live, after all…… Continue reading Graduation Speech: Think Like a Scientist
links for 2009-06-27
Hacker News | I was a theoretical physicist for 13 years, and struggled a lot with this questi… "One unusual but very useful style was to set a goal like reading 15 papers in 3 hours. I use the term "reading" here in an unusual way. Of course, I don’t mean understanding everything in the… Continue reading links for 2009-06-27
Bonus Baby Video Blogging
I’m headed home to give a speech at my old high school’s graduation. Which is a weird feeling– I don’t feel like I’m really old or successful enough to be on the lecture circuit. Then again, it is twenty years since I graduated there myself, which means I’ve been out of high school longer than… Continue reading Bonus Baby Video Blogging
Canine Poll: Hot Pursuit
“What are you doing?” “Hmm? Oh, I’m trying to think of a Dorky Poll question to post to the blog, because I’m going to be away from the computer for a while.” “Why are they always human polls?” “Um, because the vast majority of my readers are human?” Yeah, but why don’t I ever get… Continue reading Canine Poll: Hot Pursuit
Math Is Hard
The Dean Dad slaps his forehead and asks a question: We have anecdotal evidence that suggests that students who actually take math for all four years of high school do better in math here than those who don’t. We also have anecdotal evidence that bears crap in the woods. Why the hell do the high… Continue reading Math Is Hard
On Accommodationism
Chris Mooney has an explanation of the “accommodationist” position that deserves better than to be buried in a Links Dump: I don’t see a need to pry into how each individual is dealing with these complicated and personal matters of constructing a coherent worldview. Rather, from a political and public perspective, I want them all… Continue reading On Accommodationism