Back in the “Uncomfortable Questions” thread, Thony C suggested that I should do running updates on the course I’m teaching now. I meant to get to this sooner, but last weekend’s bout with norovirus kind of got in the way… I like the idea, though, so below the fold are a bunch of comments on… Continue reading Course Report: Modern Physics
Author: Chad Orzel
Why I Won’t Make It as a Philosopher
I think I missed this the first time around, but this weekend, I watched the bloggingheads conversation about quantum mechanics between Sean Carroll and David Albert. In it, David makes an extended argument against the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics (starting about 40:00 into the conversation). The problem is, I can’t quite figure out what… Continue reading Why I Won’t Make It as a Philosopher
Closed Notebook Science
Over at Biocurious, Philip is thinking about digital notebooks, and has found a system that works for him: My computer algebra system of choice is Mathematica, and because of Mathematica’s notebook system, it became extremely straightforward to include sufficient commentary among the analysis and calculations. The important “working” details of my day are recorded on… Continue reading Closed Notebook Science
links for 2009-01-19
Information Processing: The Age of Computing "Historians of science have seen fit to ignore the history of the great discoveries in applied physics, engineering and computer science, where real scientific progress is nowadays to be found. Computer science in particular has changed and continues to change the face of the world more thoroughly and more… Continue reading links for 2009-01-19
From Mooney to Zimmer
Looking for a way to kill some time on a Sunday morning? You could do worse than yesterday’s bloggingheads.tv Science Saturday conversation between Chris Mooney and Carl Zimmer: It’s a wide-ranging conversation, covering what to expect from the Obama administration, artifical life, the possibility of life on Mars, Sanjay Gupta, and the future of science… Continue reading From Mooney to Zimmer
Andrew Wyeth
Arts & Letters Daily has an item announcing the death of Andrew Wyeth (the link goes to the New York Times obit). This is noteworthy to me because he’s one of a very few artists whose work (in poster form) has ever hung on my wall. Specifically, this painting, titled “Soaring”: I picked it up… Continue reading Andrew Wyeth
links for 2009-01-18
Explaining the curse of work – science-in-society – 14 January 2009 – New Scientist "How many members can a committee have and still be effective? Parkinson’s own guess was based on the 700-year history of England’s highest council of state- in its modern incarnation, the UK cabinet. Five times in succession between 1257 and 1955,… Continue reading links for 2009-01-18
Are You Excited About the Inauguration?
I went to a meeting earlier this week with a bunch of other faculty members and students. Before the meeting proper got going, a few of the other faculty were discussing whether they should cancel their mid-day Tuesday classes because of the Inauguration. This struck me as an obvious “No,” but they seemed to be… Continue reading Are You Excited About the Inauguration?
links for 2009-01-17
Emptywheel » This Miracle Brought to You by Americaâs Unions "They’re calling it a miracle–the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They’re detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they’re not… Continue reading links for 2009-01-17
Pros and Cons of Interactive Classes
A number of people have commented on the big New York Times article about the new intro physics classes at MIT: At M.I.T., two introductory courses are still required — classical mechanics and electromagnetism — but today they meet in high-tech classrooms, where about 80 students sit at 13 round tables equipped with networked computers.… Continue reading Pros and Cons of Interactive Classes