Making Light: Why RMS Titanic Didn’t Have Enough Lifeboats "Sixteen hundred people died in the Titanic disaster because no one had worked out the implications of tuned circuits." (tags: history science blogs gadgets) The TNR Q&A: Charles Barkley "People can always bring up stuff. When I get involved in politics, I am not even going… Continue reading links for 2008-09-03
Author: Chad Orzel
Colbert, Atheists, and Hermaphrodites
Comedy Central is re-playing Friday’s episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, which includes Stephen Colbert’s interview with Lori Lippman Brown of the Secular Coalition for America. It’s interesting to see that she doesn’t really fare any better than any of the religious nutjobs he’s had on in his various interview segments, in… Continue reading Colbert, Atheists, and Hermaphrodites
“Quantum Mechanics Is Magic”: The Making of “Spin polarization and quantum statistical effects in ultracold ionizing collisions”
This was the last of the experiments that I did for my thesis (it’s not the last xenon paper I’m an author on, but the work for that one was done while I was writing up), so my memories of it are bound up with the thesis-writing process. My favorite story about this stuff was… Continue reading “Quantum Mechanics Is Magic”: The Making of “Spin polarization and quantum statistical effects in ultracold ionizing collisions”
Spin polarization and quantum statistical effects in ultracold ionizing collisions
This is the last of the five papers that were part of my Ph.D. thesis, and at ten journal pages in length, it’s the longest thing I wrote. It was also the longest-running experiment of any of the things I did, with the data being taken over a period of about three years, between and… Continue reading Spin polarization and quantum statistical effects in ultracold ionizing collisions
Trying to Be Better Than That
Everybody’s favorite local troll left a comment in yesterday’s links dump about the scandal surrounding Sarah Palin’s daughter. It was remarkably coherent for an “Uncle Al” post, and actually bordered on funny. If you look at it now, though, you’ll find it’s undergone lossy compression. I dithered about this for a while, and then decided… Continue reading Trying to Be Better Than That
links for 2008-09-02
Swans on Tea û How Does Calculus Compare? Darth Vader explains the Pythagorean Theorem. Why? Why not? (tags: youtube silly math education) Roald Dahl’s seductive work as a British spy – Telegraph "I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year." (tags: sex history… Continue reading links for 2008-09-02
Science in the 21st Century
One week from today, barring anything catastrophic, I will be speaking at the Science in the 21st Century workshop at the Perimeter Institute. Sabine Hossenfelder has a nice run-down of the program at Backreaction, and it sounds really interesting. I have my talk more or less ready– I started making slides a week or two… Continue reading Science in the 21st Century
links for 2008-09-01
Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Politics: McCain panders to aging ballers "Apparently, "Sarah Barracuda" (her high school hoops nickname) played point guard on a state championship squad from Wasilla, Alaska, but there is scant evidence that she plays anymore." (tags: US politics basketball sports blogs)
Obama on Science
As you have no doubt seen by now, if you read any of the other blogs on ScienceBlogs, the Science Debate 2008 group has gotten Barack Obama to answer their 14 questions on science issues. John McCain has apparently promised answers at some point in the future. The answers are, well, pretty much what you… Continue reading Obama on Science
links for 2008-08-31
Philosoraptor "John McCain has revealed that his apparent choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running-mate was, as many observers predicted, a carefully-staged hoax." (tags: US politics stupid blogs silly)