We had a talk yesterday at lunchtime from an alumnus who graduated with a physics degree, got a Ph.D. in Physics, did a couple of post-docs, and then decided to give academia a miss, and went to Wall Street where he’s been a financial analyst for the last 12 years. He talked, mostly for the… Continue reading Physics to Finance
Author: Chad Orzel
Athletics and Alumni
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new study of the connection between college athletics and alumni giving, with some interesting findings: First, they find that male alumni who played on teams while they were undergraduates are more likely to donate more (to the athletics department and to the university as a whole) when the teams… Continue reading Athletics and Alumni
A Stable Heavy Element?
Via Swans on Tea, a new article on the arxiv reports the possible discovery of a new stable element: What they did was fire one thorium nucleus after another through a mass spectrometer to see how heavy each was. Thorium has an atomic number of 90 and occurs mainly in two isotopes with atomic weights… Continue reading A Stable Heavy Element?
links for 2008-04-29
The Art of the Possible » Blog Archive » Wussy Like a Fox? “Summing up: Obama risks looking marginally “weak” by “not hitting back” against Clinton’s attacks. But hitting back risks making him look like a) an asshole; b) a sexist; c) a scary negro man! “ (tags: politics US race gender) Solar System Live… Continue reading links for 2008-04-29
I Could Take Him
Barack Obama, hoopster: The real question is, why is he afraid to play me one-on-one? (Video via Matt Yglesias.)
Science Movies
Inspired by the suggestion of a pro-science film festival, the Seed editors have launched a poll asking about science movies. They’ve narrowed it to four, all with both pros and cons: Contact Pro: Arecibo is way cool. Con: woo-woo ending is even less compelling than in the book. Gattaca Pro: Believable human interactions between characters.… Continue reading Science Movies
Matter and Interactions by Chabay and Sherwood
Today’s episode of “Thrilling Tales of Physics Pedagogy” is brought to you through a comment by CCPhysicst who picks up on the implications of last week’s schedule post: You are ripping right along in that course. You do E and then B and only later get around to circuits? Yes and no. We are ripping… Continue reading Matter and Interactions by Chabay and Sherwood
The Class Project
Lawrence Watt-Evans is reposting some old Usenet essays on the subject of class, which regular readers will recognize as a hot-button issues for me. So far, he’s up to part four of six. The list: Defining Terms Who I Am Attitudes & Money On the Job It’s excellent stuff. A sample, from Part 4: Work… Continue reading The Class Project
links for 2008-04-28
Crooked Timber » » Maybe Baby In which Maria makes a dubious choice of date movies. Then again, the first movie Kate and I went to was “Hrad Rain,” so who am I to judge? (tags: movies nostalgia blogs) Physics and Physicists: Physics In Action at Theme Parks On student trips to learn “Like how… Continue reading links for 2008-04-28
Truth in Error Messages
From the tablet today: Yes, oh, yes it was…