The first half of NOVA’s Absolute Zero program aired last night, and I was able to watch the whole thing. Well, more or less– it was a long day, so I was drifting off a little bit about fifteen minutes in, and didn’t get all of the Michael Faraday story, but a phone call woke… Continue reading The Conquest of Cold
Author: Chad Orzel
Abstinence Doesn’t Age Well
I occasionally joke that some of the articles passing through my EurekAlert feed ought to be published in the Journal of “Well, Duh!”, but I think this one takes the cake: Teens find the benefits of not having sex decline with age: The study, reported in the January 2008 issue of the “American Journal of… Continue reading Abstinence Doesn’t Age Well
The Funding Issue
Gordon Watts is mad as hell about funding cuts, and blaming petty partisan politics: As far as I can tell, here is what happened: Congress just about finishes the omnibus spending bill. [Snark: exactly how late was this!?] At the last minute Bush says he will veto it unless it comes at his number. [Snark:… Continue reading The Funding Issue
Tachyon Movies
Via a back channel, the Gardner Project of EniTech Research. They have an argon laser, so you know it’s science!
links for 2008-01-09
PHD Comics: Research Diagram/Research Reality No schematic survives its first encounter with the apparatus. (tags: silly comics science experiment) Teens find the benefits of not having sex decline with age “The greatest change in attitudes was among teens who became sexually experienced during the study period. For those teens, the percentage who said that not… Continue reading links for 2008-01-09
What I Love About Engineers
Having made a snide comment or two about engineers earlier, I feel like I should relate a positive experience today: Over the Christmas break, there was a power outage in my lab. Not an accidental outage, but a planned outage that nobody told me about– a contractor cut the breakers in order to do some… Continue reading What I Love About Engineers
Amazon Freaks Out
In my email this morning, I have a note from everybody’s favorite online retailer, informing me that: We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Christopher Moore have also purchased Esther’s Revenge at Susa: From Sennacherib to Ahasuerus by Stephanie Dalley. OK, fine, they see a correlation, and are sending me a… Continue reading Amazon Freaks Out
Unions and Sour Grapes
One final note on the teachers-unions argument: The comments to the original post on the low regard for teachers relative to lawyers immediately jumped on the union thing. Commenter Doug Hering provided what’s probably the best statement of the causal link: I do agree that teachers must be treated as professionals. However, part of that… Continue reading Unions and Sour Grapes
Teaching Catch-22
Commenter “Matt” wrote a comment that pissed me off, and while it’s probably futile to take on union-bashing again, it does highlight a couple of the things that make this so frustrating. In response to several people observing that teaching is not the cushy 8-to-3, summers-off job that lots of people claim, he writes: Here… Continue reading Teaching Catch-22
Important TV Programming Note
Tonight at 8pm (Eastern) is the premier of the NOVA program “Absolute Zero”. This is the first of two one-hour specials talking about the physics and technology of ultra-low temperatures. I haven’t seen nearly enough hype for this on the Internet– actual results aren’t as sexy as wild speculation– but the science here is fascinating,… Continue reading Important TV Programming Note