There’s a piece by Michael Dine in Physics Today this month with the ambitious title “String theory in the era of the Large Hadron Collider, thus combining two of my very favorite topics… I was going to give it a pass, but I was surprised to discover that it’s freely available– most of their articles… Continue reading Lemonade from the Landscape
Author: Chad Orzel
links for 2007-12-05
Yahhhhhhh: Canadian PSAs Are Clearly Not Messing Around Canadians are terrifying (tags: video youtube television Canada) “Dinosaur Mummy” Found; Has Intact Skin, Tissue A surprisingly intact hadrosaur provides all sorts of interesting information (tags: biology dinosaurs news science) Why do high school seniors drink? “New study identifies 4 major motivators to drink alcohol — 1… Continue reading links for 2007-12-05
Career Alternatives for Physics PH.D.’s
Physics World has an interview with Alastair Reynolds, who was trained as an astrophysicist but is now a full-time SF author: How does your physics training help with your writing? Less than people imagine. I think the most important attribute for a science-fiction writer is to be fascinated by science — in all its manifestations.… Continue reading Career Alternatives for Physics PH.D.’s
Reverse Age Discrimination?
While I’m ranting about Inside Higher Ed articles that pissed me off, here’s another. Rob Weir walked uphill through the snow to his first academic job, and thinks the academy shouldn’t be hiring the spoiled kids we have these days: [J]ust about one year ago the popular media sounded alarmist notes about how “gray” the… Continue reading Reverse Age Discrimination?
The College Football Bowl Picture
Over at Inside Higher Ed, they have a piece looking at the state of college football as we enter bowl season. This is dominated by two large tables of numbers, one good, and one bad. The first table is the good one, as it explains why the college football “championship” is so messed up. It… Continue reading The College Football Bowl Picture
The Patriots Keep Me Up Late
It was not a stunning display of football, but the Patriots’ win over the Ravens was at least a tense and interesting game down to the last minute of play. New England looked awful, but pulled it together on the last drive, picking their way down the field for a game-winning touchdown with 44 seconds… Continue reading The Patriots Keep Me Up Late
links for 2007-12-04
Ralph Asher Alpher – Physics Today December 2007 A very nice obituary (tags: astronomy physics) Chemical & Engineering News – ACS News – Class Of 2006 Salaries And Jobs The overall situation is pretty good, but Ph.D. Salaries dropped somewhat. (tags: chemistry academia news jobs) MIT sculpts 3-D particles with light Rapid production off micron… Continue reading links for 2007-12-04
The Environmental Cost of Physics Research
I burned out some diode lasers a while back, and needed to buy replacements. Here’s one of the replacements on top of the tube containing the other, with a US quarter for scale: Here they are, with the box and packing material used to ship them to me:
What’s the Difference Between Physics and Chemistry?
An off-line question from someone at Seed: Fundamentally, what is the difference between chemistry and physics? There are a bunch of different ways to try to explain the dividing lines between disciplines. My take on this particular question is that there’s a whole hierarchy of (sub)fields, based on what level of abstraction you work at.… Continue reading What’s the Difference Between Physics and Chemistry?
Weekend Sports Round-Up
A handful of sports items of interest to me: 1) My Giants defied expectations, and pulled out a 21-16 win over the Bears on two late touchdown drives, after sucking for most of the game. Well, OK, the defense was good throughout, though they were aided by the Bears not having a quarterback better than… Continue reading Weekend Sports Round-Up