Over in Twitter-land, Ben Lillie of the Story Collider asked an interesting question, which sparked some discussion that he’s Storified on a Tumblr blog (just in case the date stamp wasn’t enough to mark this as 2013…). The original question was: Partly I’m wondering if there is a reason to have an event series for… Continue reading Other Scientists and “The Public”
Category: Academia
Help Wanted: Adjunct Physics Faculty
We’ve got calls out to the local grad programs, and I’ve mentioned this on Twitter a couple of times, but it can’t hurt anything to post it here as well: we’ve got a huge overabundance of first-year engineering students that is forcing us to open extra sections of our intro physics classes to accommodate them.… Continue reading Help Wanted: Adjunct Physics Faculty
Physics Is For Eternal Five-Year-Olds
Yesterday’s post about differences between intro physics and chemistry sparked an interesting discussion in comments that I didn’t have time to participate in. Sigh. Anyway, a question that came up in there was why we have physicists teach intro physics courses that are primarily designed to serve other departments. It’s a good question, and in… Continue reading Physics Is For Eternal Five-Year-Olds
Physics vs. Chemistry: Nobody Does Research on Newtonian Mechanics
Not long ago, I had a meeting with the Dean, who is a chemist. One of the things I talked about was my plan for distributing teaching assignments in the next few years, which ran into an interesting cultural difference. I explained how I was trying to make the distribution of assignments a little more… Continue reading Physics vs. Chemistry: Nobody Does Research on Newtonian Mechanics
“The Big Bang Theory” and Social Science
I found myself writing about the social skills of scientists today for the book-in-progress (something I’ve done here before), and how they’re portrayed in the media, so of course I had to drop in a reference to “The Big Bang Theory.” Jim Parsons’s portrayal of Sheldon Cooper pretty much nails down one of the extremes… Continue reading “The Big Bang Theory” and Social Science
On the Checking of Boxes, and the Need to Chill Out
In the comments to yesterday’s post about college admissions, Joseph Yoon quoted my statement that “I’m somewhat sympathetic to claims that Asians have a difficult position in higher education,” and shot back with: I wonder if you will feel more strongly about this in 10 years when your kids are near college. Will you advise… Continue reading On the Checking of Boxes, and the Need to Chill Out
The Visual Presentation of Misleading Information, Anti-Asian Bias Edition
In which the skewing of a data plot in Ron Unz’s epic investigation of college admissions makes me more skeptical of his overall claim, thanks to the misleading tricks employed. ———— Steve Hsu has a new post on a favorite topic of his, bias against Asians in higher ed admissions. This is based on a… Continue reading The Visual Presentation of Misleading Information, Anti-Asian Bias Edition
Why Are Physics Classes Full of Old Stuff?
Everybody and their siblings have been linking to this Minute Physics video, an “open letter” to President Obama complaining about the way that most high school and even intro college physics classes don’t teach anything remotely modern: I’m not entirely sure where the date of 1865 comes from, but it’s true, the standard intro physics… Continue reading Why Are Physics Classes Full of Old Stuff?
Twilight of the Elites and the Rise of the Culture
In which I use my double license as a physicist and a science fiction fan to engage in some half-assed futurism spinning off Chris Hayes’s much-discussed book. ————- I don’t read a lot of political books, because I tend to find them frustrating. They’re usually surprisingly ephemeral, trying to spin Deep Meaning out of a… Continue reading Twilight of the Elites and the Rise of the Culture
Science Is Our Human Heritage
In which I get a little rant-y about yet another proud display of ignorance from the Washington Post’s education blog. ———— Some time back, I teed off on a school board member who couldn’t pass a simple math test, who proudly told the world about his ignorance via a post at the Washington Post‘s education… Continue reading Science Is Our Human Heritage