Category: Academia

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Centrally Isolated Edition

Not a full Obsessive Update (because not much happened over the weekend, when we took SteelyKid to my parents’ place for Easter), but a quick reminder to folks in the Ithaca, NY area: I’ll be giving the physics colloquium at Cornell this afternoon at 4pm. If you’re in the area, and want to hear me… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Centrally Isolated Edition

Congratulations to Peter Bonventre

If you scroll way down the list of this year’s Goldwater Scholarship winners, you’ll find: Peter John Bonventre Institution: Union College Major(s): Physics/Mathematics Career Goal: Ph.D. in Mathematics or Physics. Conduct research and teach at the university level. Pete’s one of our junior physics majors. He’s done summer work on both nuclear physics and condensed… Continue reading Congratulations to Peter Bonventre

Congratulations to Frederick Franke and James Morton

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m on the local committee that selects nominees for the Watson Fellowship, which is one of the best committees to be on, because you get to interact with some of our best students doing things that they really love. This year, we’re thrilled to have two of our nominees… Continue reading Congratulations to Frederick Franke and James Morton

It’s Not Just the Length, It’s the Content

The never-ending discussion of whether the Web can or should replace books has shifted into the corners of blogdom that I follow again, with Kevin Drum arguing for more books, Henry Farrell arguing for shorter books, and Jim Henley agreeing with Henry, and expanding it to fiction. They’re all at least partly right– more shorter… Continue reading It’s Not Just the Length, It’s the Content

Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How Weblogs Can Help

My talk at Maryland last Thursday went pretty well– the impending Snowpocalypse kept the audience down, as people tried to fit in enough work to compensate for the Friday shutdown, but the people who were there seemed to like it, and asked good questions. If you weren’t there, but want to know what I talked… Continue reading Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How Weblogs Can Help

Accelerated Twins: The Answer

Yesterday’s post on a variation of the “Twin Paradox” with both twins accelerating was very successful– 337 people voted in the first poll question, as of a little before 9am, and the comments to the original post are full of lively discussion. That’s awesome. I wish I could take credit for it, but the problem… Continue reading Accelerated Twins: The Answer

The Perverse Economics of College Construction

I’m having a little trouble typing, because the temperature in my office at the moment is around 55 F, and my hands are getting really cold. This is because of “deferred maintenance,” which means “we’re saving money by not maintaining the air-handling systems in our academic buildings (among other things).” The budget has been tight… Continue reading The Perverse Economics of College Construction

Where I’m Going to Be: Physics Conferences

I’ve mentioned before that I’m going to be giving an invited talk in the LaserFest session at the APS March Meeting. I finally got around to registering for the meeting, and booking my travel. $1,500 on the college credit card– whee! The March Meeting program is one of the more intimidating meeting programs I’ve ever… Continue reading Where I’m Going to Be: Physics Conferences