I’ve gotten a couple of emails asking what I think of the fact that the new president of Williams College is a theoretical physicist. So, here are my (very brief) thoughts on the matter: 1) As a general matter, I’m happy to see scientists in administrative positions. They tend to have a better appreciation of… Continue reading Physicists for President
Category: Academia
Academic Poll: Black or White?
I usually try to stay out of religious wars, but there’s one that is affecting my teaching this term, and it struck me as a good topic for a blog poll: Which do you prefer for low-tech presentations?(surveys) So, what’s your favorite low-tech presentation technology?
Philosophical Poll: Chickens and Eggs, Experiment and Theory
I’m halfway through Graham Farmelo’s Dirac biography at the moment, and enjoying it quite a bit. Farmelo cites Dirac as one of the first physicists to evaluate theories on their mathematical beauty, rather than waiting for experiments. This is in stark contrast to his Cambridge colleague Rutherford, who was highly skeptical of abstract theory, and… Continue reading Philosophical Poll: Chickens and Eggs, Experiment and Theory
The Purposes and Problems of Labs
Over at Jim Henley’s place, Thoreau further justifies his status as an essential academic-physics blogger with a really good post about the problem of introductory labs: In freshman labs, generally you’re trying to measure something (at least as it’s done at many schools). The measurement is never as clean as the stuff being taught in… Continue reading The Purposes and Problems of Labs
Dorky Poll: What Color Is Your Calculator?
Prompted by a discussion in another channel, a question for you all: What is your preferred type of calculator? That is, when you’re doing some sort of problem involving math, and reach for a calculator, what do you reach for? What Kind of Calculator Do You Use?(survey software) I think I may have used this… Continue reading Dorky Poll: What Color Is Your Calculator?
The Meta-Meeting, and Other Horrors of Committee Service
Alternate title: Notes Toward a Taxonomy of Bad Meetings. The Meta-Meeting: Your organization faces problems X, Y, and Z. Therefore, you are planning an all-day workshop on addressing X, Y, and Z. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: To have a meeting about how to organize the workshop to address X, Y, and… Continue reading The Meta-Meeting, and Other Horrors of Committee Service
Thursday Sense of Obligation Blogging
A couple of things that I’m not excited to blog about, but sort of feel like I ought to say something about: 1) The Washington Monthly article about StraighterLine, an online program that lets you take college courses for $99/mo. The article is all breathless excitement about the revolutionary transformative power of technology, but it… Continue reading Thursday Sense of Obligation Blogging
Service Reform
The Dean Dad and the Tenured Radical are having a really good discussion of service responsibilities, or as TR puts it, the “Just Say No” problem: The Just Say No (to everyone but me) issue is a problem that, frankly, untenured people, adjuncts and visitors are not responsible for managing; and that achieving tenure can… Continue reading Service Reform
Beauty’s Just Another Word I’m Never Certain How to Spell
Like every other blogger with a political opinion, I read Paul Krugman’s essay on economics last week, and tagged it for Saturday’s Links Dump. And while I appreciate Eric Weinstein calling me out as part of the “high end blogosphere,” I’m not sure I have much to say about it that is useful. But, since… Continue reading Beauty’s Just Another Word I’m Never Certain How to Spell
Who Is the Erdos of Physics?
Physics Buzz has a nice article about Paul Erdos and the Erdos Number Project (mine is 6), which ends with a good question: I for one, am wondering: who would be the Paul ErdÅs of the physics world? It’s a tough question, complicated further by the existence of really gigantic collaborations in experimental high-energy physics,… Continue reading Who Is the Erdos of Physics?