There’s another round of “science blogs will make traditional journalism obsolete!” going on in connection with last week’s World Conference of Science Journalists— see Mad Mike, for example. This wouldn’t be interesting except that it happened to collide with my reading Unscientific America, and it struck me that the book is, in many ways, one… Continue reading Why Traditional Publishing Is Better Than Blogging
Category: Academia
Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum
Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future is the new book by Chris and Sheril of The Intersection (formerly on ScienceBlogs, now at Discover), and they were kind enough to include me on the list of people getting review copies. It turned up on Friday (after I’d already started Newton and the Counterfeiter). I… Continue reading Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum
Death to the Un-Noted Endnote
This is a rare weekend in which I’ve completed two serious books– the aforementioned Newton and the Couterfeiter and Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum’s Unscientific America (a review copy showed up Friday, thanks guys), about which more later. They’re very different books, but both excellent in their own way. While they have very different subjects,… Continue reading Death to the Un-Noted Endnote
Should Undergraduate Research Be Required?
Over at Confused on a Higher Level, Melissa has been thinking about undergraduate research: As a member of the Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR), over the past few months I’ve gotten several e-mails about the effort by CUR, the Society of Physics Students, the American Astronomical Society, and the… Continue reading Should Undergraduate Research Be Required?
Math and the Teaching Thereof
Firday’s quick and sarcastic post came about because I thought the Dean Dad and his commenters had some interesting points in regard to high school math requirements, but we were spending the afternoon driving to Whitney Point so I could give a graduation speech. I didn’t have time for a more detailed response. Now that… Continue reading Math and the Teaching Thereof
Academic Autonomy: How Much Freedom Do Post-Docs Have?
I’m not entirely sure why I keep responding to this, but Bruce Charlton left another comment about the supposed dullness of modern science that has me wondering about academic: The key point is that a few decades ago an average scientist would start working on the problem of his choice in his mid- to late-twenties… Continue reading Academic Autonomy: How Much Freedom Do Post-Docs Have?
Graduation Speech: Think Like a Scientist
The following is the (approximate) text of the speech I gave Friday night at the Whitney Point High School graduation. Or, at least, this is what I typed out for myself Thursday night– what actually comes out of my mouth on Friday might be completely different. That’s why they do these things live, after all…… Continue reading Graduation Speech: Think Like a Scientist
Math Is Hard
The Dean Dad slaps his forehead and asks a question: We have anecdotal evidence that suggests that students who actually take math for all four years of high school do better in math here than those who don’t. We also have anecdotal evidence that bears crap in the woods. Why the hell do the high… Continue reading Math Is Hard
Geniuses Don’t Fail Out
Over at Skulls in the Stars, gg has a very good response to the polemic about the dullness of modern science that I talked about a few days ago. He takes issue with the claim that modern science is “dull” compared to some past Golden Age, and does a good job of it– go read… Continue reading Geniuses Don’t Fail Out
Not All Physics Is On the Arxiv
Via a comment by Christina Pikas, there’s a post at the Scholarly Kitchen about a new study quantifying the use of the arxiv: Employing a summer intern, Ingoldsby conducted an arXiv search of nearly 5,000 journal articles published by the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. Their methodology was painstakingly robust, looking… Continue reading Not All Physics Is On the Arxiv