I’m leaving this afternoon for Charlottesville, VA and the 40th annual DAMOP conference. At this meeting, we will once again be confirming the prediction of the bosonic character of interesting talks. Bosons, as you know, are quantum particles that happily occupy the same state as other bosons, and as you can see from the meeting… Continue reading Good Talks Are Bosons
Category: Academia
Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Confessions of a Science Librarian has joined ScienceBlogs. So, no more eating Chinese food in the stacks, and try to keep the noise down.
The Logo Problem
Speaking of conferences (as we were a little while ago), the Female Science Professor has a post on the phenomenon of logos in talk slides: Do you put your institution’s logo in your talks and on your posters at conferences? If you put a logo in your talk, do you put the logo on every… Continue reading The Logo Problem
Twitter and Time Scale Management
Over at the Inverse Square blog, Tom Levenson announces that he’s started Twittering in a post that contains, via Carl Zimmer, the best argument for why Twitter matters: Carl laughs me out of my seat. He points out that he tweeted his visit to my class, and received in return a couple of requests to… Continue reading Twitter and Time Scale Management
That Time of Year
It’s that time of year again in academia. The time when academics at other institutions write posts directed at graduates, reminding me that summer is starting for everybody else, while we have another four %$^*$ing weeks to go before the end of the term. Grumble, mutter, grump. Stupid calendar.
Would You Like Some Calculus With Your Physics?
It’s a nice demonstration of the oddity of the blogosphere that a libertarian political blog has become my go-to-source for thoughtful blogging about physics education. Thoreau had two good posts yesterday at Unqualified Offerings, one on the problems created by breaking down incorrect intuition, and another on the lack of calculus in calculus-based physics texts:… Continue reading Would You Like Some Calculus With Your Physics?
Time Scales, on Campus and in the Blogosphere
My major “service” activity at work is involvement with the Minerva program, which attempts to blur the line between academic and residential life. I enjoy this because it gives me the opportunity to work closely with students outside a narrow academic context, and I’ve been very impressed with the creativity and responsibility of the students… Continue reading Time Scales, on Campus and in the Blogosphere
How to Email Your Instructor for Help
Back in the stone ages, when I was a student and walked uphill through the snow to class, if you wanted assistance on a homework assignment, you needed to track the instructor of the class down in person, either by going to their posted office hours, or calling them on the phone to set up… Continue reading How to Email Your Instructor for Help
Academic Poll: Bribery
No, I’m not talking about students bribing faculty for good grades, but the reverse: faculty bribing students to attend events outside of class. For example, I offered the students in my class five bonus points on tomorrow’s mid-term exam if they attended last night’s Alan Lightman lecture. I’m fairly certain that 12 of the 16… Continue reading Academic Poll: Bribery
The Art and Science of Naming Things
We had a talk last night by Alan Lightman of MIT, a theoretical physicist and novelist, best known as the author of Einstein’s Dreams. He spoke for about an hour about his own background, and the similarities and differences between the worlds of science and the arts. One of the differences he mentioned was the… Continue reading The Art and Science of Naming Things