I spent most of yesterday helping out with an on-campus workshop for high school teachers and students. Seven high school physics teachers and seventeen high school students spent the day doing a half-dozen experiments to measure various physical constants. I was in charge of having them measure Plack’s constant using the photoelectric effect. The actual… Continue reading Photoelectric Follies
Category: Academia
Science Is Interested in You
A few days ago, I complained again about the relative lack of science books in the New York Times “Notable Books of 2008” list. Yesterday, one of the big stories was CNN axing its entire science unit, such as it was, which drew comments from lots of blogs (and more whose links I can’t be… Continue reading Science Is Interested in You
Science: 3.8% Notable
Last year, around this time, I posted a rant about the lack of science books in the New York Times‘s “Notable Books of 2007.” While I was out of town last week, they posted this year’s list. So, have things improved? Yes and no. They do, in fact, have two books that are unquestionably science… Continue reading Science: 3.8% Notable
Hey to Uganda
One of our 2008 Physics majors is currently in Uganda, working at a clinic/ school in a place called Ddegaya (Google doesn’t recognize it, but it’s somewhere around here). He’s there as part of a program started by the college last year, which sent eight students abroad to work in impoverished areas, and then come… Continue reading Hey to Uganda
Athletes and Academia, part II
I got a bunch of really good comments to yesterday’s post about athletes and attitudes toward education. Unfortunately, yesterday was also a stay-at-home-with-SteelyKid day, and she spent a lot of time demanding to be held or otherwise catered to, so I didn’t have a chance to respond. I’d like to correct that today by responding… Continue reading Athletes and Academia, part II
Athletes Aren’t Different
It’s a great time of year if you’re a sports fan. The NFL is in full swing, and college football is coming to the inconclusive end of its season (save for the weird six-weeks-later coda of the bowl games). The NBA and NHL are just starting up, and most importantly, college basketball season has just… Continue reading Athletes Aren’t Different
Einstein on TV
The History Channel ran a two-hour program on Einstein last night. I had meant to plug this in advance, but got distracted by the Screamy Baby Fun-Time Hour yesterday, and didn’t have time to post. The show restricted itself more or less to the period from 1900, just before his “miracle year” in 1905, to… Continue reading Einstein on TV
Academic Stimulus Package
Regarding the current financial crisis, a consensus has developed that the government needs to do something, and do something dramatic. The argument is, basically, that the normal sources of cash flow that might stimulate the economy out of recession have dried up, either through idiotic investments, or out of fear caused by all the idiotic… Continue reading Academic Stimulus Package
Think Before You Plot
There’s a link in today’s links dump to a post from Pictures of Numbers, a rarely-updated blog on the visual presentation of data (via Swans On Tea, I think). There’s some really good stuff there about how to make graphs that are easy to read and interpret. I would like to dissent mildly from one… Continue reading Think Before You Plot
Me On TV (On the Internet)
As mentioned briefly the other day, I recorded a Bloggingheads.tv Science Saturday conversation with Jennifer Ouellette on Thursday. The full diavlog has now been posted, and I can embed it here: This was the first time I’ve done one of these, and it was an interesting experience.