It’s seminar week over at Female Science Professor, and today she’s polling her readers as to the best day and time for seminars. Our departmental colloquia are generally held on Thursdays at lunchtime. We provide pizza and soda as an enticement for students (which doesn’t work as well as you might think), and have the… Continue reading Seminar Series: When Should They Be?
Category: Academia
Dorky Poll: Craziest Seminar Question?
Speaking of departmental seminars, as we were, it occurs to me that this might be an amusing Dorky Poll question: What’s the craziest thing you’ve heard asked of a seminar speaker? One of the nice things about academia is that lots of educational events are put on, free and open to all. The problem is,… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Craziest Seminar Question?
Seminar Series: Threat or Menace?
The Female Science Professor is thinking about seminar series. Specifically, whether attendance should be mandatory for students: Being required to attend the departmental seminar eliminates that pesky decision-making process about whether to go to seminar or not. But then, if required to attend, you might sit there in the seminar, seething with resentment about being… Continue reading Seminar Series: Threat or Menace?
Hands of Science
SteelyKid has recently begun to figure out her hands. As I noted last week, within the last couple of weeks, she’s started to be able to reliably grab things near her. Just within the last few days, she’s discovered that she has two hands, and they can interact with each other: She’s started grabbing one… Continue reading Hands of Science
It’s All About Timing
Slate (who, by the way, drive me up the freaking wall with their habit of giving each story about six different headlines, depending on where the link is) has hit the ground running with a panel of distinguished right-wing types discussing what the Republicans should do now. Jim Manzi gets the ball rolling with an… Continue reading It’s All About Timing
What Is the Use of [Academic Discipline] Blogging?
Steinn asks a provocative question: has science blogging done any good? I can think of science policy issues where blogging has made a contribution, and the general spread of information and communication done by blogs has probably had some impact, but has any actual science been directly impacted by blogs, or discussion on blogs? I… Continue reading What Is the Use of [Academic Discipline] Blogging?
Think Like a Videogame Physicist
Over at Dot Physics (which might be the best physics blog in the world at the moment), Rhett Allain has a pair of posts exploring the physics of Fantastic Contraption. The posts don’t really lend themselves to excerpting, so you need to go over there and read them, but I think they’re brilliant, and deserve… Continue reading Think Like a Videogame Physicist
What’s Your Watson Idea?
One of my service activities at the moment is serving on the committee that determines our nominees for the Watson Fellowship. Participating institutions are allowed to nominate up to four students, and we’ve just selected this year’s nominees, who are a really interesting bunch. The Watson, for those who haven’t heard of it, is, as… Continue reading What’s Your Watson Idea?
Optimism and the Depression
This week’s department colloquium was Roel Snieder of the Colorado School of Mines on The Global Energy Challenge. I have to admit, I was somewhat rude, and spent a lot of the talk futzing with my tablet, but really, while his presentation of the material was very good, the material itself wasn’t new to me–… Continue reading Optimism and the Depression
Science Escape 2008
Chris Mooney visited Union on Wednesday, talking to two classes (one Environmental Studies class, and one class on presidential politics), and giving an evening lecture titled “Science Escape 2008.” He’s an excellent speaker, so if you’re looking for someone to give a talk about science and politics, you could do a whole lot worse. I… Continue reading Science Escape 2008