As usual, Scott Aaronson says it better than I did: [M]ost of the commentary strikes me as missing a key point: that to give a degree to a bozo like this, provided he indeed did the work, can only reflect credit on the scientific enterprise. Will Ross now hit the creationist lecture circuit, trumpeting his… Continue reading The Definitive Statement on Marcus Ross
Category: Academia
Want to Be a Doctor? Major in Physics
Somebody at work had printed out a table of MCAT scores by major, compiled by the AIP. I couldn’t find it on the web, but I found the original source, and made my own version of the relevant bit. This shows the average numerical scores on the three sections of the MCAT test for students… Continue reading Want to Be a Doctor? Major in Physics
Idle Curricular Thoughts
A couple of years ago, we undertook a grand revision of our General Education curriculum, the set of core liberal arts courses that all students are required to take in order to graduate. The old system was very specific, requiring a large-ish number of courses in very specific areas, and was biased toward Western culture… Continue reading Idle Curricular Thoughts
Happy Valentine’s Day
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee celebrates everybody’s favorite annoying holiday with a look at two scholars of sex: the late Gershon Legman who coined “Make love, not war” back in 1963; and Blaise Cronin, who currently studies the more respectable sort of pornography at Indiana. Personally, I half think the real purpose may… Continue reading Happy Valentine’s Day
Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis
I’m having the sort of morning where I feel like lobbing a grenade at somebody, and the predictable outrage over yesterday’s story about a creationist paleontologist is as good a target as any. The issue here is whether it’s appropriate for Marcus Ross to receive a Ph.D. for work in paleontology, given that he’s a… Continue reading Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis
Scientist Cleared, Process Unclear
The New York Times reports that Purdue has officially cleared Rusi Taleyarkhan of charges of scientific wrongdoing over his claim to have produced nuclear fusion on a tabletop through the magic of sonoluminescence. You might recall that these claims were made a couple of years ago, but nobody else has been able to replicate them.… Continue reading Scientist Cleared, Process Unclear
Beware the Professor’s Negation Field
Piled Higher and Deepr nails it this week: A Pofessor’s Negation Field is the unexplained phenomenon whereby mere spatial proximity to an experimental set-up causes all working demonstrations to fail, despite the apparent laws of Physics or how many times it worked right before he/she walked in the room. I haven’t been on the faculty… Continue reading Beware the Professor’s Negation Field
Eliminating Majors
Inside Higher Ed reports that Indiana State is eliminating physics and philosophy, among other majors, in a move to streamline their programs. These programs have very few majors relative to the number of faculty (physics has five faculty and nine majors, philosophy four faculty and 19 majors), so they’re on the block due to an… Continue reading Eliminating Majors
Where Do Scientists Learn to Write?
Janet asks “Where do scientists learn to write?” Well, actually, being a good academic, she asks many more questions than that: Do scientists need to write well? If so, in what contexts and for what audiences? If not, why not? Where do scientists really learn to write? What kinds of experiences shape their writing? Are… Continue reading Where Do Scientists Learn to Write?
Physics Lab, By the Numbers
Time spent locating the parts for the Compton Effect experiment: 15 minutes. Time spent dragging lead bricks for radiation shielding into the lab: 10 minutes. Time spent bulding little lead houses for the hot 137Cs source and Photo-Multiplier Tube (PMT): 15 minutes. Time spent trying to find somebody who knew the administrator password for the… Continue reading Physics Lab, By the Numbers