In the same basic vein as yesterday’s post about thermodynamics, the following poll contains a list of physicists who are not household names, but who made significant contributions to the science of optics. Which of them is the best? Which of these physicists from the field of optics was the best?(polls)
Category: History of Science
Thermodynamics Smackdown Explained
So, yesterday featured a silly poll about underappreciated old-timey physicists. Who are these people, and why should you know about them? Taking them in reverse order of the voting:
Historical Physicist Smackdown: Thermodynamics Edition
The question of who is the greatest physicist of the physicists who are household names– Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, etc.– has been debated thousands of times, and will undoubtedly be debated thousands of times in the future. What isn’t as often discussed is the ranking of physicists who aren’t in that rare group of household names–… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Thermodynamics Edition
Man Walks on F*&%ing Moon
The Internet has been all abuzz today over the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. Tor has the best one-stop collection of reminiscences, but there are plenty of others. They’re roughly equally split between “Wasn’t that the coolest thing ever?” and “Isn’t it a shame we stopped going. I was a bit over -2 when… Continue reading Man Walks on F*&%ing Moon
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
Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
I’ve been enjoying Tom Levenson’s “Diary of a Trade Book” series quite a bit (the latest post is on cover art), so when I say a stack of copies of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist at the bookstore the other day, I snapped one up. As the… Continue reading Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
While I’ve seen him on tv a bunch of times (both on NOVA and on the Comedy Central fake-news shows), I have somehow managed not to read anything by Neil deGrasse Tyson before. I’m not sure how that happened. After his appearance on The Daily show last year, and especially after the Rubik’s Cube thing… Continue reading Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Myth of the Abrasive Genius
Via Steve Hsu, a lengthy rant by Bruce Charlton about the dullness of modern scientists: Question: why are so many leading modern scientists so dull and lacking in scientific ambition? Answer: because the science selection process ruthlessly weeds-out interesting and imaginative people. At each level in education, training and career progression there is a tendency… Continue reading The Myth of the Abrasive Genius
Book Promotion Ideas
Tom Levenson has another post up in his ongoing series about the writing and publishing process of his new book, this one about generating publicity. At this point, he’s gone past what I’ve experienced so far, but this is fortuitously timed, as I got a note from my editor yesterday saying that the bound galleys… Continue reading Book Promotion Ideas