I should note up front that I’m kind of jealous of Marcus Chown regarding this book. Subtitled “What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe,” The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck is a book that uses trivial everyday observations– the fact that you don’t fall through the floor, the fact that the sky is… Continue reading The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck by Marcus Chown
Category: Physics
The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds
I’ve written before about the problem of having in-between views on controversial subjects in blogdom. This is something that also comes up in Jessica’s excellent entry on online culture, and has been scientifically demonstrated in political contexts. I’m somewhat bemused, then, to see the same thing happen in a physics context. A while back, I… Continue reading The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds
The Problem of “Theory”
When I was writing about the seemingly contradictory meanings of “adiabatic” the other day, I almost gave “theory” as an example of a word with nearly opposite meanings. After all, as anyone who has even glanced at the evolution-creation “debate” has heard, a “Theory” in science is something more exalted than a mere guess– it’s… Continue reading The Problem of “Theory”
The Past and Future of the Laser
While it’s not aprt of the official LaserFest package of stuff, Physics World is marking the 50th anniversary of the laser with a couple of really nice pieces on lasers in science and popular culture: Where next for the laser interviews six laser experts– Claire Max of UCSC, Bill Phillips of NIST, Steven Block of… Continue reading The Past and Future of the Laser
Academic Poll: Talk or Poster?
The Steinmetz Symposium is today at Union, as mentioned in yesterday’s silly poll about fears (I love the fact that “Wavefunction Collapse” leads “Monsters from the Id” by one vote at the time of this writing– my readers are awesome). As a more serious follow-up, there were two presentation options offered to the students, and… Continue reading Academic Poll: Talk or Poster?
Through a (Noble) Gas, Darkly
There’s a minor kerfuffle at the moment over the XENON experiment’s early data (arxiv paper) which did not detect any dark matter in 11 days of data acquisition. This conflicts with earlier claims by the DAMA experiment and recent maybe-kinda-sorta detections by the CoGeNT and CDMA experiments. As a result, a couple of members of… Continue reading Through a (Noble) Gas, Darkly
Help Me Guide Teachers
My publisher would like to include a Teacher’s Guide with the paperback edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. which means that, well, I need to put together a Teacher’s Guide for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. The problem is, I’m not exactly sure what should go in that sort of… Continue reading Help Me Guide Teachers
I Do Not Think “Adiabatic” Means What You Think It Means
Over at the Virtuosi, there’s a nice discussion of the physics of letting air out of tires. Jesse opens the explanation with: Have you ever noticed how when you let air out of a bike tire (or, I suppose, a car tire) it feels rather cold? Today we’re going to explore why that is, and… Continue reading I Do Not Think “Adiabatic” Means What You Think It Means
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
It’s been a couple of weeks since I did an update on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, but that’s been as much laziness as a lack of news. Some developments, mostly relating to foreign lands: The US paperback edition is slated for December release. I’m working on a Teacher’s Guide to go with… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Into the Universe With Portentous Music (and Stephen Hawking)
While I missed the controversial episode with comments about aliens, I figured I should at least take a look at the Discovery Channel’s Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking, so I put it on last night after putting SteelyKid to bed. This was the big two-hour “Story of Everything” episode, starting with the Big Bang… Continue reading Into the Universe With Portentous Music (and Stephen Hawking)