Last weekend, I was talking with Ethan Zuckerman at a party, and we talked a little bit about the TED conferences and similar things. A few days later, there was an editorial in Nature suggesting that scientists could learn a lot from TED: [P]erhaps the most critical key to success is the style of the… Continue reading What’s Your TED Talk?
Category: Physics
Precision Measurement Smackdown Explained
Yesterday’s historical physics poll was about precision measurements. Who were those people, and why are they worth knowing about?
The Witten Thing
I had a bit of a discussion via Twitter with Eric Weinstein yesterday, starting with his statement: Ed Witten has no Nobel Prize. Now tell me again how this era’s physics just feels different because we are too close to it. Basically, he appears to feel that Witten is sufficiently smart that he ought to… Continue reading The Witten Thing
Historical Physicist Smackdown: Precision Measurement Edition
Keeping up the string of poll questions about less-well-known physicists (started here), here’s a list of physicists who are known for having made very precise measurements of physical quanitites. Which of them is the best? Which of these physicists who made precision measurements is the best?(poll) (Note: I have deliberately limited this to physicists who… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Precision Measurement Edition
Optics Smackdown Explained
Yesterday, I posted a silly poll about optical physicists. Who are those people, and why should you care about them? In inverse order of popularity:
Historical Physicist Smackdown: Optics Edition
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)
Macroscopic Quantum Behavior in SeedMagazine.com
The Corporate Masters have launched a “featured blogger” program, asking individual ScienceBloggers to comment on news articles from the main site, and publishing the responses with the magazine piece. I just did one on new quantum experiments, which was posted today. The news article is Supersizing Quantum Behavior by Veronique Greenwood. My piece is Reconciling… Continue reading Macroscopic Quantum Behavior in SeedMagazine.com
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
Half-Assed General Education Course Idea, continued
Timothy Burke notes a controversy about an NEH program that some philosophers feel tramples their discipline. In talking about a hypothetical program that would do the same for his field of history, Burke suggests something that caught my eye: f the NEH set up a course development grant called “Time and the Past” aimed at… Continue reading Half-Assed General Education Course Idea, continued