The Mad Biologist points to and agrees with a post by Jonathan Eisen with the dramatic title “Why I Am Ashamed to Have a Paper in Science. Eisen’s gripe is mostly about Science not being Open Access, but he throws in a complaint about length restrictions, which is what the Mad Biologist latches on to… Continue reading In Defense of Short Papers
Category: Physics
The Relevance of Relevance
Via Swans On Tea, a ranty blog post titled Sucky Schools – How To Repair Our Education System, which takes its structure and much of its tone from Paul Lockhart’s “Mathematician’s Lament” (which, unfortunately, is a PDF file). I’m fond of ranty posts about education reform, but both of these kind of lose me. Lockhart,… Continue reading The Relevance of Relevance
Reader Request: Career Options
A while back, after handing in my manuscript and before SteelyKid, I asked readers to suggest blog topics. I got to a few of them already, but there’s one more that I’ve been meaning to comment on, from tcmJOE: I’m a physics undergrad about to begin my final year, and while I’m still thinking of… Continue reading Reader Request: Career Options
The Making Of “Optical Control of Ultracold Collisions”
One of the things I’d like to accomplish with the current series of posts is to give a little insight into what it’s like to do science. This should probably seem familiar to those readers who are experimental scientists, but might be new to those who aren’t. I think that this is one of the… Continue reading The Making Of “Optical Control of Ultracold Collisions”
Optical Control of Ultracold Collisions in Metastable Xenon
(This is the first in a
Peer-Reviewed Egoboo: The Metastable Xenon Project
I’ve been slacking a bit, lately, in terms of putting science-related content on the blog. Up until last week, most of my physics-explaining energy was going into working on the book, and on top of that, I’ve been a little preoccupied with planning for the arrival of FutureBaby. I’d like to push things back in… Continue reading Peer-Reviewed Egoboo: The Metastable Xenon Project
What Theoretical Physicists Think
Last week, I was asked my expectations about the LHC, and offered my half-assed guess. If you prefer your speculation from people with relevant knowledge of the subject, Sean Carroll weighs in with his oddly-precise guesses. On a related, less theoretical note, Tomasso Dorigo posted a summary of the constraints on the Higgs boson mass… Continue reading What Theoretical Physicists Think
ScienceBlogs: Now With More Facts
The Borg assimilates another quality blogger: Built On Facts is joining ScienceBlogs. If you haven’t been reading Matt’s blog, it’s one of the best basic physics blogs around, with math and everything. It’ll be good to have another non-philatelic scientist around. Update your blogrolls accordingly.
Physical Theories Squeak When You Chew Them
“The Internet is silly!” I turn around from the computer. “Yes it is,” I say to the dog, “But what, specifically, makes you say that?” “All these posts about physics theories. Comparing them to women and men and stupid wizards, and relationships. It’s silly.” “Yes, well, it does seem to be the diversion of the… Continue reading Physical Theories Squeak When You Chew Them
Nothing But Uncertainty
Over at Backreaction, Bee has a nice post about uncertainty, in the technical sense, not the quantum sense. The context is news stories about science, which typically do a terrible job of handling the uncertainties and caveats that are an essential part of science. Properly dealing with uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of… Continue reading Nothing But Uncertainty