The Physics Central Nanobowl collected YouTube videos using football to illustrate something about physics. They’ve got a bunch of finalists, and the polls are open for the People’s Choice Award. Check out the nine semi-finalists, and vote for your favorite. The slickest is probably “Theoretical Football”:
Category: Physics
Trapping of Neutral Mercury Atoms and Prospects for Optical Lattice Clocks
I’m not hugely enthusiastic about the ResearchBlogging.org project, but it’s a little ridiculous that they’ve been active for weeks now, and there still isn’t a single post in the “Physics” category. If they’re going to offer the category link, something ought to come up when you click it, so let’s give them some blogging on… Continue reading Trapping of Neutral Mercury Atoms and Prospects for Optical Lattice Clocks
Darth Vader vs. My Dog
The Paper of Record reports on a science debate, of sorts: On one side of a vaunted cultural divide were Doug Liman, director of the coming movie “Jumper,” about a young man who discovers he can transport himself anywhere he wants just by thinking about it, and Hayden Christensen, the film’s star. On the other… Continue reading Darth Vader vs. My Dog
Tiny Trophy for Football Physics
The folks at Physics Central are running a video contest, with the winner getting the world’s smallest trophy: Get your camera out… ’cause the world’s smallest trophy is up for grabs! You could win the smallest trophy ever made, and $1000 of (normal sized) cash in the Physics Central Nano Bowl Video Contest To enter… Continue reading Tiny Trophy for Football Physics
Dorky Poll: Scientific Hopes
A little while ago, the Corporate Masters asked us to answer a couple of questions for possible inclusion in the first ’08 issue of Seed. I originally posted this back in November, but got asked to take it down because the issue was hush-hush. The street date for the magazine in question was this week,… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Scientific Hopes
Identity and Exclusion
In comments to my review of “The Race for Absolute Zero”, I promised to try to write up an explanation of BEC on the blog. A bit of preparatory Googling demonstrates, though, that I already did, in the fall of 2006, talking about identical particles, Pauli Exclusion, and BEC. You might’ve thought I would remember… Continue reading Identity and Exclusion
Big Science and Outreach
In comments to my complaint about the over-identification of physics with particle physics, I noted that this is largely because high-energy physicists have been successful in getting the media and general public to buy into their belief that high-energy physics is the coolest and most important thing in physics, for a number of reasons. Jonathan… Continue reading Big Science and Outreach
Physics Contains Multitudes
It’s not often that I find myself agreeing with the Incoherent Ponderer, but he’s exactly right regarding Scientific American‘s “The Future of Physics” issue (via PhysMath Central): [T]his month’s issue of Scientific American has a special titled “The Future of Physics”. I was quickly disappointed when I realized that the article covers only “terascale” physics,… Continue reading Physics Contains Multitudes
Dorky Poll: Physics or Stamp Collecting?
Ernest Rutherford once said In science, there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting. So, a really simple question: which do you prefer? Physics or stamp collecting? Leave your answer in the comments.
Increasing the Confusion Level
I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week, for reasons that don’t bear talking about, and everything in blogdom has seemed indescribably tedious: the same boring people having the same stupid arguments over and over, with no end in sight. And don’t get me started on politics. In an effort to shake myself… Continue reading Increasing the Confusion Level