Wow, am I cranky today, or what? To make up for the previous three tediously political posts, here’s a more light-hearted physics poll question: What’s the dorkiest term in physics? Physicists have no real flair for naming things– either you get dull and prosaic names (“up” and “down” quarks), or strained attempts to be cute… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Dorky Nomenclature
Category: Physics
Google Passeth All Understanding
As previously mentioned, I plan to end the book with a chapter on quantum flim-flam. As research for this, I’ve been looking at kook sites on the web, and Googled “quantum healing,” which turns up all manner of gibberish from Deepak Chopra. It also includes a helpful little item at the bottom of the page:… Continue reading Google Passeth All Understanding
Congratulations to Doctor Gazebo
Travis Hime of Arcane Gazebo has just finished his Ph.D. on Solid-State Qubits with Current-Controlled Coupling. Go congratulate him on bringing quantum spam that much closer to reality. (“Dear sir or madam, I may or may not be the widow of the former president of Nigeria, and I may or may not have the sum… Continue reading Congratulations to Doctor Gazebo
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #6
Today’s ornament from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! is in honor of the cold water dripping into our kitchen cabinet yesterday: That’s a glass icicle, with bonus dramatic shadows. If you’re a homeowner, you might think that this stands for ice damming, but this is about SCIENCE!!! not property mishaps. This ornament stands for phase transitions.
Scientists and Indie Rockers
Chris Mooney posted a couple of things last week– one article at ScienceProgress and one blog post— talking about the supposed shortage of scientists in the “pipeline.” Following an Urban Insitute study, he says that there’s really no shortage of scientists being trained, but rather a shortage of jobs for those scientists. Coming as he… Continue reading Scientists and Indie Rockers
The Two-Fork Toothpick Trick, Explained
Last week, GrrlScientist posted a cool video showing a trick with two forks and a toothpick: http://view.break.com/410281 – Watch more free videos It’s a nifty demonstration of some physics principles, so I thought I would explain how it works, with a couple of pictures (several of her commenters have the right idea, btw).
Poll: Physics/ Astronomy Story of the Year?
It’s mid-December, which means it’s time for the annual run of “Best Noun of 2007” stories in every major media outlet. Being kind of a mid-major media outlet, ScienceBlogs doesn’t produce an official list, but there’ll be a lot of discussion here about the top science stories of the year. This will mostly involve wrangling… Continue reading Poll: Physics/ Astronomy Story of the Year?
Santa Claus is a Physicist
Dave Ng over at the World’s Fair is at it again, asking what sort of science background Santa Claus has: So the premise is that Santa is at least several hundred years old, and you’ve got to assume that somewhere along the line, he spent some time in academia and probably got a degree or… Continue reading Santa Claus is a Physicist
Particle Physics Requires Faith
Faith in theory and curve-fitting, at least… Tommaso Dorigo reports some new results, which are based on a figure that could be titled “Why I Am Not a Particle Physicist #729”: “What’s the problem?,” you ask, “There’s a nice big peak there, looking a little like a black-body spectrum.” Ah, but that’s not the signal.… Continue reading Particle Physics Requires Faith
How to Hand-Wave Quantum Phase?
Kind of a technical question, but typing it out might provide some inspiration, or failing that, somebody might have a good suggestion in the comments. Here’s the issue: I’m starting on a chapter about quantum teleportation for the book, and one of the key steps in the teleportation scheme is an entangling measurement of two… Continue reading How to Hand-Wave Quantum Phase?