The Paper of Record today features an interview with Eric Mazur of Harvard, a physicist who is probably best known for his pedagogical work. He talks aabout how typical science teaching sucks, and why we need to change it: From what I’ve seen, students in science classrooms throughout the country depend on the rote memorization… Continue reading Peer Instruction
Category: Physics
What’s Up With RHIC
Peter Steinberg is lecturing at a summer school in Florida, and has posted the slides for the three lectures he gave about recent work at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island. The first lecture is linked from that post, and the other two are available (at the moment) from links on the sidebar.… Continue reading What’s Up With RHIC
Envy? Hardly.
Dave at the World’s Fair is trying to start a “meme” based on a Science Creative Quarterly piece about physics envy among biologists and vice versa. He’s asking other science bloggers whether there’s another field that they wish they were working in. While I have occasionally joked that if I had it to do over,… Continue reading Envy? Hardly.
Summer at ACME College
“Ahhhh… summer at last. No more classes. No more committee meetings. Do you realize what this means?” “Ummmmm…. no. What does it mean? What are we going to do this summer, Brain?” “The same thing we do every summer…. Try to do PUBLISHABLE RESEARCH!!!” ———— “Are you pondering what I’m pondering?” “I think so, Brain,… Continue reading Summer at ACME College
sigh, Perpetual Motion
I suppose I really ought to say something about the “demonstration” of Steorn’s perpetual motion machine that’s supposed to start today, but, really, I don’t have much to say. I mean, if they were claiming that their device extracted free energy from extra dimensions thanks to their revolutionary new theory of quantum gravity, I might… Continue reading sigh, Perpetual Motion
Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette
Looking back at the archives, I see that I never did get around to blogging about Jennifer Ouellette’s Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, which I finished back in May. This is a particularly shameful oversight, as she visited campus in late May, and gave two excellent talks for us, so the least I can do… Continue reading Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette
You Gripe About What You Know
Via PZ, a blog on biology and science fiction is griping that biology gets no respect, and links to a Jack Cohen article complaining that authors and filmmakers don’t take biology seriously I was particularly struck by this bit: Authors, film producers and directors, special-effects teams go to physicists, especially astrophysicists, to check that their… Continue reading You Gripe About What You Know
Dorky Poll: Grand Challenges
I’m going to drop back a bit, and steal an idea from Doug Natelson, who posted about Grand Challenges in condensed matter physics almost two weeks ago. This was prompted by a report from the National Research Council listing such challenges, including things like “How do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients?” and “How will… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Grand Challenges
True Lab Stories: Fun With Materials Science
It’s been ages since I posted a True Lab Story, mostly because I’ve been too busy to do anything really dumb. I had a good day for True Lab Stories yesterday, though, so here’s a tale of something idiotic I did, or, rather, had my students do. I have a student working on a project… Continue reading True Lab Stories: Fun With Materials Science
Education and Media Relations
The great media relations debate is starting to wind down, but there’s still a bit of life in it. In particular, I want to comment on something that Bora said, that was amplified on by Melinda Barton. Here’s Bora’s comment: Everyone is afraid to use the F word, but the underlying tension is, at its… Continue reading Education and Media Relations