Category: Physics

One of the things that ends up bothering me about the discussion of how to get more women in science is that it tends to focus on the college and professional elvel. Everybody seems to have an anecdote about a creepy physics professor, or an unpleasant graduate student, or a sexist post-doc. This bugs me… Continue reading The Pipeline Problem

In email, David Rosenthal asks my opinion of a rant at globalresearch.ca about the stupidity of physicists: Indeed, the modern professional physicist has usually subjected himself (less often herself) to extreme specialization, to be able to handle the technical side of the profession. This training is also largely about adopting the culture of the professional… Continue reading Are Physicists Smart?

In the previous clock tutorial post, I described the basic workings of a cesium atomic clock, which looks sort of like this: It works by sending a beam of cesium atoms through two microwave cavities. The first cavity synchronizes the “clock” in the atoms with the microwaves, and the second cavity checks whether the two… Continue reading Real Clock Tutorial: Fountains

In yesterday’s post, I outlined the history of clocks starting from the essential feature of any clock, namely the “tick.” I ended by saying that the best clock you can possibly make is one based off the basic laws of quantum physics, using the energy separation between two energy levels in an atom to determine… Continue reading Real Clock Tutorial: Atomic Clocks

Over at A Blog Around the Clock, Bora put up a sixteen part series of posts talking about clocks. Unfortunately, he was talking about biological clocks, which are a specific and sort of messy application, from the standpoint of physics. I talk a bit about clocks for our first-year seminar class, as a part of… Continue reading Real Clock Tutorial: History

Via a comment at Cocktail Party Physics, I have become aware of the existence of the “Physics Chicks” LiveJournal community. It’s probably safe to assume that the Female Science Professor isn’t wild about the name. It’s billed as “An online community for crazy and cool women in physics,” or at least those crazy and cool… Continue reading A Blog for Everything