Well, the extremely dorky poll on favorite fundamental constants seems to have petered out at 48 comments, two short of the threshold at which it would’ve become non-dorky. Still, that was a good effort. Since that worked pretty well, here’s another dorky poll question: What’s your favorite fundamental particle? And, for the sake of concreteness,… Continue reading New Dorky Poll: Favorite Particle?
Category: Physics
New NRC Report: AMO, Amas, Amat…
Via Inside Higher Ed, the National Research Council (a part of the National Academy of Sciences) has released a new report calling for a renewed federal committment to AMO science. AMO here meaning “Atomic, Molecular, and Optical,” namely the sort of physics I do. The federal government should reinforce its commitment to research in atomic,… Continue reading New NRC Report: AMO, Amas, Amat…
Classic Edition: Do the Pigeon Dance
As promised in the previous post, some thoughts on superstition in science. This was originally posted in October 2004, and astute readers may note that my opening comments about sports went horribly awry not long after. I take this as proof of my point: talking about these things only screws them up.
Are the (Dimensionless) Constants Constant?
In the previous post, I said that the fine structure constant alpha provides us with a way to measure whether the fundamental constants making it up (the electron charge, Planck’s constant, and the speed of light) have changed in the last few billion years. How, exactly, does that work? The easiest way to see how… Continue reading Are the (Dimensionless) Constants Constant?
The (Dimensionless) Constants of Nature
As noted yesterday, someone going by “who” (who may or may not be a doctor) took me to task in the comments to the dorky poll for talking about fundamental constants that have units, preferring dimensionless ratios instead: I would be really interested to hear what your readers come up with if the popularity constest… Continue reading The (Dimensionless) Constants of Nature
Changing Constant Place-Holder
I was planning to write a big, long post tying together Nathan’s mention of an ICAP talk on the time-variation of fundamental constants with Rob Knop’s post on same and this comment regarding the dorky poll (still time to vote!) and a conversation I had with Kate about the meaning of the fine structure constant.… Continue reading Changing Constant Place-Holder
Fictional Science
The article about physicists in movies cited previously had one other thing worth commenting on: the fictional portrayal of the practice of science: All these films illustrate a fundamental pattern for movie science. Rarely is the central scientific concept utterly incorrect, but filmmakers are obviously more interested in creating entertaining stories that sell tickets than… Continue reading Fictional Science
Classic Edition: Move Out of Your Parents’ Basements
Benjamin Cohen at The World’s Fair posts a link to an article about physicists in movies. The author provides a surprisingly detailed breakdown of what must be every character described as a physicist in the history of motion pictures. He also says really nasty things about What the Bleep Do We Know?, which warms my… Continue reading Classic Edition: Move Out of Your Parents’ Basements
Liquid Nitrogen on TV
This past weekend, Union played host to the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling’s Camp College program. This is a three-day summer program where students from disadvantaged backgrounds (the vast majority of this year’s students were from New York City, with a handful of local students, and one group from Philly) spend a… Continue reading Liquid Nitrogen on TV
Physics Conference Blogging
It’s not as sexy as Strings 2006, but it’s easier to understand what the talks are about: Nathan Lundblad is blogging from the International Conference on Atomic Physics in Innsbruck, Austria (the bastard). Posts so far: First day introduction. First day talk recaps. (The latter includes the announcement of the [Norman] Ramsey Prize, “to be… Continue reading Physics Conference Blogging