Category: Science

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in Broome County

I’ve been buried in work, so I haven’t had time to do any real blogging, but I do want to post a quick reminder of this week’s signing: — This FRIDAY, March 5 (that is, the day after tomorrow), I will be signing books at the Vestal, NY Barnes and Noble at 7pm. I’m not… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in Broome County

Upcoming Appearances for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog

A couple of upcomign events related to How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: — Next FRIDAY, March 5, I will be signing books at the Vestal, NY Barnes and Noble at 7pm. This is the big-box chain store closest to my hometown, and my parents report already getting calls about it, which is weird… Continue reading Upcoming Appearances for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog

The Edge of Physics by Anil Ananthaswamy

One of the weird-but-cool things about being C-list famous on the Internet is that some publishers now send me unsolicited review copies of forthcoming books about science. These aren’t always the books I would really like to get free copies of, but, hey, free books. Among the books I’ve received in the last year or… Continue reading The Edge of Physics by Anil Ananthaswamy

Amazing Laser Application 5: Optical Data Storage!

What’s the application? CD and DVD players use lasers to read (and in some cases write) digital information from convenient plastic disks. What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) “How do we store a large amount of digital information in a convenient and stable fashion?” 2) “How do we make everybody buy the White… Continue reading Amazing Laser Application 5: Optical Data Storage!

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

A couple of reviews, an offer, and a mystery regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: The reviews: A review at suite101 that went up a while ago, but I somehow missed in the vanity search. It’s a nice, detailed review, and if I had to pick a pull quote it would probably be:… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

The Faulty Fluid Dynamics of Hotel Environmentalism

Boskone this past weekend was held at the Westin Waterfront in Boston, which has these funky double showerheads that they charmingly call the “Heavenly(R) Shower” (hype aside, they are very nice showers). The picture at right is courtesy of lannalee on Twitter, as I didn’t bring a camera. Why am I telling you this? Because… Continue reading The Faulty Fluid Dynamics of Hotel Environmentalism

Amazing Laser Application 4: Optical Tweezers!

What’s the application? Optical tweezers use focused light beams to trap small particles in the focus of the beam, and drag them around by moving the beam. What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) “How do we move these tiny little things around without touching them?” 2) “How do we measure the forces exerted… Continue reading Amazing Laser Application 4: Optical Tweezers!

Entanglement Happens

There have been a bunch of stories recently talking about quantum effects at room temperature– one, about coherent transport in photosynthesis , even escaped the science blogosphere. They’ve mostly said similar things, but Thursday’s ArxivBlog entry had a particular description of a paper about entanglement effects that is worth unpacking: Entanglement is a strange and… Continue reading Entanglement Happens

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Miscellaneous stories and links about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: — There’s a nice review by Margaret Fisk (who has been reading it for a while, and mentioning it on her blog, which kept turning up in the vanity search): Orzel does a wonderful job of finding physical parallels to explain quantum concepts… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update