It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have full-text access to Mark Slouka’s article in Harper’s, with the title “Dehumanized: When math and science rule the school.” Just the description in this Columbia Journalism Review piece makes me want to hunt down the author and belt him with a Norton anthology: According to the… Continue reading Dehumanizing the Two Cultures
Category: Science
Historical Physicist Smackdown: Minor Quantum Edition
SteelyKid’s day care is closed today, meaning that I will be spending the day chasing her in circles in a variety of different places. this doesn’t allow a lot of blogging time, so you get a poll to pass the time. We’ll go back to the historical physics thing for this one. The following poll… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Minor Quantum Edition
Academic Poll: What Do Faculty Owe Former Students?
The Female Science Professor is thinking about what advisors owe their students: When I got my PhD and went out into the great big academic world, I felt that I had the respect of my adviser, but I knew not to expect anything more from him in the way of support in my career other… Continue reading Academic Poll: What Do Faculty Owe Former Students?
Furloughs and Shutdowns
Janet is currently exploring the implications of the California university furloughs. If you haven’t been paying attention, California is so grossly dysfunctional that the state government has had to order all employees– including university faculty– to take 9% of their work time off as unpaid “furlough” days, in order to cut costs enough to have… Continue reading Furloughs and Shutdowns
Obsessive-Compulsive Poll: Light Switches
I’m doing better today, but still a little wobbly, and trying to conserve my energy for the Bruce Springsteen concert tonight. Thus, a poll: Imagine you have a light switch box containing multiple switches, like to one at right. These switches control lights in adjoining areas of the house– say, the living room, and the… Continue reading Obsessive-Compulsive Poll: Light Switches
Changing Standards of Mass
NPR last week had a story about the changing kilogram: More than a century ago, a small metal cylinder was forged in London and sent to a leafy suburb of Paris. The cylinder was about the size of a salt shaker and made of an alloy of platinum and iridium, an advanced material at the… Continue reading Changing Standards of Mass
You Say You Want a Revolution?
I’m suffering through a wretched cold at the moment, which will limit my blogging activity. If you’re looking for something to do, though, you might want to check out the Revolutionary Minds blog set up by the Corporate Masters. This is basically a short-form online version of a feature from Seed, in which they ask… Continue reading You Say You Want a Revolution?
What’s Missing From This Art Project?
Via Bora on FriendFeed, a cute little art project from MIT that takes a name, scans the Web for mentions of that name, and produces a color-coded bar categorizing the various mentions of that name. Here’s what you get if you put my name in: You can click on it for a bigger image, that… Continue reading What’s Missing From This Art Project?
Quantum Mechanics Is Not Magic, No Matter What Google Ads Says
So, I was checking to see that last night’s Baby Blogging post had posted properly, when I noticed something unpleasant in the right column: I recognize that this is the price we pay for being ad-supported, here at ScienceBlogs. It’s unreasonable to expect every ad company on the Internet to perfectly screen all their content… Continue reading Quantum Mechanics Is Not Magic, No Matter What Google Ads Says
Dorky Poll: Newton’s Laws
I have a bunch of errand-running to do today, so I will leave you with a Dorky Poll question for entertainment, this time regarding the work of the great Sir Isaac Newton: Which of Isaac Newton’s Laws is your favorite?(trends) We’re still dealing with classical physics, here, so superpositions of results are not allowed. Pick… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Newton’s Laws