Category: Science

Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place

Over at his new digs, Chris Mooney talks about efforts to re-launch the OTA: I’m starting to detect some buzz on this very important front, which I wrote about in detail in 2005’s The Republican War on Science and elsewhere. Basically, the story is this: In 1995 the Gingrich Republicans, looking to slash budgets–and looking… Continue reading Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place

How Much Information Is Too Much Information?

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, we instituted a complicated emergency alert system, involving sirens, loudspeakers, text messages, and emails. The whole thing gets tested far more frequently than it really needs to– every few weeks, we get a barrage of emails warning us that a test is coming up, then another barrage… Continue reading How Much Information Is Too Much Information?

Physics Communication Strategies

Physics World this month has a nice article by Robert Crease on the strategies used in popular physics books, drawing on a study of popular books by Elizabeth Leane (Reading Popular Physics, much of which is available via Google Books). He talks about three different strategies that she identifies, and how they’re employed in different… Continue reading Physics Communication Strategies

Up for Adoption

The spring round of the Adopt-a-Physicist outreach program will begin soon. I did this in the Fall, and it was a good experience, so I’ve registered myself again. The program pairs volunteer physicists with high school classes, and provides a web forum in which students can ask questions about physics and careers in physics. Back… Continue reading Up for Adoption

Course Report: Nuclei and Particles in 3+1 Classes

This is the final report on my modern physics class from last term, covering the last week of classes, which generally deal with nuclear and particle physics. This was actually three-and-a-bit classes, because I lost one class to a nasty cold a few weeks earlier, and used part of the lab period to make up… Continue reading Course Report: Nuclei and Particles in 3+1 Classes

Course Report: Solid State Physics in Three Classes

In the last course report post, we dispensed of atomic and molecular physics in just three classes. The next three classes do the same for solid state physics. Class 25 picks up on the idea of basic molecular potentials from the end of the previous class, and uses that to introduce energy bands in a… Continue reading Course Report: Solid State Physics in Three Classes

Physics Video Quiz

OK, “quiz” isn’t really the right word, because I don’t know the right answer. But here’s something weird that I noticed a while ago, and since I needed an excuse to fool around with video a bit, I thought I’d shoot some pictures of it: Here’s the deal: My cell phone is gently curved on… Continue reading Physics Video Quiz

Tunguska Explained… Again

The Tuguska event of 1908 is one of the most frequently “explained” events in recent history, trailing only the Kennedy assassination. The arXiv blog reports on the latest explanation of what knocked down all those trees without making a giant crater: Now a new analysis by Edward Drobyshevski of the Russian Academy of Sciences in… Continue reading Tunguska Explained… Again