Boskone, the Boston-area SF convention that Kate and I go to every year, is the weekend after next. Once again, I’ll be doing a few panels and one talk. For those who might be attending, or who care about this for some reason, here’s my preliminary schedule:
Category: Science
Ultra-Cold Atoms and Neutrino Masses
Physics World‘s news aggregator had a story yesterday with the headline Chilly solution to neutrino mass problem, and the one-sentence teaser Ultracold atoms could be used to measure the mass of the neutrino. This creates a wonderful image of somehow turning a magneto-optical trap or a Bose-Einstein Condensate into a neutrino detector, which is a… Continue reading Ultra-Cold Atoms and Neutrino Masses
Message from APS: Support Science Funding
The American Physical Society has sent out another of its email alerts encouraging people to write to Congress in support of more funding for science. Actually, they’re urging people to send two messages: a thank-you to Speaker Pelosi for the generous science funding in the House stimulus bill, and a letter to your Senators asking… Continue reading Message from APS: Support Science Funding
Gatekeeping vs. Bad Teaching
Much of LiveJournal has been sunk in a sea of suck for the last couple of weeks, but there’s a really interesting discussion of science education over at “Faraday’s Cage is where you put Schroedinger’s Cat.” The first post has to do with the idea of “gatekeeping”: In my class today, a very brief discussion… Continue reading Gatekeeping vs. Bad Teaching
Editing and its Discontents
FemaleScienceProfessor posted a few days ago about “intense” editing of scholarly writing, and the different reactions students have to the experience: Although an individual student’s response to being intensely edited can vary with time and mood, there tend to be typical responses from each student. These typical responses are no doubt related to very deep… Continue reading Editing and its Discontents
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense, by Michael Brooks
Michael Brooks’s 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense turned up on a lot of “Best science books of 2008” lists, and the concept of a book about scientific anomalies seemed interesting, so I ordered it from Amazon. It’s a quick read (a mere 210 pages, and breezily written), but ultimately a frustrating book. It took… Continue reading 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense, by Michael Brooks
Science Is What Makes Us Human
In his inaugural address, President Obama pledged to “restore science to its rightful place.” Following up on that, the Corporate Masters have launched the Rightful Place Project, asking bloggers, readers, and scientists to define the rightful place of science. Many of these responses will focus on narrow matters of policy, but as many have said… Continue reading Science Is What Makes Us Human
Course Report: General Relativity and Black-Body Radiation
The last course report covered the first six classes of the relativity unit. This week, we had the final two relativity lectures, and today was the start of quantum mechanics.
Falling Into Atomville
The Physics and Astronomy colloquium this week was by Jill Linz from Skidmore, talking about a couple of physics outreach programs she’s worked on. This being right up my alley, I made it a point to get in early enough to see the colloquium (I spent the morning at home with the sick SteelyKid, and… Continue reading Falling Into Atomville
The Prestige for Ytterbium: Quantum Teleportation with Separated Atoms
My graduate alma mater made some news this week, with a new quantum teleportation experiment in which they “teleport” the state of one ytterbium ion to another ytterbium ion about a meter away. That may not sound like much, but it’s the first time anybody has done this with ions in two completely separate traps,… Continue reading The Prestige for Ytterbium: Quantum Teleportation with Separated Atoms