While I was off at DAMOP last week, the Guardian produced a list purporting to be the 100 greatest non-fiction books of all time. Predictably, this includes a tiny set of science titles– five in the “Science” category, two under “Environment,” and one each under “Mathematics” and “Mind.” And that’s being kind of generous about… Continue reading Greatest (Nonscientific) Nonfiction
Category: Science
DAMOP Day 3
Alternate, More-Interesting Post Title: Attack of the Vampire Physicists. I realized today that the only time I have been outside during daylight hours on this trip to Atlanta was during the brief walk down the platform to the airport entrance. This is only a little unusual for a DAMOP– the Marriott Marquis is connected to… Continue reading DAMOP Day 3
DAMOP Day 1
Tuesday at DAMOP was dominated by my talk. Well, in my mind, at least. I suppose people who aren’t me saw other interesting things. OK, fine, I did go to some other sessions. I would link to the abstracts, but the APS web site is having Issues this morning. In the Prize Session that always… Continue reading DAMOP Day 1
What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?
That’s the title of my talk this morning at DAMOP, where I attempt the slightly insane feat of summarizing a meeting with over 1000 presentations in a single 30-minute talk. This will necessarily involve talking a little bit like the person reading the legal notices at the end of a car commercial, and a few… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?
ResearchBlogging by Proxy: Physics on “Coherent Light Scattering from a Two-Dimensional Mott Insulator”
You may or may not have noticed that I’ve been making a concerted effort to do more ResearchBlogging posts explaining notable recent results. I’ve been trying to get at least one per week posted, and coming fairly close to that. I’ve been pretty happy with the fake Q&A format that I’ve settled into, and while… Continue reading ResearchBlogging by Proxy: Physics on “Coherent Light Scattering from a Two-Dimensional Mott Insulator”
The Manga guide to Relativity by Nitta, Yamamoto, and Takatsu
Right around the time I sent in the manuscript for my own book explaining relativity to Emmy, I got an email offering me a review copy of The Manga Guide to Relativity, part of a series of English translations of Japanese comic books explaining complicated concepts in a friendly way. That was clearly too good… Continue reading The Manga guide to Relativity by Nitta, Yamamoto, and Takatsu
Science Poll: Get Real
If you look at the schedule of events for DAMOP next week, you will see that there is a movie showing scheduled for Tuesday night: Real Genius. This seems like an excellent excuse to run a poll: Real Genius is:survey software While the meeting will largely involve quantum mechanics, this is a purely classical poll,… Continue reading Science Poll: Get Real
Child of Scientist-Approved Beach Reading
While it is not yet officially summer, according to astronomers and horologists, it was approximately the temperature of the Sun here in Niskayuna yesterday, so de facto summer has begun. Accordingly, we have acquired a pool: Of course, one of the main things you do with a pool is to sit next to it and… Continue reading Child of Scientist-Approved Beach Reading
Commanding the Power of Thor…ium: “Wigner Crystals of 229Th for Optical Excitation of the Nuclear Isomer”
I have to admit, I’m writing this one up partly because it lets me use the title reference. It’s a cool little paper, though, demonstrating the lengths that physicists will go to in pursuit of precision measurements. I’m just going to pretend I didn’t see that dorky post title, and ask what this is about.… Continue reading Commanding the Power of Thor…ium: “Wigner Crystals of 229Th for Optical Excitation of the Nuclear Isomer”
The Central Conundrum of Physics Education
Over at Dynamics of Cats, chief herding theorist Steinn has a post on what we know about how to teach physics: To teach physics well, you provide an intensive, mathematically rigorous in-sequence series of classes. You need at least two different parallel classes per term, each class a prerequisite for the succeeding class and coordinated… Continue reading The Central Conundrum of Physics Education