Over in locked LiveJournal land, I read a post talking about computer science education, and how it’s biased against people who aren’t already tech geeks coming into college: Taking an intro CS course if you don’t already know how to program is like taking intro Spanish without ever having taken it in high school –… Continue reading Entry Points and Resource Allocation
Category: Science
Who Are You People?
I gave a talk today on blogs as a tool for science communication (basically the same as this one, with a few minor updates), and got asked “Aren’t the people who read science blogs mostly scientists already?” Which reminded me that it’s been a while since I did a “Who are you people?” post. So,… Continue reading Who Are You People?
Dorky Poll: Favorite Prime Number?
A pretty straightforward question: Which prime number do you like the best? What’s your favorite prime number?online surveys This is a purely classical poll, so you only get to choose one favorite, not a superposition of multiple numbers. Your selection is legally binding, so choose wisely!
Academic Poll: Talk Prep
I’m giving a talk at the AAAS meeting next month on international physics tests, and they have asked me to provide information that they will duplicate and distribute to the media. Items requested include: — A one-paragraph biographical sketch (not a C.V.) — A lay-language summary of your talk, beyond the abstract. — The full… Continue reading Academic Poll: Talk Prep
Photons and Atoms Approaching Equilibrium
The latest snowstorm is wreaking some havoc on my plans for the day, which means I’m going to lift another question and answer from the Physics Stack Exchange, with some modification. This one is a question about thermal radiation: What are the quantum mechanisms behind the emission and absorption of thermal radiation at and below… Continue reading Photons and Atoms Approaching Equilibrium
What Counts As Successful Outreach?
Part of this past weekend’s meeting of the Committee on Informing the Public was to evaluate 100+ proposals for “mini-grants” of up to $10,000 for new outreach activities. It wouldn’t be appropriate to go into detail about any of the proposals or what we decided (the PI’s of the proposals we decided to fund will… Continue reading What Counts As Successful Outreach?
Physics Announcements: New Forum, Undergraduate Research Session
I was at a meeting of the Committee on Informing the Public of the American Physical Society at the tail end of last week, so it seems appropriate to post a couple of APS-related announcements here on my return: 1) The APS has just created a Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public. You may… Continue reading Physics Announcements: New Forum, Undergraduate Research Session
Massive by Ian Sample
The physics book generating the most bloggy buzz in the latter part of 2010 would have to be Ian Sample’s Massive: The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, about the as yet undetected particle known as the Higgs boson. Detecting the Hiigs is the most immediate goal of the Large Hadron Collider,… Continue reading Massive by Ian Sample
Ballistic Air Travel
I am in Florida for a meeting this week, having flown from Albany to Ft. Lauderdale. Due to the vagaries of the air travel system, though, this required a change of planes in Orlando. The Orlando-Ft. Lauderdale flight is sufficiently short that I like to think of it as a ballistic route– you’re not cruising… Continue reading Ballistic Air Travel
In the Open Lab 2010
It occurs to me that I’m kind of dropping the ball on my shameless self-promotion because I haven’t mentioned that one of my posts made the cut for this year’s fifth edition of the best-of-science-blogging anthology The Open Laboratory. The post included is Science Is More Like Sumo Than Soccer, a discussion of the importance… Continue reading In the Open Lab 2010