I should note up front that I’m kind of jealous of Marcus Chown regarding this book. Subtitled “What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe,” The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck is a book that uses trivial everyday observations– the fact that you don’t fall through the floor, the fact that the sky is… Continue reading The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck by Marcus Chown
Links for 2010-05-11
The Science and Entertainment Exchange: The X-Change Files: Tony Stark’s Science “While the film naturally took some liberties with the details — sci-fi has the luxury of not having to pass peer review — Marvel Studios nonetheless cared enough about plausibility to ask the Science & Entertainment Exchange for a suitable scientist with whom they… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-11
The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds
I’ve written before about the problem of having in-between views on controversial subjects in blogdom. This is something that also comes up in Jessica’s excellent entry on online culture, and has been scientifically demonstrated in political contexts. I’m somewhat bemused, then, to see the same thing happen in a physics context. A while back, I… Continue reading The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds
Links for 2010-05-10
Against a Definition of Science Fiction — Paul Kincaid “When I called my collection of essays and reviews What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, I was struggling toward something I could not fully articulate. I don’t know what is involved in reading science fiction, because I don’t know what science fiction… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-10
Ancient Aliens: Performance Art or Government Disinformation?
One of my many character weaknesses is a fondness for the kooky UFO programs run on the History Channel and other educational cable networks. The nuttier the better– there’s something about the credulity and self-delusion displayed by the “researchers” they trot out that I find really hilarious. I have to say, though, that they’ve outdone… Continue reading Ancient Aliens: Performance Art or Government Disinformation?
The Problem of “Theory”
When I was writing about the seemingly contradictory meanings of “adiabatic” the other day, I almost gave “theory” as an example of a word with nearly opposite meanings. After all, as anyone who has even glanced at the evolution-creation “debate” has heard, a “Theory” in science is something more exalted than a mere guess– it’s… Continue reading The Problem of “Theory”
Links for 2010-05-09
Jason Sanford: Living in a world where most writers suck I find bad writing to be cross-generational and not caused by someone loving video games or fanfic. If you turned Shakespeare loose on gaming or fanfic, he’d likely come up with some great stories. He’d also come up with some horrible stories–don’t forget that before… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-09
The Past and Future of the Laser
While it’s not aprt of the official LaserFest package of stuff, Physics World is marking the 50th anniversary of the laser with a couple of really nice pieces on lasers in science and popular culture: Where next for the laser interviews six laser experts– Claire Max of UCSC, Bill Phillips of NIST, Steven Block of… Continue reading The Past and Future of the Laser
Links for 2010-05-08
YouTube – Walk on water “Liquid Mountaineering is a new sport which is attempting to achieve what man has tried to do for centuries: walk on water. Or to be more precise: running on water. We are developing the sport from scratch. By accident we found out that with the right water repellent equipment you… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-08
Academic Poll: Talk or Poster?
The Steinmetz Symposium is today at Union, as mentioned in yesterday’s silly poll about fears (I love the fact that “Wavefunction Collapse” leads “Monsters from the Id” by one vote at the time of this writing– my readers are awesome). As a more serious follow-up, there were two presentation options offered to the students, and… Continue reading Academic Poll: Talk or Poster?