It’s grey and dreary here, with an expected high temperature around 50F. That can only mean one thing: Spring has arrived in New England! (You can distinguish spring from winter by the daytime high temperatures– they’re both grey and dreary, but winter is grey, dreary, and cold…) Spring means mud, yard work, and a new… Continue reading Spring Term Hat Blogging
How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll by Elijah Wald [Library of Babel]
Lest you think that the previous couple of posts indicate that I’m just a cranky curmudgeon who doesn’t like anything he reads, let me put in a plug for Elijah Wald’s How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll. I read about half of this piecemeal over a couple of months, then finished it on the… Continue reading How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll by Elijah Wald [Library of Babel]
Science Fiction Disappoints Me
Spending less time reading blogs means that I have more time to spend reading fiction. Unfortunately, the fiction I’ve been reading has been letting me down. In particular, I’m very disappointed in the last two books I’ve (mostly) read. For one of the books, N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (sample chapter),mit’s not entirely… Continue reading Science Fiction Disappoints Me
The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies
Somebody at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has a really high opinion of this blog, as they not only sent me an Advance Reading Copy of Paul Davies’s forthcoming book about SETI, The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence, they followed it up with a finished hardcover. I read the ARC on the plane on… Continue reading The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies
Thursday Baby Blogging 032510
Not as nice a day today as some recent days, but we ended up running around in the backyard all the same. It’s still not really spring, no matter what the astronomers say, but there are a few hardy little weeds poking up flowers that haven’t quite opened yet. SteelyKid already knows what to do… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 032510
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Been a little while since I’ve done an Obsessive Update, but a few noteworthy things have come up recently: A very nice review at Pet Connection: “this brilliant and (relatively) simple book explains the basic premises of quantum physics in terms that dogs and most English majors can understand.” Which is not to say that… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update
Belated March Meeting Wrap-Up
I did one sketchy update from Portland last Tuesday, but never wrote up my impressions of the rest of the March Meeting– when I got back, I was buried in grading, and then trying to put together Monday’s presentation. And, for reasons that will become apparent, I was unable to write anything up before I… Continue reading Belated March Meeting Wrap-Up
Cooling a “Macroscopic” Object to Its Quantum Ground State
Several people have sent me links to news stories about last week’s Nature paper, “Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator.” (It was also presented at the March Meeting, but I didn’t go to that session). This is billed as the first observation of quantum phenomena with a “macroscopic” or “naked eye… Continue reading Cooling a “Macroscopic” Object to Its Quantum Ground State
Research Blogging Awards
The winners of the first Research Blogging Awards were announced today, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this blog was named the “Best Blog — Chemistry, Physics, or Astronomy.” I knew that I was nominated– I was one of the judges, and while I abstained from voting on my own blog, I… Continue reading Research Blogging Awards
What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics
I gave a talk today for a group of local home-school students and parents, on the essential elements of quantum physics. The idea was to give them a sense of what sets quantum mechanics apart from other theories of physics, and why it’s a weird and wonderful thing. The title is, of course, a reference… Continue reading What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics