Over in Tumblr-land, Ben Lillie has an interesting post on all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes of a science talk. It’s an intimidatingly long list of stuff, in quite a range of different areas. But this is a solved problem in other performance fields: And that raises and interesting question, since aside… Continue reading Science Talks and Pick-Up Hoops
Wizard Trouble
I was staring out the diner window, watching it rain, when Jimmy the werewolf slid into the booth behind me. “We got trouble, boss,” he said, and I spilled coffee over the back of my hand. “Asshole,” I said, not turning around. “How about a little warning next time?” “Don’t want to let on I… Continue reading Wizard Trouble
Seven Years of SteelyKid
Today is SteelyKid’s seventh birthday, which she’s been counting down to for a good while. It’s a little hard to believe it’s seven years since she was substantially smaller than her stuffed Appa toy. She’s become quite a handful in that time, with boundless energy apparently derived from photosynthesis (since she hardly eats anything), and… Continue reading Seven Years of SteelyKid
Back-of-the-Envelope Gravitational Which-Way
There’s a new Science Express paper on interfering clocks today, which is written up in Physics World, with comments from yours truly. The quote is from a much longer message I sent– with no expectation that it would end up as anything other than a pull quote, I might add, but I thought the background… Continue reading Back-of-the-Envelope Gravitational Which-Way
The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction
Last weekend was our APS-funded outreach workshop The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction, held at the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland. The workshop offered a three-day “crash course” on quantum physics to 17 science fiction writers from a variety of media– we had novelists, short-story writers, screenwriters, and at least one… Continue reading The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction
Have Laptop, Will Travel
Having mentioned in yesterday’s post that I’ll be on sabbatical for the next academic year, this would probably be a good time to point out that this means I’m somewhat more flexible than usual in terms of going places and giving talks. And I enjoy going places and giving talks. About
14 Years Before the Class(room)
This past academic year was my 14th as a professor at Union, and my last as department chair. I’m on sabbatical for the 2015-16 academic year, doing my very best to avoid setting foot in an academic building, so it will be September 2016 before I’m teaching a class again. This seems like a good… Continue reading 14 Years Before the Class(room)
Physics Blogging Round-Up: Condensed Matter, Magic, Navigation, and Late Nights
Another week, another set of posts at Forbes to link here: — Why Do Solids Have Energy Bands? A conceptual explanation of why putting together lots of atoms with electrons in well-defined energy levels leads to a solid with electrons filling broad energy bands. — This Is The Key Distinction Between Magic And Advanced Technology:… Continue reading Physics Blogging Round-Up: Condensed Matter, Magic, Navigation, and Late Nights
Physics Blogging Round-Up, New Car Edition
The big development of the week is that I bought a new car, as seen in the featured image. This ate up most of Tuesday, but I still got some quality physics blogging in over at Forbes: — The Basic Science Behind Creating Colors: A look at two quantum-mechanical phenomena and one quirk of biology… Continue reading Physics Blogging Round-Up, New Car Edition
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson [Library of Babel]
Seveneves is the latest from Neal Stephenson, and true to form is a whopping huge book– 700-something “pages” in electronic form– and contains yet another bid for “best first paragraph ever”: The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason. It was waxing, only one day short of full. The time was 05:03:12… Continue reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson [Library of Babel]