The Pontiff beat me to it, but my Ph.D. alma mater has scored a $12.5 million grant from the NSF to fund the Joint Quantum Institute as a Physics Frontier Center for the development of quantum technology: The Physics Frontier Center (PFC) award, effective September 1, will fund 17 graduate students, seven postdoctoral scientists and… Continue reading Fear the (Quantum) Turtle
links for 2008-09-19
…My heart’s in Accra » Sumo and the cycle of nature "Every two months, there’s a 15-day basho. You can set your watch by it, if you happen to have one of those watches that’s accurate only to the week." (tags: sports Japan drugs blogs) Basics: Making graphs with kinematics stuff | Dot Physics "I… Continue reading links for 2008-09-19
Thursday Baby Blogging 091808
Your weekly picture of SteelyKid, with Appa for scale: Note the addition of the crib mirror. She’s started to become more aware of the world around her, and may parents picked up a couple of mirrors when they were here last week. The mirror is the most fascinating thing in the world, when she’s awake… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 091808
Science Majors vs. Scientists
I have often expressed a wish for there to be more physics majors, and more science majors in general. Given the demographic information in the previous post, is this just irresponsible feather-bedding on my part? I don’t think so, but that’s because I would make a distinction between science majors, at the undergraduate level, and… Continue reading Science Majors vs. Scientists
Science21: Supply and Demand, Booms and Busts
There’s an article in yesterday’s Inside Higher Ed about the supply of scientists and engineers, arguing that there is not, in fact, a shortage: Michael S. Teitelbaum, a demographer at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, looked at what he called five “mysteries” of the STEM work force issue. For example, why do employers claim a… Continue reading Science21: Supply and Demand, Booms and Busts
The Internet Changes Financial News
On hearing that Washington Mutual is the next bank up in Wall Street’s fire sale, I have to admit that my first thought was “Well, that’s what they get for letting their customer service be handled by shady guys in Nigeria…” I’ve gotten so much scam email over the years with Subject: headers like “Washington… Continue reading The Internet Changes Financial News
links for 2008-09-18
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Free e-books from Will Shetterly and Emma Bull Two really good books, for free. What more could you want? (tags: SF books literature) D.F.W., R.I.P. :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs "For a young writer to discover Wallace… Continue reading links for 2008-09-18
Open Lab Notebook Software?
After talking to Cameron Neylon last week, I’m strongly considering setting up an online lab notebook for my research lab. Not so much for the philosophical reasons having to do with openness and the like– as a practical matter, I still don’t think my data will do anybody any good– but for reasons of sheer… Continue reading Open Lab Notebook Software?
Science21: The Journal of Stuff I Like
Another thing I thought was intriguing that came up at the Science in the 21st Century meeting wasn’t from a formal talk, but rather a conversation over dinner with Garrett Lisi and Sabine Hossenfelder about the future of publishing. Garrett was suggesting a new model of publishing, based on pulling things from the arxiv (or… Continue reading Science21: The Journal of Stuff I Like
Science21 Highlights: Open Access and Public Accessibility
I have never been a huge proponent of the Open Access and Open Data movements in science publishing, because they’ve always struck me as wasted effort. I’ve never really seen what value is supposed to be added by either project. When I think about the experiments that I’ve been involved with (see, for example, the… Continue reading Science21 Highlights: Open Access and Public Accessibility