The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear – NYTimes.com “David A. Weitz, a physics professor at Harvard, joked, “There are more theories of the glass transition than there are theorists who propose them.”” (tags: physics materials science) Medium Large It’s back! Maybe the best Web comic going. (tags: comics internet silly) Game Over: Scrabulous… Continue reading links for 2008-07-30
Songs of the Moment
Currently in heavy rotation at Chateau Steelypips (links to last.fm): “Do the Panic” by Phantom Planet. I’m a sucker for the “Ba ba ba” chorus… “Sequestered in Memphis” by the Hold Steady. “We went to some place where she cat-sits.” I had to Google that. “Glad It’s Over” by Wilco. “I hate you one hundred… Continue reading Songs of the Moment
Reader Request: LHC
In the Reader Request Thread, Ian asks: I’d like to hear what you think we’ll learn (if anything!) when the LHC comes online next month. Well, that sort of depends on the time scale. I’m not a big accelerator guy, but my sense from reading the blogs of people who are is that we’re not… Continue reading Reader Request: LHC
The New York Times on Glass
I tagged this for del.icio.us, but on reflection, it deserves better than to be buried in a links dump. It’s so rare that the New York Times notices physics that doesn’t cost billions of dollars, that Kenneth Chang’s article on glass deserves its own post. Peter G. Wolynes, a professor of chemistry at the University… Continue reading The New York Times on Glass
Two Cultures Round-Up
Because I am a Bad Person who thinks and types relatively slowly, I have been lax about following up to the many excellent posts that have been written in response to this weekend’s two cultures posts. Let me attempt to address that in a small way by linking a whole bunch of them now: My… Continue reading Two Cultures Round-Up
links for 2008-07-29
The Font Sizes of the Planets | Orbiting Frog The Solar System as a Wordle. You can get it on a T-shirt, too. (tags: astronomy planets science silly) Confessions of a Community College Dean: Thoughts on Service “[T]he path of least resistance is lip service to service, with a tacit understanding that we don’t really mean it.”… Continue reading links for 2008-07-29
Reader Request: Parenthood
In the Reader Request thread, Mary Kay writes: I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on becoming a father. Both before and after the actual event. I mentioned this to Kate, and she asked whether I thought there was a difference between “fatherhood” and “parenthood.” I’m not that attuned to such things, so it had… Continue reading Reader Request: Parenthood
Reader Request: Graphene
Last week’s Reader Request Thread produced a bunch of good suggestions, some of which I’ll be responding to this week as I put the last touches on the book draft and send it off. We’ll start with a good physics question from Moshe: So, what do you think about graphene? the next big thing, or… Continue reading Reader Request: Graphene
Reading Is Reading, but Books Are Not Fungible
The New York Times front page yesterday sported an article with the oh-so-hip headline “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?.” This turned out to be impressively stupid even by the standards of articles with clumsy slang in the headlines: Children like Nadia lie at the heart of a passionate debate about just what it… Continue reading Reading Is Reading, but Books Are Not Fungible
Paging Humanities Bloggers…
A question raised in comments to yesterday’s rant about humanities types looking down on people who don’t know the basics of their fields, while casually dismissing math and science: [I]t occurs to me that it would be useful if someone could determine, honestly, whether the humanities professors feel the same sense of condescension among science… Continue reading Paging Humanities Bloggers…