Richard Reeves is probably best known for writing biographies of American Presidents (Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan), so it’s a little strange to see him turn his hand to scientific biography. This is part of Norton’s “Great Discoveries” series (which inexplicably lacks a web page– get with the 21st century, already), though, so incongruous author-subject pairing… Continue reading A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford by Richard Reeves
Categories: On the Beauty of Physics
Having admitted that I know noting about fine art, here’s an opportunity to prove it… A week or so ago, I was in the Schenectady library looking for something else, and noticed a book called Categories: On the Beauty of Physics, which is packaged in such a way as to make it difficult to attribute,… Continue reading Categories: On the Beauty of Physics
Not Even Backreaction
Over at bloggingheads, they’ve posted a video conversation between Peter Woit of Not Even Wrong and Sabine Hossenfelder of Backreaction. They talk about string theory a bit, as you might imagine, but also about a wide range of issues in math and physics, and math- and physics-blogging. Sabine evidently had some difficulty getting a connection… Continue reading Not Even Backreaction
links for 2008-07-27
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Blog As you would expect, they have cool pictures. via Steinn. (tags: astronomy space science blogs) Freezing images in an atomic vapor! « Skulls in the Stars An introduction to Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and how to use it to store information. (tags: physics quantum optics experiment science news blogs) Crimes and… Continue reading links for 2008-07-27
A Dog’s Life
It was a lovely afternoon at Chateau Steelypips. I sat in the back yard reading a biography of Ernest Rutherford (about which more tomorrow), while Emmy guarded against intrusions of various sorts: squirrels, inferior dogs out for walks, the next-door neighbors’ kids. There comes a time, though, when no matter how nice it may be… Continue reading A Dog’s Life
The Innumeracy of Intellectuals
I know nothing about art or music. OK, that’s not entirely true– I know a little bit here and there. I just have no systematic knowledge of art or music (by which I mean fine art and classical music). I don’t know Beethoven from Bach, Renaissance from Romantics. I’m not even sure those are both… Continue reading The Innumeracy of Intellectuals
links for 2008-07-26
Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-To-Door Trying To Shock People | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source A classic, having no relevance whatsoever to recent events. (tags: silly internet music) Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Women’s basketball star returns to action–at 50! ” Lieberman has taken old lady hoops to the next level.… Continue reading links for 2008-07-26
Proportionate Response
I was just saying at dinner that I didn’t think there was anything interesting to say in response to the whole “cracker” kerfuffle. Then I got home, and saw Daniel Davies’s post, which is too good not to link. My hat’s off to him. No, I’m not going to quote what he said– it’s short,… Continue reading Proportionate Response
Reader Request Thread
I’ve hit a point in the book-writing where I’m sort of spinning my wheels: waiting for beta-reader comments, fiddling with figures, looking at dog pictures for potential illustrations (my contract calls for me to provide some number of reproduction-quality pictures of the dog). This would be the perfect time to do some blogging. The problem… Continue reading Reader Request Thread
In Which I Defend Co-Education
There’s a piece at Inside Higher Ed today about everybody’s favorite topic, gender bias in science, that opens with an anecdote about a student who showed up to every office hour, and brought her friends. This is familiar to every faculty member, though the author apparently thinks it isn’t: I wonder if Tahnee, as much… Continue reading In Which I Defend Co-Education