Solve Puzzles for Science | Fold It! Protein Folding: The Game! It has to be better than listening to seminar talks about it… (tags: chemistry games science computing internet news)
Here’s An Experiment For You…
Via Swans On Tea, I see that Comedy Central has put up the video of George Johnson’s appearance on the Colbert Report. Or, I should say, they claim to have put it up– their video player didn’t work worth a damn on my computer. I saw this on the day-late rerun, and it was hilarious.… Continue reading Here’s An Experiment For You…
Accelerate and Switch
There’s been a lot of talk about REM’s decision to finally sound like a rock band again for their new album, Accelerate. I rather like the first single, “Supernatural Superserious,” which sounds like the REM I remember, rather than some bloodless adult contemporary act. So I bought the album, and it’s been of shuffle play… Continue reading Accelerate and Switch
links for 2008-05-10
slacktivist: L.B.: Speakerphone “If you’re a book editor, you should own a copy of Left Behind to take along to your annual performance reviews. Just open to a random page, have your boss read it, and then remind them that this is why you’re worth every penny and then some.” (tags: books writing politics religion… Continue reading links for 2008-05-10
Interdisciplinarity
Timothy Burke has some interesting thoughts about the College of the Atlantic, which represents a real effort to build interdisciplinarity on an institutional level. “Interdisciplinary” is the buzzword of the moment in large swathes of academia, and the College of the Atlantic, which doesn’t have departments and works very hard to make connections between disciplines,… Continue reading Interdisciplinarity
What’s Wrong with “Atom Laser”
There’s a news piece in Physics World this week titled “Atom laser makes its first measurement” and you might think this would be right up my alley. Mostly, though, it serves to remind me that the term “atom laser” has always kind of pissed me off. This is somewhat ironic, as it’s a beautiful piece… Continue reading What’s Wrong with “Atom Laser”
Exhausted Dog Blogging
You have no idea how hard it is to be the Queen of Niskayuna. Between the talking about Relativity, and the people working on the house, and the nice weather, and the squirrels, and the cleaning service coming by, and the inferior dogs in the neighborhood, well, she’s just wiped out: She was too tired… Continue reading Exhausted Dog Blogging
links for 2008-05-09
Solar System Visualizer Look at those planets and moons go! (tags: astronomy planets science computing internet gadgets) Polar vortex replicated in a bucket – physicsworld.com “The centre of the vortex is usually circular, but occasionally it assumes a triangular or even a square shape. Now researchers in Canada claim to have replicated this behaviour for… Continue reading links for 2008-05-09
Digital Is Not Infallible
I’ve been grading lab reports in two different classes, and I’ve been struck once again by the way that students attach mystical properties to anything with a digital readout. The uncertainty used in calculations is invariably put down as half of whatever the least significant digit displayed was, even in cases where the readout visibly… Continue reading Digital Is Not Infallible
Non-Dorky Poll: Beer Pong
The video that accompanies this PopSci.com article is pretty impressive. A bunch of college kids show off their ability to hit trick shots with ping-pong balls, bouncing them off walls, doors, floors, moving skateboards, people, and items of furniture and into beer cups. As the PopSci piece notes, there’s a good deal of physics in… Continue reading Non-Dorky Poll: Beer Pong