I’ve had a chance now to read through the new papers mentioned in the Wolfgang Ketterle post last week, and there’s some interesting stuff there. The second item on the list from the AIP news article, “First observation of Mott insulator shells,” is particularly interesting, as I did some early work in that area when… Continue reading Fearful Symmetry
Polling for Dummies
Because I’m a Bad Person, I no longer remember who pointed me to Halfway There’s primer on polling, but it’s really an excellent of the effects of sample size, and why it’s legitimate to project results based on small numbers of interviews. Some important notes from the conclusion: Second, even a poll that is supposed… Continue reading Polling for Dummies
Toys of the Monster Dogs
In honor of Halloween tomorrow, a menacing picture of Emmy, Queen of Niskayuna: Caption: “Don’t even think about trying to take my Kong.”
Give the Fat Kid a Break
Gina Kolata in the New York Times today reports on new attempts to blame obesity for the problems of the world: Last week the list of ills attributable to obesity grew: fat people cause global warming. This latest contribution to the obesity debate comes in an article by Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of… Continue reading Give the Fat Kid a Break
You’ve Come a Long Way, Doctor
The Day the Earth Stood Still was on tv yesterday, and we watched most of it because it’s a classic, and because the alternative was bad college football. Kate had never seen it before, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t campy. There is, however, one scene that has become unintentionally hilarious over the… Continue reading You’ve Come a Long Way, Doctor
Foreign Publication
I got a comment to my recent “Classic Edition” post on peer review asking permission to translate the post into French, and put it on a French-language blog. Needless to say, I was kind of flattered that anybody would think it was worth that much work, so I agreed, and now it’s appeared. Cool stuff.… Continue reading Foreign Publication
Physical Education
Two nights before my college graduation, I was having a beer in one of the two bars in town, and one of the Deans was at the bar, holding forth. “Do you know,” he said to me and a couple of other students, “there are five people in your class who aren’t going to graduate… Continue reading Physical Education
Single-Sex Education
There’s been a lot of discussion of single-sex education in blogdom recently, in the wake of new rules allowing more single-sex schools. Matt Yglesias offers links, and Kevin Drum expresses concern: It turns out, though, that my real fear is just the opposite: what if we try it and Becks turns out to be right?… Continue reading Single-Sex Education
Thoughts on Survey Seminars
I’ve had a tab open for a while containing an Inside Higher Ed article on a new approach to introducing science at Emory University: David Lynn, who chairs the department of chemistry at Emory University, spoke about Emory’s seminar program for entering freshmen. All Emory freshmen must take a seminar the first semester and the… Continue reading Thoughts on Survey Seminars
Defying the Nobel Prize Jinx
I’m lecturing to our first-year seminar today about Bose-Einstein Condensation, using slides that haven’t been updated since 2002. Given the pace of research in the field, that’s a little crazy, so I spent a good while last night looking at pretty pictures on the Ketterle group web site, among others, so I can report on… Continue reading Defying the Nobel Prize Jinx