Since people have asked about the outcome of the Mike and Mike “Mount Sportsmore” thing that kicked off yesterday’s post about iconic scientists, I made it a point to catch their final list today: Muhammed Ali Babe Ruth Michael Jordan Wayne Gretzky They specifically put Jackie Robinson off in a special category of his own… Continue reading Mount Noun-More
Lecture Notes Dump
Another set of Quantum Optics notes, dealing with entanglement, superposition, EPR paradoxes, and quantum cryptography. A whole bunch of really weird stuff… Lecture 11: Superposition and entanglement. Lecture 12: EPR “paradox,” introduction to Local Hidden Variables. Lecture 13: Local Hidden Variable theories, Bell’s Theorem/ Bell’s Inequalities. Lecture 14: Bell’s Inequality experiments. Lecture 15: Cryptography, quantum… Continue reading Lecture Notes Dump
Einstein, Darwin, Newton, and…?
On the way in to work, I was listening to ESPN radio’s Mike & Mike show, and they were discussing “Mount Sportsmore,” that is, the Mount Rushmore of sports. They had two of the four spots filled with Babe Ruth and Muhammed Ali, and were debating baseball players for the other two (which is stupid–… Continue reading Einstein, Darwin, Newton, and…?
Science of the Times
A couple of good science stories in today’s New York Times: First, an article on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The current news hook, weirdly, appears to be a recent calculation of the expected magnitude of the signal resulting from the collision and merger of two black holes. Why this merits a long article,… Continue reading Science of the Times
Observations From a Weekend
I had a surreal moment in the airport on the way out Friday, when I got a call from a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and spent half an hour talking about particle physics and physics funding and whatnot in the gate area. The guy sitting next to me was reading a magazine about… Continue reading Observations From a Weekend
Statistical Physics Still Works
I’m back from the Vegas trip, lighter by about $100 at the tables (thanks entirely to a bad run Sunday morning at the tables, one of those games where you get dealt a 19 with the dealer showing a 4, and the dealer draws four cards to a 20…), and heavier by well, quite a… Continue reading Statistical Physics Still Works
Statistical Physics Research Trip
I’m going to Vegas, baby! A good friend from college is getting married this summer, and there’s a bachelor party for him this weekend at a casino in Las Vegas. It looks to be quite the affair, with thirty-odd guys, and reservations at a bunch of cool spots, because they’re high-rolling financiers. This is going… Continue reading Statistical Physics Research Trip
Uncertain Pop Quiz Results
We had 45 responses to yesterday’s poll/quiz question— thank you to all who participated. The breakdown of answers was, by a quick count: How do you report your answer in a lab report? 0 votes A) 4.371928645 +/- 0.0316479825 m/s 3 votes B) 4.372 +/- 0.03165 m/s 18 votes C) 4.372 +/- 0.032 m/s 21… Continue reading Uncertain Pop Quiz Results
Physics Funding Fundamentalism
The big physics story of the day is bound to be this new report on American particle physics: The United States should be prepared to spend up to half a billion dollars in the next five years to ensure that a giant particle accelerator now being designed by a worldwide consortium of scientists can be… Continue reading Physics Funding Fundamentalism
Critical Chemical Information
Have you ever wondered about the accuracy of the descriptions in chemical manuals of what different compounds smell like? “Sure,” you say, “the book says that this smells like cheese, but does that really help me in my daily life?” Well, worry no more. Dylan Stiles does the experiment so you don’t have to. (If… Continue reading Critical Chemical Information