Inside Higher Ed takes a look today at a new survey about how students choose colleges. They make an effort to make the results sound surprising, but it’s really about what I’d expect: A survey of 600 students who scored over 1100 on the SAT, half of whom scored at least 1300, found that campus… Continue reading What Students Want
It’s a Mystery
“Mint Flavorings” is quite prominent on the list (provided by my gastroenterologist) of foods that heartburn sufferers should avoid (along with pretty much anything else you might want to eat…). If you go to the store to buy some over-the-counter heartburn remedy– Maalox, Mylanta, whatever– what’s the one flavor that’s most common? Mint. Somebody explain… Continue reading It’s a Mystery
I Do Not Think That Means What You Think It Means
Over at Bookslut, the Specfic Floozy takes another look at the subgenre (or possibly sub-subgenre) of “steampunk,” which she defines thusly: For the uninitiated, steampunk, a term that is prominently tossed around in the late ’80s. is one of the many subgenres of cyberpunk (others — some more tongue in cheek than others — are… Continue reading I Do Not Think That Means What You Think It Means
Spinal Tap Fortells the Future
The New York Times Book Review section this week features a big two-page ad for the Penguin Classics/ NBA cross-promotion. This involves a handful (well, four– a shop-teacher handful) of NBA/ WNBA stars promoting books in the Penguin line, the best of the lot being Dwyane Wade talking about Pride and Prejudice. You can get… Continue reading Spinal Tap Fortells the Future
Lecture Notes Dump
Since the previous batch of lecture notes were surprisingly popular, here’s the next couple of classes worth: Lecture 5: Stellar Interferometry, coherence, intensity correlation functions, Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment. Lecture 6: Non-classical light, photon anti-bunching, single-photon interference. Sadly, this exhausts the notes I had written in advance (what with one thing and another, I… Continue reading Lecture Notes Dump
Ah, the Glamour of Academia…
It’s kind of a dismal grey day today, so I find myself planning to spend a good chunk of the day working in the lab (which I haven’t been able to do during the week, because of my teaching responsibilities). I have a student who’s going to present a poster at DAMOP this year, and… Continue reading Ah, the Glamour of Academia…
Hoops Hypothesis
Hypothesis: The outcome of any pick-up basketball game depends more strongly on the match-up between the two worst players on each team than the match-up between the two best players on each team. Argument: If the talent differential between the worst players is sufficiently large, then on defense, the better of the two is essentially… Continue reading Hoops Hypothesis
Origin Story
Katherine Sharpe asked about the best science books ever, as a proxy for “what got you into science?” I wasn’t able to give a really good answer to that question, but I will share a science-related anecdote from when I was a kid. There’s a good chance that this will come off as either painfully… Continue reading Origin Story
Greatest Science Book?
Over at the new Seed blog, here on ScienceBlogs, Katherine Sharpe asks about the best science books ever (a topic that was also discussed at Cosmic Variance some time back. I’ve been sort of swamped this week, but that’s only part of the reason why I haven’t responded. The main reason is a shameful secret:… Continue reading Greatest Science Book?
Visualize It In N Dimensions, And Let N Go to Four
Mark Chu-Carroll has a very nice discussion of what “extra dimensions” actually mean in theories like string theory. It’s not the same thing that hack SF authors mean when they talk about “dimensions” in which the Nazis won WWII (that’s “multiverse theory” or possibly “landscapeology” or possibly “late-night stoner bullshit”): A better way to explain,… Continue reading Visualize It In N Dimensions, And Let N Go to Four