Closely related to the idea of order-of-magnitude estimates is the idea of Fermi Questions, a type of problem that demonstrates the power of estimation techniques. The idea is that you can come up with a reasonable guess at an answer for a difficult question by using some really basic reasoning, and a few facts here… Continue reading Basic Concepts: Fermi Questions
Month: May 2007
Mugged!
Dave at the World’s Fair is asking ScienceBloggers to show off their coffee mugs. I don’t usually have a camera at work, but my signature mug was bought via the Internet, so I snagged the image from the CafePress Store. It’s a “Still Not King” mug, a reference to the famous Very Secret Diary of… Continue reading Mugged!
Yeah, but What’s the Impact Factor?
Via Steinn, the Smithsonian’s Astronomy Abstract Service has an index entry for some book called De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by some Polish guy. They’ve got a scanned electronic version available for free, but the stupid thing is in Latin, and who speaks that these days? Also, it’s only got two citations, and both of those… Continue reading Yeah, but What’s the Impact Factor?
Basic Concepts: Estimation and Dimensions
Ages and ages ago, Jennifer Ouellette commented on the start of the Basic Concepts series with a list of topics she’d like to see done. One of these was “Size and Scaling:” First, let’s tackle the jargon problem: Just what the heck is an order of magnitude? I use the phrase all the time now,… Continue reading Basic Concepts: Estimation and Dimensions
Baghdad Update:A Light Crack
As regular readers know, my friend Paul is a journalist based in the Middle East, and spent a year working as a reporter in Baghdad. He finished that a little while ago, but he’s back, and has sent another of his intermittent dispatches. I’ve been posting these to the blog when I get them. This… Continue reading Baghdad Update:A Light Crack
Dorky Poll: Craziest Nobel Laureate
I have a big stack of exams and lab reports to grade, so I need to go off someplace where I don’t have Internet access and do that. In my absence, here’s a Dorky Poll question inspired by recent news: Which Nobel laureate (in any field) is the craziest? There’s no real shortage of scientists… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Craziest Nobel Laureate
Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Miriam Burstein points out the historical antecedents of the “Atheist Two-Step” discussed by Adam Kotsko and Brandon at Siris. This also ties in nicely with Fred Clark on sectarian atheists, as previously mentioned. Also, speaking of historical screeds by Protestant preachers, Jerry Fallwell is dead. I really don’t have anything to say about that, other… Continue reading Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Life Cycle of Science PR
One of the fun things about EurekAlert is that it allows you to trace the full life cycle of the publicization of science in a way that used to be impossible for a regular person. For example, take the recent “Ring of Dark Matter” story. First, there’s a rumor of a result. This first stage… Continue reading Life Cycle of Science PR
A Billion Tons of Nickel
Via Toby, a detailed proposal for floating colonies on Venus. I heard Geoff Landis talk about this at Boskone a while back– the basic idea is that the Venusian atmosphere is so dense that you could easily build structures that would float high enough up in the atmosphere to be above the hellish temperatures. You… Continue reading A Billion Tons of Nickel
The Internet Is a Very Strange Place
As you may or may not have noticed, last week’s silly dog post got picked up by, well, just about everyone. I think it probably started with a sidelight link at Making Light, then it showed up on Boing Boing, and Digg, and MetaFilter, and something like half the LiveJournals in the world, it seems.… Continue reading The Internet Is a Very Strange Place