Paul Ginsparg, the founder of the arxiv preprint server for physics, has a very nice article at Physics World reminiscing about the rise of the Internet, particularly in physics. This also serves as a nice counterpoint to his talk at the Science21 conference (video, microblogging), which included a wealth of fascinating information about the current… Continue reading What’s the Matter With Biologists?
Month: October 2008
Physics Nobel to Particle Theory
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics has been announced. Half will go to Yoichiro Nambu “for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics,” with the other half split between Makoto Kobayahi and Toshihide Maskawa, “for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at… Continue reading Physics Nobel to Particle Theory
links for 2008-10-07
Interview with Chad Orzel It’s me, doing a blog interview on how I got into science, how I got into blogging, and the future of science outreach. (tags: science blogs physics academia) xkcd – A Webcomic – Depth Negative powers of ten, xkcd style. (tags: science comics xkcd) Seeing race and seeming racist? Whites go… Continue reading links for 2008-10-07
Obama Disappoints Me
I got email this morning from the Obama campaign, bearing news that will no doubt have the more rabidly partisan Democrats of blogdom dancing with glee: The Obama campaign as prepared a video about the Keating Five scandal (Wikipedia link, not the campaign video), and John McCain’s role in it. The video will be released… Continue reading Obama Disappoints Me
The Empress Is Not Pleased
The Empress of Eastern New York is dissatisfied: Why? Because at this point, my DonorsChoose Challenge entry has only raised $475 from 7 donors. A bunch of theorists are cleaning our clocks. This makes SteelyKid grumpy. And we don’t want a grumpy baby. To put things into perspective, this blog gets about 2,000 hits per… Continue reading The Empress Is Not Pleased
Job Search Criteria: Fit Matters
Over at Terra Sigillata, Abel has a post on the limiting of job searches that is an excellent example of the problems with the academic mind-set: The short summary: postdocs and other academic job candidates are disqualifying themselves from even applying for certain positions because: 1. they don’t feel they meet the job description in… Continue reading Job Search Criteria: Fit Matters
Medicine Nobel for TLA’s
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was split three ways, with half going to Harald zur Hausen for the discovery that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer. The other half is split between Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for the discovery of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, and won’t this make the denialists’… Continue reading Medicine Nobel for TLA’s
links for 2008-10-06
The politics of girliness – Ultrabrown "Last night, Palin winked at the camera, scrunched up her nose and added a smiley timbre before thrusting any rhetorical daggers. In these moments she resembled an anime character. Kawaii ne!" (tags: US politics stupid gender society blogs) slacktivist: Connections "[W]hen I say that these baseless and illegitimate attacks… Continue reading links for 2008-10-06
All the Giants-Seahawks Commentary You Need
Steelykid says “Touchdown!” (as does her shirt): And then goes to sleep.
Everything and More by David Foster Wallace
The best way– really, the only way– to sum up David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More: A Brief History of ∞ is by quoting a bit from it. This comes from the middle part of the book, after a discussion of Fourier series, in one of the “If You’re Interested” digressions from the main discussion:… Continue reading Everything and More by David Foster Wallace