I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen bloggers commenting on Tom Hanks’s appearance on The Daily Show, in which he talks about CERN: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c Tom Hanks thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor Everything he says is pretty much true, but… Continue reading We Just Turned the Machine Off, and the Antimatter Went Away
Month: May 2009
links for 2009-05-14
Angels & Demons – The science behind the story CERN explains what antimatter is really about. (tags: science physics education movies particles) Figgleton v. Ditchens « Easily Distracted "As with many similarly well-worn discussions, Iâd just as soon review the available lines of argument about why secular or atheistic thinkers perhaps should have an interest… Continue reading links for 2009-05-14
A Ticklish Situation
It has come to my attention that unspecified people are having a bad couple of days for unspecified reasons and could use a pick-me-up. Thus, I give you the cutest laughing baby in the universe. Hope this helps. Have a nice day.
Making Physics Relevant
An example problem from today’s lecture: A sleep-deprived parent is warming a bottle for a midnight feeding. He places a bottle containing 250 ml of infant formula at 275K into 300 ml of water at 320 K. When the two liquids reach equilibrium, what is the temperature of the formula?
Banking in the Future
I’m currently the president of the local chapter of Sigma Xi (an honor society, not a fraternity, thankyouverymuch), and as such have been collecting RSVP’s and dues for this year’s new inductees. As part of this process, I’ve been struck by how many students don’t have checks– I’ve had a couple of students give me… Continue reading Banking in the Future
links for 2009-05-13
Spirit Stuck – The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society "The Spirit rover on Mars is currently stuck in a patch of loose material. After a few attempts to get free, the team has wisely decided to do further experiments on Earth instead of on Mars. They will now recreate the conditions in our… Continue reading links for 2009-05-13
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #3
As you can guess from the title, I’ve done this twice before when I had stuff to do that precluded quality blogging. Kate’s in Rochester for a court appearance, leaving me home with SteelyKid, so this seems like a perfect occasion for a third go-round. The pairs of words in the following list are consecutive… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #3
links for 2009-05-12
18 and Under – The Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse? – NYTimes.com "This year, the study of child abuse is coming of age as a medical specialty. In November, the first medical board exam will be offered in a new official specialty, child abuse pediatrics. Knowledge and research that have accumulated over… Continue reading links for 2009-05-12
Uranium in Drinking Water?
A former student asks about water contamination: My mother went and had our water tested and discovered that we have high uranium and radon levels. Radon is not a big deal, its a gas, and as I have read you would need to take a shower for somewhere around 4 hours to suffer damage from… Continue reading Uranium in Drinking Water?
Twitter and Time Scale Management
Over at the Inverse Square blog, Tom Levenson announces that he’s started Twittering in a post that contains, via Carl Zimmer, the best argument for why Twitter matters: Carl laughs me out of my seat. He points out that he tweeted his visit to my class, and received in return a couple of requests to… Continue reading Twitter and Time Scale Management