Month: May 2010

Links for 2010-05-14

Blue laser awesomeness : Dot Physics “Yes, green laser pointers are cool. Especially when you use them to make stuff fluoresce. Ok, what about a blue laser pointer? They are getting surprisingly cheap (Amazon has a 10 mW for pretty cheap). Still not cheap enough for me. But, you know what? Some of the physics… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-14

Quick Impressions of Bohmian Mechanics

I get asked my opinion of Bohmian mechanics a fair bit, despite the fact that I know very little about it. This came up again recently, so I got some suggested reading from Matt Leifer, on the grounds that I ought to learn something about it if I’m going to keep being asked about it.… Continue reading Quick Impressions of Bohmian Mechanics

Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential

Spinning off a blog at Inside Higher Ed, the Dean Dad has a post on deciding what classes are essential: My personal sense of it is that the distinction between core and periphery is largely a function of purpose. If your goal in life is to be an exhibited artist, then you might well decide… Continue reading Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential

Links for 2010-05-13

Cocktail Party Physics: oily hair is not a problem – its a solution for the gulf coast “One of the more interesting solutions proposed (aside from dropping trash in the pipe to block the oil) also involves using fibers; however, the fibers in question are human hair. Chicken feathers, straw, and wool have all been… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-13

Inconstant Constants: “Probing fundamental constant evolution with redshifted conjugate-satellite OH lines”

Via Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter, I ran across a Discovery News story touting a recent arxiv preprint claiming to see variation in the fine-structure constant. It’s a basically OK story, but garbles a few details, so I thought it would be worth giving it the ResearchBlogging treatment, in the now-traditional Q&A format. What did they… Continue reading Inconstant Constants: “Probing fundamental constant evolution with redshifted conjugate-satellite OH lines”

The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck by Marcus Chown

I should note up front that I’m kind of jealous of Marcus Chown regarding this book. Subtitled “What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe,” The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck is a book that uses trivial everyday observations– the fact that you don’t fall through the floor, the fact that the sky is… Continue reading The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck by Marcus Chown

Links for 2010-05-11

The Science and Entertainment Exchange: The X-Change Files: Tony Stark’s Science “While the film naturally took some liberties with the details — sci-fi has the luxury of not having to pass peer review — Marvel Studios nonetheless cared enough about plausibility to ask the Science & Entertainment Exchange for a suitable scientist with whom they… Continue reading Links for 2010-05-11

The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds

I’ve written before about the problem of having in-between views on controversial subjects in blogdom. This is something that also comes up in Jessica’s excellent entry on online culture, and has been scientifically demonstrated in political contexts. I’m somewhat bemused, then, to see the same thing happen in a physics context. A while back, I… Continue reading The Problem of (Quantum) Moderation: On Many Worlds