The latest in a long series of articles making me glad I don’t work in psychology was this piece about replication in the Guardian. This spins off some harsh criticism of replication studies and a call for an official policy requiring consultation with the original authors of a study that you’re attempting to replicate. The… Continue reading On Black Magic in Physics
Author: Chad Orzel
Father’s Day 2014
Today is Father’s Day in the US, so I got a bunch of little gifts from the kids. The Pip’s was just a construction-paper card mostly made by his teachers, with a bit of scribble on it. SteelyKid’s, though, included a fill-in-the-blank booklet that she wrote on and drew pictures to go with. Some of… Continue reading Father’s Day 2014
The Problems of the GRE
A bunch of people were talking about this Nature Jobs article on the GRE this morning while I was proctoring the final for my intro E&M class, which provided a nice distraction. I posted a bunch of comments about it to Twitter, but as that’s awfully ephemeral, I figured I might as well collect them… Continue reading The Problems of the GRE
Pre-Tenure and Post-Hoc
I had a couple of conversations at DAMOP last week about career issues, and I just want to note that I will never get used to the idea that I’m a respected elder anything, whose advice would be valued. I basically feel like I lucked into my whole career, so I hesitate to advise others… Continue reading Pre-Tenure and Post-Hoc
Cosmos Reboot Wrap-Up
The Cosmos reboot season finale (or possibly series finale; not sure if they’re trying for a second set of episodes) was last night, but I wasn’t able to take part in the live-tweeting of it thanks to a super-restless Pip who didn’t drop off until 9:30 EDT. I suppose I could’ve waited to start the… Continue reading Cosmos Reboot Wrap-Up
Kickin’ Back
Made it home Friday evening after another bout of airline nonsense– they had replaced the plane for my flight into Albany with a smaller aircraft, so my email boarding pass assigned me to a nonexistent seat. Which had been corrected in their computer, but was never communicated to me, or to several other passengers who… Continue reading Kickin’ Back
The Internet Exists Because of (Schrödinger’s) Cats
I’m working on some short pop-quantum explainers for reasons that I’ll be a little cagey about. In casting around for a novel way to introduce Schrödinger’s cat states, I hit on something that probably works, but illustrates the problems inherent in being both a professional physicist and a pop-science writer. The hook, as I mentioned… Continue reading The Internet Exists Because of (Schrödinger’s) Cats
Clocks, Microwaves, and the Limits of Fermi Problems
I don’t have anything all that new to say about last night’s Cosmos reboot, and I’m leaving for scenic Madison, WI today to attend DAMOP, so I don’t have a great deal of time. Kate did mention something over dinner last night, though, that’s a good topic for a quick blog post. Kate’s a big… Continue reading Clocks, Microwaves, and the Limits of Fermi Problems
Uncertain Dots 16
For the sixteenth episode of Uncertain Dots, we decided to bring in some guests, Andy Rundquist and Kelly O’Shea for a conversation about standards-based grading. This came up because I’m playing around with this using the same tiered scheme I talked about back in January. This was a fun conversation, and some interesting ideas came… Continue reading Uncertain Dots 16
“Earthing” Is a Bunch of Crap
A little while back, I was put in touch with a Wall Street Journal writer who was looking into a new-ish health fad called “earthing,” which involves people sleeping on special grounded mats and that sort of thing. The basis of this particular bit of quackery is the notion that spending time indoors, out of… Continue reading “Earthing” Is a Bunch of Crap