“Slow light” is in the news again. The popular descriptions of the process usually leave a lot to be desired, so let’s see if we can’t do a slightly better job of explaining what’s going on. The key idea is using one light beam to control the transmission of another. Let’s say you have a… Continue reading Controlling Light With Light
Category: In the News
Still in the Dark
As a physicist with a blog, I am contractually obligated to do a post on the CDMS almost-a-result. This is that post. The short version: they expected at most 0.8 events (that’s total events, not events per day, or anything– this is a whole community built on detecting nothing at all), and got 2, with… Continue reading Still in the Dark
Hail to the Geek
Via Chris Mooney, a Seth Borenstein article about Obama’s love for science: Out in public, Obama turns the Bunsen burner up a notch, playing a combination of high school science teacher and math team cheerleader. Last week, for example, the president announced that the White House would hold an annual science fair as part of… Continue reading Hail to the Geek
Beyond Rocket Science
It’s not getting as much press as the “X Prize” for private rocket launches, but NASA has quietly been running a contest for work toward a “space elevator,” offering up to $2 million for a scheme to transmit power to a small robot climbing a 1km cable. Yesterday, the team from LaserMotive, including certified rocket… Continue reading Beyond Rocket Science
My Doomsday Weapon
In the time that I’ve been at Union, I have suffered a number of lab disasters. I’ve had lasers killed in freak power outages. I’ve had lasers die because of odd electrical issues. My lab has flooded not once, not twice, but three different times. I’ve had equipment damaged by idiot contractors, and I’ve had… Continue reading My Doomsday Weapon
Congratulations to Ramakrishnan, Steitz, Yonath, and Curious Wavefunction
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.” I know just about enough to recognize this as something biochemical, but I’m sure there will be plenty of commentary about this around science blogdom. “Curious… Continue reading Congratulations to Ramakrishnan, Steitz, Yonath, and Curious Wavefunction
Nobel for High-Speed Internet and Digital Cameras
The sneaky folks at the Nobel Foundation have thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to the Physics prize. All the speculation has surrounded exotic quantum effects and theoretical esoterica, and they turn around and give it to something –gasp– practical… The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics is split three ways: half to… Continue reading Nobel for High-Speed Internet and Digital Cameras
The Great Bloggingheads Mess
I sort of feel like I ought to have something to say about the recent controversy over creationists on bloggingheads.tv, which has caused Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer to renounce the whole site. If you’re too lazy to click through those links, the basic problem is that bloggingheads has twice invited creationists– sorry, cdesign proponentists–… Continue reading The Great Bloggingheads Mess
Changing Standards of Mass
NPR last week had a story about the changing kilogram: More than a century ago, a small metal cylinder was forged in London and sent to a leafy suburb of Paris. The cylinder was about the size of a salt shaker and made of an alloy of platinum and iridium, an advanced material at the… Continue reading Changing Standards of Mass
CSI: Ambiguous Sentences
The New York Times yesterday had a story with the dramatic headline DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show, explaining that, well, there are nefarious tricks you can pull to falsify DNA evidence, provided you have access to a high-quality biochemical laboratory. The story is a great boon to conspiracy theorists everywhere, especially with this… Continue reading CSI: Ambiguous Sentences