Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne is annoyed at Nature‘s embargo policy. It seems that somebody or another posted a paper to the arxiv while submitting it to Nature, and included a note on the arxiv submission asking people to abide by Nature‘s embargo. So, instead of blogging about the Incredibly Exciting Discovery (which I’d loooove… Continue reading Unhealthy Obsessions of Academia
Category: In the News
Preventative Bacon
I’m waiting for the toaster when the dog trots into the kitchen. “You should give me some bacon!” she says. “Why is that?” I ask. “To prevent swine flu!” “Look, there’s no chance that I’m going to get swine flu from eating pork products. I know you saw some people on the Internet saying that… Continue reading Preventative Bacon
Email from Andrei Derevianko
I got email this afternoon from Andrei Derevianko, the leader of the research project badly described by the press release mentioned in the previous post. He sounds a little surprised by the whole thing (though not much more surprised than I am that my griping on the Internet got brought to anybody’s attention), and explains… Continue reading Email from Andrei Derevianko
Dead Dinosaurs and Denialism
Yesterday, EurekAlert served up a press release titled New blow for dinosaur-killing asteroid theory, reporting on Gerta Keller of Princeton, who says that the Chicxulub crater isn’t really from the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. Keller thinks the crater had nothing to do with the extinction event, and claims to have found evidence that… Continue reading Dead Dinosaurs and Denialism
Transporting Ions Through an X-Junction: Quantum Computing Inches Closer
Physics World has a nice news article about a new experimental development in quantum computing, based on a forthcoming paper from the Wineland group at NIST in Boulder. I’d write this up for ResearchBlogging, but it’s still just on the arxiv, and I don’t think they’ve started accepting arxiv papers yet. The Physics World piece… Continue reading Transporting Ions Through an X-Junction: Quantum Computing Inches Closer
Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place
Over at his new digs, Chris Mooney talks about efforts to re-launch the OTA: I’m starting to detect some buzz on this very important front, which I wrote about in detail in 2005’s The Republican War on Science and elsewhere. Basically, the story is this: In 1995 the Gingrich Republicans, looking to slash budgets–and looking… Continue reading Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place
Cold Fusion Still Generating Heat
Steve calls me out for not commenting on new stories about “cold fusion”: Becky and I have been having much more regular access to the internet since the power was fixed. We check e-mail just about everyday and can even skim yahoo news. Or Professor Orzel’s blog. I heard on BBC radio yesterday that there… Continue reading Cold Fusion Still Generating Heat
March (Meeting) Madness
I’m giving an exam this morning, then taking the afternoon off for my annual hoops overdose, so there won’t be much physics commentary here for the next few days. If you want hot physics news, though, there are a bunch of bloggers at the March Meeting, providing summaries on the Internet: Doug Natelson has two… Continue reading March (Meeting) Madness
Overbye on Kepler
Having complained about the lack of recognition for good physical science writing recently, it would be bad form for me not to note Dennis Overbye’s story about the Kepler spacecraft in today’s New York Times: Presently perched on a Delta 2 rocket at Cape Canaveral is a one-ton spacecraft called Kepler. If all goes well,… Continue reading Overbye on Kepler
Gravity Probe B Is in the Air
I no longer remember the context, but the Gravity Probe B experiment came up in discussion around the department last week, and nobody could really remember what the status of it was. It came up again during the “Physics: What We Don’t Understand” panel Saturday morning, where Geoff Landis was able to supply a few… Continue reading Gravity Probe B Is in the Air