The New York Times Magazine this week has a troubling story of scientific misconduct, involving the fraudulent research of Eric Poehlman: Before his fall from grace, Poehlman oversaw a lab where nearly a dozen students and postdoctoral researchers carried out his projects. His research earned him recognition among his peers and invitations to speak at… Continue reading Falsify Data, Go to Jail
Category: Science
Classic Edition: Hey, Ref!
Having made reference to the referee system in my post about a paper being accepted, this seems like a good point to dust off an old post about the peer review system in physics. Like many of the other Classic Edition posts I’ve put up here, this one dates from July of 2002. Apparently, I… Continue reading Classic Edition: Hey, Ref!
Virtual Labs
The New York Times today has a story about Web-based classes offering virtual labs, and whether they should count for AP credit: As part of a broader audit of the thousands of high school courses that display its Advanced Placement trademark, the [College Board] has recruited panels of university professors and experts in Internet-based learning… Continue reading Virtual Labs
Physics of Basketball
Well, at least, the physics of the new NBA basketball, at any rate… For those who haven’t heard the story already, the NBA is changing the style of the basketballs used in its games this season. They’re moving away from the traditional leather basketballs to a new synthetic material, which is supposed to hold up… Continue reading Physics of Basketball
Leaf Peeping
It’s fall, which means lots of good things: football on tv, college basketball just around the corner, apple cider donuts (mmm…. donuts…), and the leaves turning colors. One of the real highlights of living in New England is the spectacular foliage. Sadly, it tends to bring out the leaf-peepers, people from down toward New York… Continue reading Leaf Peeping
College Choice
Sean Carroll is offering more unsolicted advice (though it is in response to a comment, which makes it borderline solicited…), this time about choosing an undergraduate school. He breaks the options down into four categories, with two small errors that I’ll correct in copying the list over here: Liberal-Arts College (LAC), such as Williams or… Continue reading College Choice
Bad Graphs
The silliest graph I’ve ever seen presented in public looked something like this: It was an after-dinner talk at a DAMOP meeting a few years back, and the speaker was somebody associated with the Hubble Space Telescope. I don’t recall what was being plotted, but he talked for a while about ho proud they were… Continue reading Bad Graphs
Thoughts on the LHC and ILC
Back in late July, I got email from a writer for Physics World magazine (which is sort of the UK equivalent of Physics Today), asking my opinion on a few questions relating to particle physics funding. The basis for asking me (as opposed to, you know, a particle physicist) was presumably a post from April… Continue reading Thoughts on the LHC and ILC
The Hard Life of Science Journalists
In a weird example of synchronicity, Dr. Free-Ride posted about science journalism yesterday, and Inside Higher Ed offers a viewpoint piece by Michael Bugeja on the same topic this morning. You might almost think it was one of those “meme” things. They both agree that there’s a problem with science reporting, but come at the… Continue reading The Hard Life of Science Journalists
How to Lie With Test Scores
Sean Carroll comments on an item in the Atlantic Monthly on test scores compared across nations. There are two things that really bug me about this item, the most important of which is the deeply dishonest graphic the Atlantic did to illustrate the item. Here’s the honest version of the graph, redone using data from… Continue reading How to Lie With Test Scores