Over at Science and Reason, Charles Daney has launched a new blog carnival, focussing on physical science and technology issues. I rarely remember to participate in these things– the deadlines just go whooshing by, like deadlines do– but the general concept is pretty popular, and we need more physical science blogging on the Interweb. There… Continue reading Philosophia Naturalis
Category: Science
Those Crazy Chemists
Dylan Stiles is blogging from the American Chemical Society meeting, as only he can. He’s got three daily summary posts up (one, two, three), with more presumably on the way for however long the meeting lasts. Personally, I can’t make heads or tails of the scientific content, so I can’t tell you whether any of… Continue reading Those Crazy Chemists
Too Many Science Books?
One of the perks of this corporate blogging gig is that it’s put me on the radar of book publishers, who have started sending me free stuff. We like free stuff, here at Chateau Steelypips, and we like books, so that’s a Good Thing. It’s becoming almost too much of a Good Thing, though– In… Continue reading Too Many Science Books?
Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes
This is nearly a month old, now, because I keep saying “Oh, Idon’t have time to do this justice– I’ll write about it tomorrow.” I really need to stop doing that. Anyway, Physics News Update has a story about a scheme to measure gravity using Bloch oscillations, based on a paper in Physical Review Letters.… Continue reading Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes
Science-y Links Dump
Clearing some more posts out of Bloglines, to mark the start of the new term. My first lecture is today, and as a bonus, there’s a film crew coming to my class… First, there’s a very nice essay at Fighting for Science on the Equivalence Principle. Via See You at Enceladus. Next up, Biocurious offers… Continue reading Science-y Links Dump
Mars and Venus in Grad School
It appears to be a good week for non-controversial posting, so while I’m making enemies, I might as well go all out… The recent call for book ideas from the Feminist Press has sparked an interesting discussion at Cocktail Party Physics, but I want to highlight one comment in particular: There is a lot more… Continue reading Mars and Venus in Grad School
Justifying Science Enrollments in One Sentence
I’ve talked before about the tension between the desire to encourage students to major in physics and the tight job market in academia. Every time I talk about ways to draw more students into physics, it seems that somebody pops up to call me irresponsible for trying to lure them into a dead-end career track,… Continue reading Justifying Science Enrollments in One Sentence
Science for Girls
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in the science blogosphere about the low numbers of women in science, and I’ve contributed my share of comments. On the theory that you shouldn’t curse the darkness when you could be fumbling for a book of matches, I’ll pass along this call for proposals from the Feminist Press:… Continue reading Science for Girls
Death and Body Mass Index
In the comments to the recent post on BMI, commenter Colst pointed to another study of mortality and BMI that found significantly higher risks for overweight people. Today, I see that Kevin Beck at Dr. Bushwell’s Chimpanzee refuge has a post describing what I think is the same study, with the title Risk of death… Continue reading Death and Body Mass Index
Taxonomy of Researchers
Via Arcane Gazebo (who adds a category), an entertainingly snarky taxonomy of lab scientists: Weird and Whacky Consider the “mad scientist” of popular fiction, someone so obsessed with their subject that they forget to dress and show up to the lab in their pyjamas. Without wishing to indulge in stereotypes there are scientists who are… Continue reading Taxonomy of Researchers