The Schrödinger Sessions: Now Accepting Applications

I’ve updated the detailed blog post describing our summer workshop introducing writers to quantum physics to include a link to the application form. For the benefit of those who read via RSS, though, and don’t follow me on Twitter: the application form is now live, and will be for the next few weeks. We expect… Continue reading The Schrödinger Sessions: Now Accepting Applications

Announcing the Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction

A few years back, I became aware of Mike Brotherton’s Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop, and said “somebody should do this for quantum physics.” At the time, I wasn’t in a position to do that, but in the interim, the APS Outreach program launched the Public Outreach and Informing the Public Grant program, providing smallish grants… Continue reading Announcing the Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction

The Sound of Simulated Bombs

Diagram of a falling bomb, showing the components of velocity.

So, last week I idly wondered about the canonical falling-bomb whistle. The was originally intended to be a very short post just asking the question, but I got caught up in thinking about it, and it ended up being more substantial. And leaving room for further investigation in the form of, you guessed it, VPython… Continue reading The Sound of Simulated Bombs

The Social Construction of Gravity

Frank Noschese's demo showing that Flappy Bird's title pixel-blob falls at the same rate as real objects.

One of the more annoying points of contention back in the days of the Sokal hoax and the “Science Wars” was an argument over social construction. This is, loosely speaking, the idea that our understanding of the world is not strictly rational and objective, but is heavily influenced by interactions with other people, and the… Continue reading The Social Construction of Gravity

260 Million Scientists a Month

Angry Birds screenshot from Rhett Allain's analysis of the yellow bird. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/physics-of-the-yellow-angry-bird/

The day I bought my iPad, as I was taking it out of the box, SteelyKid (then 3) came bopping into my office, spotted it, and declared “I want to play Angry Birds!” It’s a remarkable demonstration of the genius of their product: not only have they created a game that a three-year-old can play,… Continue reading 260 Million Scientists a Month

Angry Birds, Furious Forces! by Rhett Allain

Book Cover, from Rhett Allain's Facebook page.

Rhett at Dot Physics departed ScienceBlogs before NAtional Geographic fully took over, but still managed to connect with their book division for a physics text. This is part of a series they’re doing tied in with the folks from Rovio, makers of the world’s most popular smart-phone time-waster, and, as the title suggests, it uses… Continue reading Angry Birds, Furious Forces! by Rhett Allain

Zitterbewegung!

One of the few sad things about the recent American domination of physics (says the American physicist) is that new physical phenomena are now mostly given boring, prosaic American English names. Don’t get me wrong, I like being able to pronounce and interpret new phenomena, but when the pre-WWII era of European dominance faded away,… Continue reading Zitterbewegung!