August 18, 2008
As part of the library cull that accompanied moving our books to make room for SteelyKid, Kate and I are giving away some of our duplicate/ unlikely-to-be-read books. On Saturday, whatever is left will be donated to our local library book sale, but if you'd like to spare us the work of carting all…
August 18, 2008
Via Alex, WNYC's Radiolab podcast features a wonderful commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008, making the case for the importance of telling stories about science to the general public.
This fits in wonderfully with what I said last week about science popularization.…
August 18, 2008
A while back, after handing in my manuscript and before SteelyKid, I asked readers to suggest blog topics. I got to a few of them already, but there's one more that I've been meaning to comment on, from tcmJOE:
I'm a physics undergrad about to begin my final year, and while I'm still thinking of…
August 17, 2008
I am generally not hugely enthusiastic about the Olympics, and I really wasn't following the run-up to the Beijing games this year. The games turn out to be great mindless distraction while SteelyKid is between feedings, though, so I've ended up seeing a fair amount of them. I know you're dying to…
August 17, 2008
OK, I know, I said I was going to stop posting SteelyKid pictures every day, but, ummmm.... She made me do it! She's an evil genius, I tell you!
Can't you just hear her saying "Eeeeexcellent..... Everything is unfolding according to my plan for household domination..."?
Stewie Griffin, watch your…
August 16, 2008
nanoscale views: Cryptophysicists
"I think that we need to coin an official term, "cryptophysicist", to describe people who do physics research outside the mainstream." Hey to "Uncle Al."
(tags: science physics stupid blogs)
Built on Facts : Temperature of a Microwave
What is the temperature…
August 15, 2008
Five Secrets to Publishing Success :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
Not so much for the scientists, but a good look at the process for the humanities.
(tags: publishing journals humanities social-science academia)
If One Professor Gropes, Does Everyone…
August 15, 2008
I've seen this a bunch of places, but the most recent was Skwid's LiveJournal: below the fold is a big long list of foods (exotic and otherwise), with ones I've eaten marked in bold face. The standard instructions call for striking out anything you won't even consider eating, but I can imagine…
August 15, 2008
We live in a difficult era for satire. It's not that there's a shortage of targets deserving a humorous skewering, but the obvious candidates are so quick to dive headlong into self-parody, as with this recent gem from the anti-sex movement:
It's been linked in all sorts of places, but I think…
August 15, 2008
I did a bit of running around yesterday, including one stop to drop off a rather large check to secure a day care spot for SteelyKid starting in January (Kate's taking a bunch of time off, obviously, and I was able to arrange my teaching schedule so I have no classes in the fall term, so I can…
August 14, 2008
Green-Clad Olympic Archer Steals Gold Medals From Rich, Gives Them To Poor | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"Since entering China last month by using a forged Sherwood Forest passport under the name Robert Huntingdon, the archer has appeared at more than 70 medal ceremonies, escaping…
August 14, 2008
As much as I complain about the relatively low status of science and science writing, it could be worse. As Kevin Drum reminds us, media treatment of economic issues is even more toxic:
Question for the folks who populate our newsrooms: Why is it that a 0.8% rise in inflation, the biggest since…
August 14, 2008
SteelyKid is home from the hospital now, and settling in to her new environment. She had a pediatrician appointment yesterday, and all is well.
Of course, the more difficult adjustment is for me and Kate, trying to learn to speak Infant while also maintaining a semblance of a normal life. And, of…
August 13, 2008
I hate to break up the pattern of alternating cute baby pictures with rants about science and the general public, but I wanted to sneak in a plug for a new initiative that I'm very tangentially involved in on campus. Union has launched a new fellowship program, the "Minerva Fellows", providing…
August 13, 2008
You may be wondering whether the recent spate of blogging about science in popular media and peer review (by the way, you should definitely read Janet's two posts on these issues) has any connection to my talk next month at the Science in the 21st Century workshop. Yes, yes it does-- I figure that…
August 13, 2008
Kate and I have been watching DVD's of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender via Netflix for a while now. Around the originally predicted due date for SteelyKid (that is, a week and a half before she actually arrived), we were joking about what she could possibly be waiting for. During one episode,…
August 12, 2008
In the comments to yesterday's post about science in popular media, ZapperZ responds with a comment that illustrates the problem:
I am not saying that the media shouldn't report ABOUT science, as accurately as they can. I am saying that DOING science isn't done in popular media. Science isn't done…
August 12, 2008
The dog sniffs gently at the baby in my lap. "So, what the heck is this?"
"This is SteelyKid. Be nice to her."
"But, I mean, what is it? It's not a bunny, is it?" She sniffs some more, just to be sure.
"What do you mean? Of course she's not a bunny. She doesn't look anything like a bunny."
"Well,…
August 11, 2008
Lest you think I'm transforming the entire site into cute-baby-pictures-dot-com, let me reassure you that while the posting frequency may drop off a bit, Uncertain Principles will always be your go-to site for slightly ranty blogging about issues of science and larger culture. Well, one of them,…
August 11, 2008
A few weeks back, I started a betting pool, inviting people to guess the birth date and sex of FutureBaby (now SteelyKid). Looking back over the entries, the winner was Kylinn, who correctly guessed August 7th and female.
Kylinn wins, according to the original wager:
The winner gets bragging rights…
August 9, 2008
SteelyKid was born in a small local hospital specializing in maternity care, with maybe 40-50 beds in the whole place. It's insanely crowded right now, with most of their patients doubled up in rooms that are often private, and one of the nurses said that they had 24 babies in the nursery last…
August 7, 2008
Behold, the cutest burrito in Niskayuna:
8 lbs, 2 oz, 20 inches long. Do your own metric conversions.
The obligatory mother-and-child picture is below the fold:
Both mother and baby are well, and resting after their ordeal. And, obviously, adorable.
FutureBaby's real name will be Claire Nepveu…
August 6, 2008
I'm very happy to be an academic scientist. And I'm not alone:
a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association finds that academic scientists -- in the natural and social sciences -- are more satisfied than are their counterparts outside of higher…
August 6, 2008
I've been on a big Jim Butcher kick recently, re-reading most of the Dresden Files books. This is largely because holding a regular book is still uncomfortable with my bad thumb, and I have electronic copies of the Dresden books that I can read on my Palm (well, Kate's old Palm, which I just use as…
August 6, 2008
Arts & Letters Daily sent me to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education with the headline How Our Culture Keeps Students Out of Science. "Hey," I thought, "Good to see this issue getting some more attention." And, indeed, the article starts off well enough, with a decent statement of…
August 5, 2008
One of the things I'd like to accomplish with the current series of posts is to give a little insight into what it's like to do science. This should probably seem familiar to those readers who are experimental scientists, but might be new to those who aren't. I think that this is one of the most…
August 5, 2008
(This is the first in a planned series of posts writing up each of the scientific papers on which I am an author. A short description and a link to a PDF of the paper can be found at the archived Optical Control page.)
The essence of the optical control paper is contained in this one figure:
"Very…
August 5, 2008
Here's the deal: Big Think is running a charitable donation program for everybody's favorite educational charity, DonorsChoose, and they've gotten Pfizer to agree to donate $1 for each of the first 10,000 visitors to vote for a video on Big Think's site.
Go to http://www.bigthink.com/…
August 4, 2008
Michael Nielsen û Why the world needs quantum mechanics
A very nice, detailed, and most importantly, accessible explanation of Bell's theorem. Needs more dogs, though.
(tags: physics quantum science blogs)
The Quantum Pontiff : When Two Zeros Are Not Zero: The Strange Lives of Quantum Cell…
August 4, 2008
I've been slacking a bit, lately, in terms of putting science-related content on the blog. Up until last week, most of my physics-explaining energy was going into working on the book, and on top of that, I've been a little preoccupied with planning for the arrival of FutureBaby.
I'd like to push…
