Wendy Science

I applaud when news organization such as The Economist decides to give science some coverage. It is important because such magazine reaches out to an audience that many science journals and magazines do not usually get. So this criticism is not a knock on their science coverage and hopefully, will not discourage more of it on their pages. Still, I find it very hard to accept that an article in a magazine as popular and prestigious as The Economist would not have had some sort of expert proof-reading before it is published. They can afford to at least hire a free-lance consultant to make sure there are any obvious errors or inaccuracies in such articles (I'm available!). Take this article on the neutrinos , for example, that Business Insider took from The Economist. There are minor quibbles here and there, but there are a couple of points in which someone who doesn't know much of the topic would have a very misleading or wrong idea about what is going on. The first is this one: ...

If you still need another exposition on neutrinos and why they are so important, then you might want to listen to this podcast by astronomer Ray Jayawardhana . If already supplied several resources at various levels in this blog for those of you who need more info on these elusive particles. So just do a search. Zz.

I guess I am old enough to sometime look back on my career and be amazed how it has turned out. At this point, I think I've gone a full circle and coming back almost to where I started. When I was doing my PhD research, it was in superconductivity. I was doing experiments on tunneling spectroscopy of high-Tc superconductors. Then I moved and did my postdoc in photoemission spectroscopy, and a large portion of the material that I studied were superconductors as well. Next, I switched careers and went into accelerator physics and learned a whole new field of study in physics. Eventually, I found my niche and went to study and make photocathodes for accelerators, which made used of my knowledge and skills from my photoemission work. And now, things have come full circle. I've started work on studying and producing superconducting photocathodes for superconducting RF guns. I've gone back to the first area of study that I started. Although, I must admit that this study utilizes ...

A colleague and I were talking about this and that recently and he said that at some point he needs to find a new research topic, as the one that he has been working on (very successfully, and in fact sort-of pioneered) is getting very crowded. It's not as much fun (says him) to be in a crowd instead of way out ahead. So then he said that it was difficult to start working on a very-different topic because it can be difficult to get funding if you lack a track-record and expertise in that new thing. True enough. So I said, "Collaborate" (unsaid but well known: That's what I do). He said, "No, you can't project authority if you collaborate." Discuss. Context: We are both full professors and therefore getting adequate credit for our work is not a career life-or-death issue as it is for early-career scientists. For the early-careerers, this can be important (depending on your particular context). Collaboration can still be a significant research component --...

I think you are being too harsh on him, and the intent of the video. He's trying to explain as to what these "extra dimensions" are, and what brought it about. These are stuff that a lot of people, especially laymen, have asked. So he's telling them what they are (and what they are not), and why there are theories that employ such a concept to explain why gravity is weak. In other words, I see this video as a response to the frequent questions that I've seen, especially online, on these extra dimensions and gravity. It certainly isn't out to sell the concept to anyone. Zz.

Thanks to Greg at Physics Forums for finding the link. I think a lot of people (especially politicians, TV talking heads, and crackpots) should download , read, and understand this poster. :) http://ift.tt/1anWcQ9 But then again, why should they? Zz.

Q: What did the comet say as it whizzed past Uranus? A: How about giving me a ring sometime? Q: Why is Neptune so blue? A: Because it wants to be closer to its Sun. Q: What kind of doughnuts do dwarf planets like best? A: Munchkins. Q: Why is Earth glad to be so far away from Jupiter? A: Because Jupiter is such a gassy planet. Q: Why didn’t the moon have ice cream for dessert? A: It was too full. Looking for more super silly jokes about the space beyond Earth? Check out Out of this World Jokes About the Solar System .