I’m back from a fairly brief trip to Sydney, where I spent almost equal amounts of time talking to a collaborator in the School of Physics (Peter Robinson and his colleagues) at the University of Sydney and sat in traffic jams on buses / taxis (and waiting for delayed trains). Anyone who thinks Hamilton traffic is […]
Continue readingMonth: August 2010
Mid-semester break
I’ll be flitting off around the globe for much of the mid-semester break (well, away from the university, anyway), so blogging will be a bit light for the next two weeks.
Continue readingIs medical physics worth the cost?
I’ve often talked about how great medical physics is. The MRI scanner, for example, contains some fantastic physics – interaction of atomic nuclei with magnetic fields (which you need quantum mechanics to explain properly) – and is supported by clever mathematics too. And the PET scanner uses anti-matter (specifically anti-electrons from beta plus decay) to […]
Continue readingGood science speaks for itself
I was at the NIWA science fair at the Hamilton Gardens yesterday morning, talking to some of the children who had put together displays on their science projects. I can’t say anything specific, not least because the prizes haven’t been anounced yet, but I will say that, as ever, it is a real privelege to […]
Continue readingComputer models
For the last couple of days, I’ve been engaged with a student of mine on a computer-modelling problem. Specifically, it’s an electromagnetic problem, working out how the electric field behaves between an array of electrodes. It’s a useful thing to do, because the outputs of the model will help guide future experimental work, and help […]
Continue readingClimate data (yes, again)
I don’t usually rant too much on my blog – it’s not my style, but the news yesterday about a legal challenge to NIWA’s temperature data is just too provoking. Yes, I know it has been well-blogged about already by other Scibloggers, but for good reason. There deserves to be some sensible scientific comment made. […]
Continue readingThe smart tap
Yesterday I went into our tearoom and there was a post-it note on the high-tech tap saying it wasn’t working. Why am I not surprised? Maybe we’ll have to replace it with an even smarter one…Have a good weekend, wherever you are…
Continue readingIce on windows
No, not ice on car windows this time, but ice on aeroplane windows. John Fouhy has sent this question to me, and I don’t know the answer. I have a couple of ideas, but what do you think? Below I reproduce John’s question in full, along with the picture. Airpoints Gold Card holders, help us […]
Continue readingCold and humid
Saturday was one of those days that the Waikato winter is famous for. Cold and damp – by damp I mean humid as well as raining – in fact the kind of weather that reminds you that you are living in an area that used to be one massive swamp. The sort of dampness that […]
Continue readingMore physics with aluminium foil
I gave a talk to the Junior Naturalists in Hamilton last Friday. It had some similarity to the talks I gave in June to the Osborne Days (year 12 and 13 school students), but I needed to change a few things because 1. The audience was younger, and 2. I wasn’t prepared to cart voluminous apparatus […]
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