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Continue readingMonth: February 2011
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
With teaching semester almost upon us, here’s a thought for you university lecturers out there. I’ve been at a teaching workshop this afternoon, where we’ve been discussing how teaching and research can link together – i.e. that they are not two completely inseparable activities, as we often think. There were a number of presenters (I […]
Continue readingSlowdown in activity
[Somehow the original version of this has been garbled by some bit of computer software somewhere. Hopefully this version makes sense. My thoughts and prayers for those in Christchurch and their loved ones] My apologies in advance for what will be reduced blogging in the next three or four months. The following statistics show the […]
Continue readingUses of Liquid Nitrogen
I went to the doctor yesterday and he attacked me with liquid nitrogen. To be more specific, I had a wart ‘frozen’ off. Now, I had some similar treatment years ago, in which the doctor used a container of the stuff surrounded by polystyrene foam, and open to the air. Rather like what we use […]
Continue readingPhysics discoveries
I’ve been thinking a bit more about the comment I made yesterday that there used to be a time that physics discoveries were made by people but now we just need to build a machine to do it (the LHC). The major science discoveries, almost by definition, are unexpected and can be very serendipitous. The […]
Continue readingWhat’s CERN twittering about?
A quick skim of CERN’s Twitter site, www.twitter.com/cern tells me that the LHC is going to be pootling on for the next two years at 3.5 TeV per beam, before it is prepared for running at 7 TeV, starting hopefully in 2014 "…[This] gives the LHC’s experiments a good chance of finding new physics in the […]
Continue readingThe sock monster
As I’m sure is the case in your house, socks go missing on a regular basis. You’re sure that every night a PAIR of socks goes into the linen basket, and that when the washing is done ALL its contents go in the machine, but, once things are dried and ready to go back in […]
Continue readingThe bed of nails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG7lGZqWFpM You may have seen a bed of nails demonstrated. You may even have done it yourself. I’ve laid on a bed of nails before (it’s not desperately comfortable but it doesn’t hurt) though what this video does is a bit beyond what I think I’d like to try. So why is it possible? It […]
Continue readingPseudo-science in high places
Why has our prime minister taken to wearing an ‘energy-enhancing’ bracelet? Fashionable – maybe (I saw someone wearing one at university today – not someone in the science faculty I should add); Demonstrating a sound knowledge of science and its potential to address the world’s big issues – nope. You readers in Wellington – get […]
Continue readingScience Faction – a great story
Have a read of this great short story by Jennifer Ouellette. The Scholar and the Caliph, on www.physicsworld.com. Note the scientific method at work – "I will make myself the enemy of all I have read, attack the old ideas from every angle and dismantle all that do not pass my tests until only the […]
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