A highlight of the recent NZ Institute of Physics conference was the Dan Walls medal talk given by Matt Visser. Matt has been working on general relativity. That's not desparately unusual for a physicist, but Matt has been successful in working on some of the crazier aspects of relativity and getting it published – wormholes, […]
Continue readingYear: 2013
My car is cold
The last couple of days have seen our Engineering Design Show. This is where our 2nd/3rd/4th year Engineering students get to talk about and show off the various projects they've been working on in the last year. It's very interesting to see the range of activities going on, and there are some 'competitive events' – […]
Continue readingThe 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to….
….Well, what do you think? No surprises this year. Francois Englert and Peter Higgs have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in physics for the theoretical 'discovery' of the Higgs mechanism. The citation, however, I find very interesting: for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass […]
Continue readingWhat is physics?
One of the many good education-focused talks at the NZ Institute of Physics conference last week was by Kerry Parker of Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu and the University of Otago. She described her own and her students' experiences of attending the International Young Physicists' Tournament. The tournament stretches students far beyond the confines […]
Continue readingPrecision Cosmology – Yeah, Right!
We've just had our first session at the NZ Institute of Physics Conference. The focus was on astrophysics, and we heard from Richard Easther about 'Precision Cosmology' – measuring things about the universe accurately enough to test theories and models of the universe. We ablso heard about binary stars and supernovae, and evidence for the […]
Continue readingOff to conference
Remember, if it weren't for physics, there'd be no America's cup as we know it. It's the NZ Institute of Physics Conference this weekend (well, Friday evening to Monday lunchtime to be more precise). There's a great line-up of speakers and posters, so there should be lots to blog about in the coming days.( I […]
Continue readingRelative velocity America’s Cup style
Well, I have to get in an Auld Mug post before the end of the event. Today's cancellation gives me an extra day to do it. Watching the coverage of the boats for the first time was very interesting for me. First of all, it was alarming the speeds that they got to. This is […]
Continue readingHow do I be more creative in my research?
I was talking with a PhD student yesterday (not one of my students) about her research. She's well into her second year here and things are generally going fine, but she feels she's a bit stuck. What should she do next? She's happy to do her experiments, and work through the analyses of the results, […]
Continue readingWho’s the best teacher?
I've just come out of a very interesting cross-faculty discussion on effective use of 'tutors' in our courses. It's hard to define the word, because the role of 'tutor' means different things in different parts of the university. But, think of it broadly as being someone who is paid (often not very much and on […]
Continue readingLack of pressure
At the end of last week there was a problem with the water supply to part of the science buildings here at The University of Waikato. Today, there's been work going on to fix the problems. As a result, we have a very much reduced water pressure. The tea-room on the first floor is still […]
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