Swans on Tea

Physics, tech and humor. Because science and learning are cool, and life’s too short not to laugh.

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Date: February 19th, 2008

Seriously Stupid

19 February, 2008 (21:18) | Antiscience, Journalism | 3 comments

The red flag proclaiming “I don’t understand science” goes up when the story sounds something like this:
The panel includes the word “evolution” in state science standards for the first time, but it is relegated to a place among a host of ideas, including Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Relegated? To the “lowly” place that includes [...]

What’s Bugging Me Now, episode 2-19-08

19 February, 2008 (18:10) | Rants | No comments

I fucking opt out already.
I buy stuff for my lab. I get email. I don’t care if your widgets are on sale — if we don’t need one, I won’t be buying any. I don’t make any “OMG, those 100 microfarad capacitors are to die for” impulse purchases for the lab. [...]

The Comfy Chair, er, MOT

19 February, 2008 (12:15) | Lab Stories, Physics | No comments

Over at Uncertain principles, Chad talks about how Nobody Expects Bose-Einstein Condensation, i.e. while the phenomenon had been predicted, the enabling technology was serendipitous.
What really made [magneto-optic trapping] take off, though, was that people figured out you could get the laser cooling wavelength for rubidium from diode lasers. And diode lasers are manufactured in mass [...]

 

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