I Know You're Lying to Me

Please listen carefully to these options, as our menu has recently changed

No it hasn’t.

I suspect this behavior shows up somewhere on the list of ways you can manipulate people, in this case, trying to get me to listen to all the options instead of choosing the first convenient (and wrong) one or hitting “0.” Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

(I haven’t read the whole list, but am confident that by mentioning and linking to it, someone will read it and confirm that the behavior is indeed there. And that there are ways to persuade people to do your research for you, too, like checking to see if an item is on a list)

SPF = x^2 + 2x – 3

Uncertain Principles: Algebra Is Like Sunscreen

My one-word piece of advice for students planning to study physics (or any other science, really, but mostly physics): Algebra.

Since we’re on the topic of math, let’s double the fun by visiting Cocktail PArty Physics: NEW VOICES: “math sucks”

“When I write, I can say whatever I want to say, but in math there’s just one right answer.”

She had a point there. I loved mathematics for its concreteness, its lack of ambiguity. It felt to me like a solid anchor in a hostile, subjective world. But the flip side of that is you can be definitely, unambiguously, totally wrong. You can’t plead “I was robbed,” like you can when the blind umpire calls you out or your sterling essay is marked with a D minus by a demented grader.

But … if the education is bland, and

[T]he core problem she faces, as she enters middle school “hating” math, is the math teaching itself, gender neutral, uninspiring for all.

There is the open question of why Austin (a boy) loves math.

I think an underlying issue is our desire to be able to point to a single problem to fix, when in reality there are multiple reasons why it’s tough to get kids to eat their vegetables learn their algebra.

No One Can Hear You Scream

Acoustic Black Hole Created in Bose-Einstein Condensate

The result is a region within the BEC in which the atoms move at supersonic speed. This is the black hole: any phonon unlucky enough to stray into this region cannot escape.

One reason why sonic black holes are so highly prized is that they ought to produce Hawking radiation. Quantum mechanics predicts that pairs of “virtual” phonons with equal and opposite momentum ought to be constantly springing in and out of existence in BECs.

Looking for Mr. DNAbar

The Electric Slide

The researchers used computer simulations and analytical calculations to show that a simplified model of a protein is attracted to DNA until it gets within a half-nanometer or so. At this short range, the protein is repelled, so it can slide freely until it finds its target sequence and binds more tightly. The results provide a more complete physical picture of this critical biological process.