Physicists of the 20th Century on Banknotes (pdf)
Feynman on the $20! Feynman on the $20!
It’ll never happen. We’re too stodgy about this in the States, and we do some ugly things with our currency.
a reminder, via Kottke
Gettin' Plushy
What’s with the plush toys? John at Cosmic Variance displays “The Particle Zoo” and then Chad at Uncertain Principles goes all squishy with some animal toys, presumably for futurebaby.
I gotta say, the fundamental particles creep me out a little — x-ed out eyes signifies “dead” in cartooning, and it upsets my sensibilities that you can purchase individual quarks, and in any color. What kind of message is that to send to a young physicist, getting asymptotic freedom and color charge wrong right out of the gate?
Is it a Spice Rack?
No, it’s a DIY Michelson interferometer by the Celtic Mad Scientist.
In a standard Michelson interferometer, the beamsplitter would actually go at 90º to the shown orientation, so that each beam hits a mirror, but it’s all good. If your light is polarized, you’ll want to make sure that’s vertical, lest you be near Brewster’s angle when you bounce off the beam splitter.
Homer says, “Safen up! Do not look into laser with remaining eye”
Don’t end up like the Russian Ravers who were injured when the organizers erected a tent and used the lasers “indoors.”
Still Funny, Even in Reruns
Calvin’s parents forget to pay the gravity bill.
Are You Sure Your Name Isn't Rod?
Scary.
Because you insisted, here’s the unedited screaming version. I also added video from a minute before the lightning struck so you can get an idea of how hard it was raining. From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, just a really good zap!
Reminds me of a “Far Side” tagline: Never, never do this.
Vote Early, Vote Often
OK, maybe not the latter. This is about integrity, after all. The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest
I got an email invitation for this, but it was too close to the deadline for me to do anything about it. First prize is a trip to Washington, DC. (Some of us call that “commuting”).
Even More Advice for the Physicslorn
After More Advice for the Physicslorn
Sure, if your neighbor claims he was abducted by aliens, and spent some time on Alpha Centauri learning the mysteries of that highly advanced civilization, it’s easy to conclude that maybe it’s time he upped his meds. But in an era when modern theoretical physicists are routinely batting around notions like extra dimensions, dark matter, dark energy, and parallel universes, the line between bona fide breakthrough and nonsensical physics-babble isn’t so clear. To the average person, saying the world is made up of tiny styrofoam balls only seems slightly crazier than saying everything in the universe boils down to tiny vibrating strings.
Includes a link to The Alternative-Science Respectability Checklist but not to Crackpot Bingo (until you get to the comments)
I suspect this goes over the head of the target audience without so much as a hair out of place. Or they’ve got their phasers set on “ignore.”
Photons Think
Because we can get them to concentrate. MIT opens new ‘window’ on solar energy
“Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges,” explains Marc A. Baldo, leader of the work and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.
As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell “by a factor of over 40,” Baldo says.
The factor of 40 is in reference to the light collection, not solar cells themselves, i.e. you are collecting 40 times as much light as you’d get from the area of the edge of the sheet — there’s no comparison to what you’d get if the whole sheet were a solar cell. The action of the collector is much like my clipboard, except the dye is on the surface rather than inside the material. The advantages here would be in reducing the area of the solar cells needed, which are presumably much more expensive, and that some light would still be usable on the other side of the collector.
But Could it Take a Roomba?
Drat. LEGO Robotics Summer Day Camp is in Palo Alto, California, and is almost full.
The Right Tool For the Job
There’s always a right tool for the job, or so some people say. It has been observed that vice grips are never the right tool for the job, but they are indispensable because they are the wrong tool for so many jobs.
(tightening a screw in a tight space with a phillips bit held by vice grips)