Grade Inflation
Bad Physics Reporting In Abundance!
Zapperz has the summary of yet another reporting fail (or in this case, a D-) on the subject of quantum teleportation.
No Bones About It
Prime Suspect: Did the Science Consultant Do It?
Synopsis: an episode of Bones does a sendup of the existence of science consultants in TV/movies, followed by some tips on the path to becoming a Hollywood science consultant.
I’ve told one of my stories of being a ghost-consultant of sorts. I got a few free meals out of it, which were welcome because I was in grad school (as well as an annual insight into a few upcoming episodes of Star Trek, useful for impressing my friends), and of course, it’s also the story of someone who made it in that job, for a while — it was a transition to being a writer and beyond.
I recall giving my friend some static when I found flaws in the science, but invariably the response was that the story was more important, and if certain bad science was critical to the plot line, the bad science wasn’t going to be excised from the script. Yes, it’s window dressing; it might be taken more seriously if it was considered bad dialog or a serious threat to suspension of disbelief, but it’s only a shortcoming for the scientifically literate among us. If there were more of us the issue might be taken more seriously.
All The Things I Am Not
As presented by Leonard McCoy, Julian Bashir, and the Emergency Medical Holographic program.
This Isn't Your Grandfather's Michelson Interferometer
Frequency comb takes a measure of distance
In its simplest form, a Michelson interferometer is used with monochromatic light. However, this limits its effectiveness because, before a measurement is made, the length of the distance to be measured must be known to within one half of the wavelength (λ/2) of the light used – typically less than 500 nm. The problem is that the distance being measured can be expressed as an integer multiple of λ/2 plus a fraction of λ/2 – but this integer multiple cannot be determined from the interference data.
Physicists have found two ways round this problem. One is to use several lasers at different colours to gain more information about the system. The other is to use a light source with a range of wavelengths and then look for phase differences in the interfering light, which can be related to distance. These techniques have their own problems, not least that thousands of different lasers would ease a measurement but installing them all in a lab would be impractical.
A frequency comb has all of its wavelengths present in a single beam, though. Really cool application of the technology.
Gettin' Social With It
Went to share a link on twitter, and the “share this” popup on the web page didn’t include it. So I clicked on the “more” button.
I had no idea. I’ve never heard of most of these.
One, Two, Three, Many
This is a concept I can recall astonishing me, and also steering me away from majoring in math. I knew the abstract rabbit hole would go much deeper.
P … O … P
I’m thinking that there are probably clear pots one could use for this, so as to not get showered with hot oil.
Tug-o-War, Physics Style
Physics demonstrations: Magdeburg hemispheres
The premise is simple: with the hemispheres pressed together, air is pumped out of the interior, creating at least a partial vacuum. This seals together the hemispheres with a remarkable force.
Guericke first demonstrated this force in 1654 for the Emperor Ferdinand III. Thirty horses, in two teams of 15, were unable to pull apart the evacuated hemispheres! He performed a smaller scale performance in 1656 in his hometown of Magdeburg, using two teams of eight horses.
She's So Deliciously Low
The Indelible Stamp of our Lowly Origins
I’ve been a participant in the evolution-creation struggle, from years ago on USENET in talk.origins, so I’ve heard all the blather at the beginning, many times. I was aware of the chromosome fusion between other apes and humans, but unaware how well the recent DNA sequencing had addressed the issue. It’s near the end.