Fine Structure

Fermilab Lecture Videos

2008-08-08T18:30:17Z

Videos from the ongoing Fermilab lecture series since 2000. Organized nicely by technical level.
[Linked from Physics and Physicists]

We've Been Here Long Enough

2008-08-06T21:13:56Z

A short post from Jennifer Ouellette resting nicely on the point that disaster shouldn't keep us from reaching for the stars. It doesn't sound as if there has been any recent occurrence which inspired this post and it has a more poignant and less manic feel to it than most of her regular posting at Cocktail Party Physics. Not that I dislike her CPP style but it's pleasing to read something with a definitive point from someone so talented at writing.
[Linked from Twisted Physics]

Tevatron Higgs Exclusion Data

2008-08-05T23:36:33Z

As usual, Gordon has a really succinct and well writen description of the recent data released from the Tevatron which excludes the Higgs boson around 170 GeV.
[Linked from Life as a Physicist]

What Will the LHC Find?

2008-08-05T22:44:00Z

Sean Carrol with his predictions on LHC findings in the next five years. A lot of the stuff he mentions makes me all tingly inside (esp. preons!) and I would like to +1 his wonderful 50% chance of "Something that Has Never Been Predicted" - nature really has a wonderful way about these things... [Linked from Cosmic Variance]

Sellout!

2008-08-01T21:40:05Z

Matt from Built on Facts got bought! Well, not in so many words but he's making the jump to Science Blogs, like many other excellent science blogs have in the past. Congrats to him!
[Linked from ]

LHC Installation Pictures

2008-08-01T16:55:58Z

The Big Picture (which I've mentioned before) covers installation at the Large Hadron Collider. It sounds backwards but something feels very primitive about building ever larger machines to study the ever smaller structure of the universe. In any case, these pictures are easily the most impressive and beautiful I've ever seen relating to the LHC. Is it a sign of the times that such elegantly packed cabling makes me so comfortable?

Early Soviet Space Mishaps

2008-07-30T20:40:08Z

A fascinating account of two Italian brothers who apparently eavesdropped on many early Soviet and American space missions. Sensationally, they claim that a number of early manned Soviet missions failed with cosmonauts dying by suffocation, burning up on reentry or missing orbit and simply sailing off into space. Plenty of questions about if all of their recordings were real.
[Linked from kottke]

Glass is a Mystery

2008-07-29T20:27:14Z

All those old windows that had glass bulges at the bottom aren't actually from very, very slowly flowing glass, just from glass that started off imperfectly flat. Huh.

The rest of the article deals with how little we know about how glass forms. It's very interesting, even if not as interesting as shattering an explanation I always thought I had for bulgy glass.
[Linked from Uncertain Principles]

How Light Mills Work

2008-07-29T17:40:03Z

John Baez at the n-Category Café asks hard questions of the often-oversimplified light mill (Crookes Radiometer) toy. Fascinating not only for the many explanations that have been proven wrong but also for the many reputable sources that report these wrong explanations as the truth!
[Linked from The n-Category Café]

.

2008-07-25T19:44:13Z

Randy Pausch died today at the age of 47. He positively effected thousands personally, surely tens of thousands via his book and lectures. Isn't that all you can really ask for?

Baryon Asymmetry

2008-07-24T22:00:52Z

An excellent explanation of Matter vs. Antimater from cosmic variance. First in a series.
[Linked from Cosmic Variance]

An "Elite" Education

2008-07-24T19:35:48Z

A couple of recent posts from kottke.org have highlighted the dark side of an elite education, both from the perspective of the students who attend and their undervalued teachers. I thought a little bit about what to say on either of them and I didn't come up with anything insightful - the first article is just about dead on and the second is nauseating in it's all-to-commonness. Perhaps I'll have more to say on this eventually, but for now, just some links.
[Linked from kottke]

The Blogroll is Live

2008-07-22T18:22:10Z

Yesterday I finished adding a couple new sections to the front page since it was previously very difficult to see if anything was occurring on the blog without clicking through to the posts. So, I added some recent comments to the front page where everyone can see them (I'm now not convinced that the little about blurb should go right above that, thinking of ditching it altogether in favor of a detailed about page) and a list of blogs I read along the right side of the main content. Hopefully it'll make things a little more friendly when people stop by.

APS Launches "Physics"

2008-07-18T21:18:32Z

A new journal publication by the American Physical Society which publishes the "most exceptional" papers from their Physical Review journal series. Will it be a stage for rampant favoritism or a place where great research gets more eyeballs?
[Linked from Uncertain Principles]

Unsolved Problems in Physics

2008-07-17T20:48:23Z

Wikipedia lists some popular unsolved (and some recently solved) problems in physics. A nice list if you're looking for a good place to start picking apart the details of what we know.
[Linked from kottke]