Global Spin

I just read an intriguing article on the Mpemba effect at Skulls in the Stars. Between the history of the effect and the continuing puzzle of what causes it, this is the best example of science-as-a-process I’ve ever seen: Mpemba made his accidental discovery in Tanzania in 1963, when he was only 13 years old [...]

Posted by Chris in Science on June 1st, 2011 | Comments Off

This may seem like an odd diversion, but John asked about it just this morning so I thought I’d share with the rest of the class. Electrons, in their secret life as wibbly-wobbly quantum particle-wavey things, have a property called spin. To quote a handy article I just ran across: One of the things that [...]

Posted by Chris in Science on December 28th, 2010 | Comments Off

Looking at my to-do list today, I noticed for the millionth time how two key attributes of a task seem to be either redundant or in conflict: its due date and its priority. It always seemed to me that you should only need to assign one or the other. If you have a deadline, then [...]

Posted by Chris in Business, Science, Technology on November 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

The Xerces Society has a new website. Yay, bugs! I mean, seriously, just because they lack endoskeletons and have more appendages than you do is no reason to get all squeamish. Here, we’ll start you off slowly with some really, really important bugs: native honeybees and bumble bees (one of my favorites). And they’ve got [...]

Posted by Deb in Agriculture, Animals, Environment, Science, That which is awesome, Uncategorized on January 5th, 2009 | Comments Off

or, What Democrats Don’t Understand About Morality This is really fascinating stuff, folks. Read this. Then watch this: And to quote from Jonathan Haidt’s article: Here’s my alternative definition: morality is any system of interlocking values, practices, institutions, and psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible. It [...]

Posted by Deb in Academia, Education, Government, Oddly Enough, Politics, Science on October 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off