Strings are just everywhere. Have you noticed? Spooky isn’t it?
Spotted this two weeks ago one foggy morning outside my hotel window in Cambridge, and saved it for today to share with you (click for larger):
Have a spooky stringy Halloween!
-cvj
In these hard times for basic science research, scientists look elsewhere for supplementary financial support. It seems that the monolithic entity simply known as “String Theory” is trying to diversify its funding sources even more creatively than before! Some recently spotted* evidence in the Nashua Telegraph in New Hampshire:
“String Theory plays at barn dance”
WINDHAM – The Windham Recreation Committee will host a Family Barn Dance at the Town Hall from 8-11 p.m. on Friday.Live fiddle music will be provided by String Theory. Frank Woodward will be the caller. All dances are taught. Beginners, singles, families and children are welcome.
Donations will be accepted at the door.
-cvj
(*Thanks Michelle!)
Well, as you can tell by looking in the “environment” category here, I’m likely to be pleased to hear about the Stern report, released yesterday (Guardian article and links to report here) and also pleased to hear that the UK government is taking the report seriously…. more or less.
I’d have a lot more to say, but I’ve said so much about this already, and I’m not really up to a long post on this right now. But I could not let this excellent (and hopefully landmark) event go unmarked. The point, as has been said before:- Nobody is going to get going on this because it is “the right thing to do”, since it is difficult for individuals and businesses to act in a way that makes things less than convenient for yourself for a cause that seems so abstract. Pure market forces will not do it either. We need actual leadership from the scientists -which has more or less happened for a while now (see my earlier reports on the UCS here and here for example)- and action and structure put in place by the people who will really get things going: economists and then governments (because they follow the money).
Well, Stern is a major figure in the “economists” group, and so this is good news. I must admit though that it really did make me cringe every time I heard the announcers on BBC Radio 4, while trying to emphasise how significant the report’s findings were, saying things like “this is not a report from an environmentalist, it is a Click to continue reading this post
Post or pillar boxes. One in Ireland, one in England. Nothing profound, I just like the contrast, that’s all.
I am back from my hop around “the islands”. Thoroughly confused body clock. Health Click to continue reading this post
Hopeful sign of the future*?
There could be other store names of this sort breaking out depending upon what is found at the LHC and the ILC. You could have the “Superpartners” dating agency, for one, and perhaps “Dark Matter” chocolate bars (made by same company that brought you “Milky Way”, of course), as another… the possibilities are endless.
-cvj
(*For the uninitiated, the Higgs particle is one of the things physicists will search for at Click to continue reading this post
Well, I’m not getting any sleep at all tonight, so might as well blog a bit. I’ve got to wake up in two and a half hours to catch a flight, so might as well give up gracefully, and usefully, by sharing with you:
Two spheres caught my eye around Dublin today, one familiar, one not. Both great.
(Click for larger.) The first is the “Tree of Gold (Crainn an Oir)”, by Eamonn Click to continue reading this post
Hang in there, Rob! Keep up the good fight for a better climate for, (and representation of) women in your department, and in departments everywhere.
-cvj
At the (K)ITP the other day there was a journalist-led discussion/presentation on the largely-media-driven “controversy” about string theory. You know my opinion on this -it’s a largely made up story based on two inaccurate chariacatures (in book form) of research in the field- told by the same journalists and editors who some time earlier brought you the glossy stories about string theory that played up the excitement and promise, and played down the often-said but often-ignored cautionary remarks. The irony of all of this seems to have been lost on most. (I’m not saying that string theorists are entirely blameless in this, but I’ve seen how hard it is to get a balanced remark -about the basic process of seeing a complex scientific program through to its end- to survive next to a glossy one-liner).
The point is that the story being told now in the press is simply the one that journalists and editors want to tell now – a David vs Goliath story. It has little or nothing to do with what is actually going on in the science research. The journalist -George Johnson- does a good job of pointing out supporting evidence for this by going through a Click to continue reading this post
Here are the three young scientists selected in the Discovery Channel’s “Young Scientist Challenge”:
Coffee break.
Day two of the panel work. Locked in a room again, looking at proposals. Yesterday we deliberated over who passed to the next stage, and who did not – a painful process at times. Today there’s a final part of the process to be performed. We are writing feedback to each applicant to give a little guidance on their proposals for the future. This is an important service to perform, as you can imagine by simply putting yourself in the shoes of the person applying for the grant. In a room full of international people, all with some pride in their wordsmithing abilities, jointly crafting sentences that reflect the salient points of the panel’s deliberations is often an amusing task. Last time I did this (earlier this year) I learned a good algorithm for getting right the use of “that” vs “which” – useful when writing with eight hour jetlag. I probably should have known it before. In addition, I’ve learned several arcane uses of hyphens, “however”, and other modifiers, but I’m sure I’ll forget those.
The coffee is a bit weak. Not a good thing.
Well, better carry on.
-cvj
It was a long day on the Job. From 8:15am to 6:15pm, we were stuck in one room for more or less the entire time. Now…. a quick guinness on the way back from dinner. Conversation about the private vs public forms of university, funding in science in general, dark energy and dark matter, Borat…. all the big topics of the day.
-cvj
I’m still excited about the news that Branson has joined the fight to put money aside to lead the way in fighting global warming issues.
I blogged about it here a month ago, you’ll recall.
Well, of course the Onion has a take on this. It’s mean, but it is funny:
Analysts are predicting that the $3 billion Sir Richard Branson has pledged for developing energy sources to combat global warming could come close to matching the amount the entrepreneur, adventurer, and Virgin CEO has already spent on elaborate balloon-based excursions.
That’s the main joke, but to me, even funnier is the ending line of the artice:
Branson also reportedly plans to invest billions more on a time machine that would enable him to prevent the creation of Virgin Airways, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by some four percent worldwide.
-cvj
I’m always pleased to see this sign. It is at Heathrow, on the walk down the perpetually dingily lit underground corridors connecting the terminals, the tube, the extortion Heathrow express, and the parking lots.
For a start, I generally like the idea that the ground floor of a building (the one you walk onto off the street) is the “zeroth” floor. (I mean no disrespect to this splendid country I live in, that has largely chosen otherwise, although every now and again in older buildings you see it.) So it is just great to see a (-1)th floor, and all the more pleasing that it is not considered odd to have that. No worries about people being confused about what a negative number is. I know it sounds trivial, but when you see basic mathematics and science literacy seemingly getting worse all around -on both sides of the Atlantic, mark you- …when you think something shouldn’t or can’t possibly get “dumbed down” any further for the general public, and then it gets “dumbed down” anyway… seeing this sort of thing is a relief.
Every time I see it, once the above has flashed through my mind, you know what I think next, every single time? Wouldn’t it just be great if elevators went horizontally too?! Then we could have the imaginary axis as well! But that will have to remain just in my, uh, imagination.
-cvj
Well, it was only yesterday that I was telling the physics 100 class all about Special Relativity (lots of incredulous looks…. lots of reassurances, including: “You’re confused? That’s ok! It is one of the greatest pieces of science of the 20th Century… It’s not supposed to be trivial….”), but it seems like an age ago, and very distant. That’s because I’m in Dublin today. (Pesky wormholes.)
Just for a few days.
Guinness will be involved, I imagine (yeah!), although it will not be the primary focus. (The pint in the photo to the right is from a previous trip.)
I hope to have at least half a day to walk around in the rain. I miss that.
More later.
-cvj
Lovely and playful.
From one of Peter Goin’s “Narrative Photograms” on the Red Line subway stop Metro/7th in Los Angeles (click for larger image).
-cvj
(The title of the post is not the title of the piece. I don’t know what the title is. More in the series to come.)
