The flowers from one of the earliest of the bulb varieties I planted late last year have started to emerge. Here’s gladiolus tristis:
Lovely aren’t they? There are many stems of these, with more and more opening every […] Click to continue reading this post
The other day I was making one of my (half-) joking “kids today” mini-speeches to one of my (very patient) graduate students, Tameem, as part of an IM chat we were having about graduate teaching matters. He then said that he remembered something he wanted to share with me, and IM-ed me this: […] Click to continue reading this post
Rather than just sit around and wring our hands about the severe underrepresentation of women and minorities in science and engineering, it’s worth getting out there and trying to do things to help make a change. Here at Asymptotia, I describe things of that nature from time to time. At other times, I like to just shut up and listen, since (for example) it is also important to hear about the opinions and experiences of a range of different people who are trying to make their way in some aspect of these fields.
Today we have a guest post from Asymptotia regular commenter Candace Partridge (clickable image on right). Candace is doing an undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of London (Birkbeck College), having come to study the subject at this level rather later than is traditional, and having studied other subjects, and worked professionally in another career. This gives her an unusual perspective, and one that is of considerable value. Candace attended the Women in Physics conference that was held at USC in January, and of which I spoke earlier. She tells us a bit about it below, along with some thoughts about her own path in Physics. There is some overlap with an article she wrote for Inkling, but Candace has expanded on several aspects for her post here.
-cvj
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Ahhh…what’s better than a trip to LA? How about a travel grant to get to LA to attend the 2nd annual Undergraduate Women in Physics conference held at USC? Most students view MLK Day as a sort of bonus extension the to holidays, a way to ease back into the usual routine. However, for 50-odd physics students, this long weekend was a chance to make the journey to USC to meet other female (and a few male) physics students.
Of course, where I’m now from (London), we don’t get MLK day off. In fact, I was only on native soil because I had cleverly timed a three-week trip to visit my parents in Mississippi to coincide with this conference. After all, once I’ve flown 5000 miles, what’s a couple of thousand more? No problem! I landed in LAX to bright and sunny weather but with a cold wind blowing out of the north, heralding the arrival of that cold wave that destroyed the citrus crops and brought snow flurries to Malibu. It was far colder in LA than in London that weekend.
This was my first trip to a physics-related conference, and I was a wee bit out of the target demographic. See, I am still a lowly undergrad — I say ‘still’ because here I am a woman pushing thirty who is barely halfway through her BSc as opposed to the young striplings a full decade younger than myself. Also, I was the only attendee from overseas…kind of. But I am happy to mix with people of all sorts, especially other women like me who are studying physics because, let’s face it, some of us are still feeling a little alone over here.
So I’m a female mature student, which in undergrad physics makes me a bit of an […] Click to continue reading this post
Here’s some remarkable news from the garden. You may remember that last April I noticed a tiny tomato plant growing out of a crack in some steps, and that I promised to keep an eye on it? (Picture, left.) Then later in July I reported that not only had it … Click to continue reading this post
…. and now, thanks to the Talented Ms Bee (a genius DJ/MC in the making if there ever was one), you can carry around on your ipod an audio pastiche of some of the choicest (sometimes unfortunate!) phrases said during the “storm in a teacup”:
The excellent mp3 file is […] Click to continue reading this post
Now that’s a phrase to roll around in your head:
Spotted when on my rounds on Friday, walking around various old haunts in New York […] Click to continue reading this post
You can catch up on some of the earlier Scenes by looking at the posts listed at the end of this one. Through the course of doing those posts I’ve tried hard to summarize my views on the debate about the views of Smolin and Woit – especially hard to emphasize how the central point of their debate that is worth some actual discussion actually has nothing to do string theory at all. Basically, the whole business of singling out string theory as some sort of great evil is rather silly. If the debate is about anything (and it largely isn’t) it is about the process of doing scientific research (in any field), and the structure of academic careers in general. For the former matter, Smolin and Woit seem to have become frustrated with the standard channels through which detailed scientific debates are carried out and resolved, resorting to writing popular level books that put their rather distorted views on the issues into the public domain in a manner that serves only to muddle. On the latter, there is a constant claim that string theory and its proponents are somehow brainwashing and/or frogmarching young people into working on that area to the exclusion of all else. The authors seem oblivious to some simple facts to the contrary there: (1) that you simply can’t do that to genuinely smart, creative young people; (2) that even students who have string theorists as their Ph.D or postdoc advisors often work on non-string theory research topics (3) that they’re doing an excellent job of either driving young people away from working on some of their favourite alternatives – or from pursuing theoretical physics altogether – by failing to clearly explain their merits and by using the press to help turn this into a distorted spectacle.
I’ve summarized a lot of what I think in the latter part of this post.
There are two major problems with how live debates take place in the public sphere. One is that the average person listening to the debate cannot know whether much of what Smolin and Woit claim as facts are right or wrong (or anyone on the other side of the debate, for that matter). When someone disputes a […] Click to continue reading this post
I think I ought to explain, as promised, why I am in New York. The first thing to mention is that I wrote the previous post in this miniseries (it was written on a flight to Dublin, and finally posted when I returned) before I knew about any of what I’m about to tell you, so it is rather funny to me…
The week that I returned from Dublin I noticed a phone message from an editor of a magazine asking me to return their call. A couple of days later I learned what it was about. It’s a magazine that largely focuses on buzz about people and projects in the entertainment and fashion industry – Music (R&B, Hip Hop mostly), Movies and TV, etc., as far as I can tell, along with some coverage of parts of the business world. Its readership is mostly younger African American males, I think. As far as I can tell, the intention is not to be about those things in particular, but it is largely reflecting the interests of the readership it is targeted at. It’s a major product, jumping out at you immediately when you are in the magazine store (the striking picture of a woman on the front helps it grab your attention, of course).
Each year, the magazine does a special issue featuring a group of individuals who are doing “major things” in the industries I mentioned above. It is a combination of a focus on new talent that’s about to become more widely known, or just bringing to readers’ attention the existence of some of the people who are making significant impact in what they’re doing.
Somehow – I do not know how – they got my name. It turns out that they spent some time reading some of things I’ve written here at Asymptotia too. Now normally, you’d expect things to stop at that point, but in fact it did not. They decided to broaden things out a bit and include me (if I was willing) in this year’s feature issue.
I thought about it for a day. It is quite an honour to be approached, and I’m also impressed that the magazine’s editors are being creative in this way (it would be easy […] Click to continue reading this post
I’m referring to New York, of course. The Empire State building, which I walked by a short while ago, is still pretty lovely (it has to be said that I’m more of a Chrysler building man, myself – must go and have a look for it).
It’s been several years since those days when I used to use New York as my Summer base camp, and it’s been too long. Four or five years, I think. I’d forgotten how much I missed the city, to be honest. It is certainly good to be back and see it all again, including the bitterly cold wind that can be channeled down the grid streets with the bits of snow side by side underfoot.
The city is even greater in my mind now that you can so easily connect to the airport using the subway, train and the AirTrain. (As I’ve discussed in other posts I am sure the same enhancement (but massively more so) will happen to Los Angeles when the new subway/train lines are built). When I was last […] Click to continue reading this post
[Written a few hours ago on a plane. Later uploaded for your consumption.] So I’m continuing my thoughts about plans for the Summer. You probably ought to read part I first. This post is also a bit of a ramble. I was thinking a bit more about Spring/Summer travel, you … Click to continue reading this post
[Written a few hours ago on a plane. Later uploaded for your consumption.] I find myself on a plane to New York (sort of) all of a sudden. I’ll explain later what it’s all about, since I do not yet know to what extent I’m allowed to blog about the … Click to continue reading this post
I’m rather shocked by this story, and feel compelled to draw it to your attention. This week’s LA Weekly’s cover story is by Judith Lewis, and it is a very detailed account of what’s been happening to Billy Cottrell since you probably last heard about him. He was convicted for his role in various arson attacks on SUV dealerships in the Pasadena area, and sent to prison. Just to remind you, Billy Cottrell was a graduate student in theoretical physics working with colleagues of mine just up the road at Caltech, and so it has even more resonance as a story than normal, since even though I never knew him, he -or his type- is so familiar to many of us, right down to the youthful fascination with Euler’s eiÏ€ + 1 = 0. (Apparently he left that written at some of the crime scenes…)
I leave a question mark in the title of this post for lots of reasons: Just how “bad” was he in the first place? Had some of the vehicles that were damaged not been from out of state, the crimes would not have been Federal matters, and the full weight of the crimes being acts of terrorism (and all that brings with it in today’s atmosphere) would not have transpired. The judge seems also to have simply added three years to his sentence on a whim. His having Asperger’s syndrome was never allowed to be mentioned in the case at all, and so the jury was never given the opportunity to consider that some particular behavioural characteristics (in the course of the crimes themselves, and in the course of the courtroom defense) might have been exacerbated by it. The list of things goes on.
But since his sentencing, things have got even worse. It’s just dreadful. The terrorist […] Click to continue reading this post
Well, yesterday’s colloquium by Caltech’s Richard Massey was a lot of fun, and really excellent. When faculty, postdocs and students are all chatting about it afterwards, you know it went well. This is what a departmental colloquium is supposed to do, and it happens when subject, level of delivery and speaker all come together in just the right way.
When the news about that lovely dark matter result broke some months ago, I got in […] Click to continue reading this post
I just learned of this festival, starting tonight at the New Beverly Cinema. I thought I should tell you about it in case you’re able to go. Also, it’s just fun to remember some of the movies in this genre, or some of the modern movies that celebrate, quote from, or were otherwise influenced by them. The festival should be a lot of fun!
It’s a Quentin Tarantino project, and there’s more at the cinema’s website, and an excellent post about it at the blog “Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule”, which early on has this excellent paragraph:
The director has responded to the New Beverly’s generosity by lining up a gut-bucket cornucopia of authentic grindhouse trash cinema to celebrate not only his
upcoming movie, but the whole experience of seeing sleazy cinema classics in the only movie house left in L.A. (outside of the Vine on Hollywood Boulevard) that feels physically, spatially and, yes, spiritually related to the downtown second-run trash palaces that fed Tarantino’s (and everyone else’s) desire for this kind of rotgut, low-rent fun to begin with.
…and then goes on to do a wonderful thing by finding as many of the original movie posters (or related artwork) for each movie. It’s great to look at, and there’s a rather […] Click to continue reading this post
The Nominations have been announced, I learned from the blog LA Observed. Among them: Science and Technology nominees: • Joyce E. Chaplin for “The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius” (Basic Books) • Ann Gibbons for “The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors” … Click to continue reading this post
