ISST From Atlantis

i think i've made my feelings for the international space station quite clear, but philosophy aside, this is a pretty damn cool image taken from atlantis on its way home on saturday. (image credit: APOD)

Blog Rating

well, we've got nothing to worry about here. it's too bad, really. i've got to start kickin it up a notch, bad language wise.

Physics Education Resources: Feedback Wanted

i have recently written a resource letter for physics instructors, which contains a number of resources in the form of books, articles, journals, websites, and organizations. this is intended to provide some sort of practical insight into the field of physics education research so that instructors can ground their teaching practices in well-established research. a draft of this document can be found here, and if you have any interest in teaching physics and have feedback, i'd greatly appreciate it. the physics education community at the university of chicago is limited, at best. (image credit: the physics teacher)

Physics Gossip Overload: The Higgs

finally, the people over at fermilab are telling the rest of the world to CALM DOWN and wait for official results from the D0 collaboration to be released before gossiping their mouths off about a potential sighting of the higgs. sounds like good advice to me. as sagan said, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." read this article from wired. (image credit: abc news. for the record, i'm not buying into the whole "god particle" terminology. but the picture is quite cool.)

Travel to Mars!!!

well, except not quite. the esa is looking for volunteers for a 520-day simulated mars mission to take place in a special facility in moscow. volunteers will be selected in a similar process to astronauts, except with greater emphasis on psychological strength. basically, all the stress and confinement without actually getting to see the red planet in the end. interested? apply here. read more about the simulated mission here. (image credit: NASA/JPL of course)

symmetry Magazine Cover

too good to not post. (image credit: symmetry magazine)

The Search for Dark Energy

may's issue of symmetry magazine is a joy to read, it's got lots of good stuff, including a nice article about the search for dark energy (my current research area) and a nice stringy article featuring a debate between brian greene and lawrence krauss. always entertaining, those two. and, with cartoons by new yorker cartoonist roz chast, there's even something for those who refuse to read. (image credit: symmetry magazine)

World Day to Combat Desertification

today is world day to combat desertification. according to the UN, desertification puts the health and well-being of more than 1.2 billion people at risk. read more in the esa article here. (image credit: esa)

Longitude

in the spirit of the chicago festival of maps happening later this year, i recently picked up dava sobel's longitude, and i highly recommend it. it's a short book that won't take you more than a few hours to read, but it's a short and sweet tale of the so-called longitude problem that plagued explorers and seamen for many centuries. dobel writes very well and the book is packed with memorable stories, such as the story of the "powder of sympathy," proposed as a means to determine longitude by painfully healing at a distance. the process would be simple, as dobel writes:

"send aboard a wounded dog as a ship sets sail. leave ashore a trusted individual to dip the dog's bandage into the sympathy solution every day at noon. the dog would perforce yelp in reaction, and thereby provide the captain a time cue. the dog's cry would mean, 'the sun is upon the meridian in london.'"

wonderful stuff. read this book.

Science Paparazzi

Stephen Jay Gould Speaks Out Against Science Paparazzi

CAMBRIDGE, MA-Paleontologist and author Stephen Jay Gould spoke out against the increasingly aggressive tactics of the paparazzi Tuesday, railing against "the reckless throngs of photographers that relentlessly hound America's top scientists."

this came up in a discussion today. definitely among the funnier of the onion's physics-related stories.

Three Articles from the NY Times

i actually have real work to do these days, but i simply have to link to these three articles that i read in the ny times today.

flirting with invisibility is an article about some recent experiments to render objects invisible. for anybody with a love for science fiction and superhero stories this one will be of particular charm.

she calls it phenomena is a look into the works of felice frankel, who photographs scientific phenomena. some very interesting pictures, with the obvious follow-up question: is this art?

goldilocks planet is an insight into the discovery of the extrasolar planet gliese 581c, which just a few months ago was getting everybody very excited about the possibility it might be a planet suited for life (as we know it). it turns out, the planet is probably much too hot for life to emerge on it. but, ironically, another planet in the system - gliese 581d - might be a more favorable site for life to emerge.

International Space Station from Earth

truly the site of magnificent research and oh-so-worth it investments, but it does look pretty cute in this time-lapse movie made by an amateur astronomer in the uk. the arrow in the image above indicates the location of new 115ft-long solar panels recently added to the station. (credit: spaceweather.com)

Evolution vs. Creationism

america speaks. be appropriately shocked, and then go the field museum and check out the darwin exhibit that opens friday.

Delay of the LHC

the original plan was that the lhc would do a test run in november this year, in which a proton beam would have run through the accelerator without actually being accelerated. however, because of the failure of the quadrupole magnets earlier this year, the lhc probably won't run until 2008. official notification of any delay will be made later this month. this nice article ends on the upnote that fermilab may be able to find the higgs before the lhc turns on. well, we can always hope. it sure would be a nice thing for fermilab to accomplish before the tevatron shuts down.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

today's xkcd.com image. check them out regularly, really funny stuff. click for larger image.

The Expanding Universe

a nice article in the ny times about the expanding universe and the inherent limitations of our observations of it.