Science as Collaboration

I’m sure I’ve spoken on this before, and I’m sure I’ll speak on this again. Science is an act of collaboration. While there are the lone geniuses among us out there making independent breakthroughs in mathematics and thought, these brilliant minds would be nothing if there...

Let it Begin (again)

Monday is the first day of a new semester. I’ll be teaching just one class this semester (the rest of my time is going to IYA), second semester calculus based physics for Scientists and Engineers. This will be my first time teaching this course, although I’ve taught the algebra-based version...

Blue Collar Scientist, You’re still my Twitter Friend

I just logged into twitter through it’s actual website so I could edit who I was following. Scanning down the list of names I saw the friendly, sunglass wearing face of BlueCollarSci. My heart stopped for a moment. In real life BlueCollarSci was Jeff Medkeff, an astronomer (he called himself an...

Anecdotal Evidence versus Statistics

One of the running jokes in physics/astronomy departments is that astronomers consider 4 instances of anything as statistically significant. In fact, the story goes, two points is enough to define a trend, and 1 is enough to form a theory. Take for instance our solar system. Up until 1995 it was the only one...

SDSS Live!

Chris Lintott is currently up in Chicago at a meeting on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Check out his live coverage on Astronomy Cast Live!