interactions
About midway through my first semester of graduate school, I met with my cluster advisor to discuss my progress. Michigan has a rotation system: new grad students work in at least two labs for a semester each before joining a group. During that time, we don't have a
popSci
Chad Orzel of the Uncertain Principles blog announced late last year that he is working on a book about thinking like a scientist.1 In the announcement post he explained: The core argument … is that the process of science– looking at the world, thinking of possible explanations for how it
satire
Dear Science Faculty of Research Universities, I believe we can all agree on the importance of learning by experience. The proverb widely attributed to Confucius says it concisely: "What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand." In this excellent spirit of
I'm enough of a tech geek to have heard about it years ago, but for a long time I didn't understand what Twitter was for. I joined Facebook back when you had to have an email address ending in 'edu,' and I have seen
everydayScience
I am a big fan of Alton Brown. He's funny and smart, and he doesn't (usually) do things just because "it's always been done that way." Why buy a pizza stone when you can use a quarry tile? Why have a kitchen
interactions
Dear Creeper, It's been a year or two since you found me again. I have done my best to run and hide and help you forget I exist, but I certainly haven't forgotten you. You are often on my mind. I remember how we met at
everydayScience
I said this blog would be about everyday science, but I haven't published any posts that really fall into that category yet. So let's fix that. The Mpemba Effect Yesterday I heard that a paper had been posted to the arXiv with an explanation for the
It's NaNoWriMo time again. I'm not planning to write a novel, but I do think I ought to write more often. So here is my challenge: I will write something worth posting every day. It might be very short, and it might not be posted the
interactions
Reading Paul Bracher's recent post on titles, I was a bit bothered that all of his examples were of men. Admittedly, he is male, and so, if he's speaking about his own perspective, male pronouns make sense, but this didn't have to be male
interactions
Several events have gotten tangled in my thoughts over the last week, and they've made me consider when and how to say you've been hurt. Last week, a group I participate in came to a decision in a way that hurt and disappointed me. (The exact
matlab
The Problem Some of the figures I create can be presented on either logarithmic or linear scales. After creating a plot, I may want to switch scales, but I don't want to type set(gca, 'XScale', 'log') every time (nor do I want to
I've been catching up on my podcast backlog, including Back to Work Episode 132, wherein Dan and Merlin discuss frauds and impostors. Dan had never heard of Impostor Syndrome, and has no sympathy (but plenty of suspicion!) for anyone who says they feel like a fraud. Merlin said