Archive for February, 2007
On Jello.
Americans refer to gelatin—the edible, flavoured kind–as jello, after the brand Jell-o that was popularised in the early 90s by its television ads featuring Bill Cosby. In the UK, gelatin is referred to as jelly. Americans use this word to refer to a spreadable fruit preserve which the English call jam. This word is [...]
Filed under: Just for Fun | 2 Comments
A long calculation is like …
Scientists (especially physicists) who speak to a general audience about their field usually have a back of handy analogies to help explain otherwise difficult concepts*. On a more basic level, the ability to make connections between a poorly understood idea and a well-understood idea is a key skill for those working in theoretical sciences. Anyway, [...]
Filed under: Just for Fun, Student Life | 6 Comments
Valentine’s for Mathematicians
I can’t resist sharing a common joke among mathematics students (’mathmos’) in Cambridge:
What’s the difference between an extroverted mathmo and an introverted mathmo? The extroverted mathmo will look at your shoes when s/he is talking to you.
In this vein, most people wouldn’t think of mathematicians as being particularly suited for Valentine’s day. Ironically, theoretical physicists [...]
Filed under: Just for Fun | 3 Comments
The Value of Blogs in Academia
Professor Trodden at Cosmic Variance has asked the blogosphere how academia can best incorporate blogs as part of the educational and research community. This is a topic of particular interest to me (at to a few of you) and I reproduce the comment that I left below. I’ve recently been thinking about how current and [...]
Filed under: Opinion, Student Life | 1 Comment
It’s a bit late for a white Christmas, but I’ve been whistling Christmas carols anyway. Yesterday’s snow begat some ephemeral new friends around Cambridge.
(What’s in the bag? Weinberg I and II, protected from the snow.)
I made friends with this particularly well shaped snowperson. It was the only one that had the sense to put on [...]
Filed under: Expatriate Life, Just for Fun | 1 Comment
“I grow increasingly convinced that the major reason faculty seem so damn smart is because when they were graduate students there was no Internet.”
-Navin Sivanandam, “Procrastination Vacation,” The Stanford Daily, 4 August 2005
The arXiv (and alert service and eprintweb)
You’re not a proper grad student (”postgrad” in the UK) if you don’t check the ArXiv religiously. [...]
Filed under: Physics, Student Life | 6 Comments
Those Fickle American Physicists
Overheard today in my department regarding American (poorly paraphrased by me) research interests:
Everyone in America is suddenly doing phenomenology. Every ten years American physicists follow a new trend. Here in Europe, we just kind of continue plodding along.
This was especially amusing because also recently overheard from an American in Trinity:
What? You can criticize my government, [...]
Filed under: Expatriate Life, Just for Fun | 1 Comment
