Five other mysteries that (should) keep physicists awake at night
Scientific American editor Clara Moskowitz has a nice post showcasing some of the big questions asked by participants at a recent particle physics conference.
The Curious Wavefunction
Musings on chemistry and the history and philosophy of science
Are physicists individualists or collectivists?
Ricardo Heras has a well-written and thought provoking essay in Physics Today in which he asks whether physicists should be individualists or collectivists.
Chasing the trajectory of science, both Big and Small: A panel discussion
Here is the link to the YouTube video of my panel discussion with Steven Weinberg, Sara Seager and Neil Turok. I was very pleased to have a productive conversation about the future of science with such sparkling and provocative thinkers...
A discussion on Big Science, Small Science and the future of all science
Tomorrow I have the privilege of joining a panel discussion on Big Science with three very distinguished scientists: Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, MIT astrophysics professor Sara Seager and Perimeter Institute cosmologist Neil Turok...
Arsenic DNA, chemistry and the problem of differing standards of proof in cross-disciplinary science
When the purported discovery of the now infamous “arsenic DNA” bacteria was published, a friend of mine who was studying astrobiology could not stop praising it as an exciting scientific advance...
Mind & Brain
Despair and hope on Scientific American Blogs
The last one week has been traumatic for the world of science blogging, journalism and writing. It has certainly been very painful for me, as I am sure it has been for many others, to watch someone who we all regarded as the glue that holds the science communication community together, someone who was the [...]..
The varieties of scientific bashing
The discussion in the comments section of a recent post on yesterday’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry reflects one of the more unseemly strains of discourse in the chemistry blog world that I have seen in a while...
Environment
Computational chemistry wins 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
It’s always very nice to wake up and see your own professional working field win a Nobel Prize. I am very happy to note that this year’s prize in chemistry has been awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for their development of “multiscale methods for complex systems”...
Nobel complexity: How the Nobel prize for the Higgs can mislead
The 2013 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded today to two very deserving individuals – Peter Higgs and Francois Englert. But as is rapidly turning out to be the case, the Nobel Prize – and other prizes for that matter – are finding themselves increasingly out of sync with the way science actually works these [...]..
#Dysonfest: Origin of life, climate change (denial), number theory and nuclear weapons
In 1985 Freeman Dyson delivered the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen, Scotland. The lectures were later turned into a book titled “Infinite in All Directions”.
Blog Index
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Anthropology in Practice
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News and research about endangered species from around the world
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Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
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Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
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The Artful Amoeba
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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