06/27/2008

Wells on Mathematical Language

Charles Wells, author (with Michael Barr) of Toposes, Triples, and Theories, now has a blog, gyre and gimble, devoted to how mathematicians use language.He notes that the idea of completed infinity, which mathematicians take for granted, is still not well...

~ published: 06/27 at 21:11 ~ source: Ars Mathematica ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Nice and Weird: Dispatches from The Depths of Parasitology

It feels like a homecoming: I'm among hundreds of people who live for parasites.I arrived in Arlington Texas this afternoon to attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists. I'm going to give a talk tomorrow about the public awarene...

~ published: 06/27 at 17:51 ~ source: The Loom ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Cluster listens to the sounds of Earth

The first thing an alien race is likely to hear from Earth is chirps and whistles.read more...

~ published: 06/27 at 14:19 ~ source: Science Blog - Think. It's not illegal yet. ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Casual Fridays -- Summer break

This is just a brief note to let our loyal Casual Friday readers know that we'll be going on a break for the summer. We should be able to maintain a semi-reasonable pace with the regular Cognitive Daily posts, but with all of our travel, it generally beco...

~ published: 06/27 at 14:02 ~ source: Cognitive Daily ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Basic concepts of physics and quantum gravity: some lore

In this text, I would like to describe how the essential concepts of theoretical physics - defined as a science linking the language of mathematics with the fundamental facts about the real world - and qualitative statements about the real world were evol...

~ published: 06/27 at 13:30 ~ source: The Reference Frame ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Reviewing Horror Stories

Essentially everyone who writes research papers suffers rejections. They always sting immediately, but upon further reflection many of these rejections come to seem reasonable. Maybe the equations had too many typos or maybe the topic just isn’t a...

~ published: 06/27 at 13:18 ~ source: Machine Learning (Theory) ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Wonders of Gauge Theory and Supergravity

A workshop in Paris/Saclay is taking place this week entitled Wonders of Gauge Theory and Supergravity and the talks are now online. They show that some exciting new things have been happening in the study of gauge theory and supergravity amplitudes, and...

~ published: 06/27 at 12:44 ~ source: Not Even Wrong ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming

The battle to reduce carbon emissions is at the heart of many eco-friendly efforts, and researchers from the University of Missouri have discovered that nature has been lending a hand.read more...

~ published: 06/27 at 11:57 ~ source: Science Blog - Think. It's not illegal yet. ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Women in the classroom

Interesting comments from Judith Warner of the Times, as she reports on a brain science workshop for journalists, held at MIT. The audience was more engaged (less intimidated?) by female lecturers. I find as well that women are less likely to try to get b...

~ published: 06/27 at 11:37 ~ source: Information Processing ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Supplemental US Science Funding

The Senate last night agreed to the House version of a bill that adds some supplemental science funding for FY2008, as part of a large “emergency” bill used to fund the the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The DOE Office of Science and NSF will eac...

~ published: 06/27 at 10:21 ~ source: Not Even Wrong ~ permalink ~ points: 0

Friday Random Recipe: Homemade Tonic Water

This is an interesting recipe, in a very unusual vein for me.Homemade tonic water. I hate tonic water. I really despise the stuff. But like a lot ofpeople, I have some strange twitchy muscle ticks, in my legs and myeyelids. A few years ago, I was talking...

~ published: 06/27 at 09:02 ~ source: Good Math, Bad Math ~ permalink ~ points: 0

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