Ted Corcovilos

In case you were wondering, 100 mol of moles has about the same mass as the Earth.

Happy Mole Day to all who celebrate! 🧪

If Harvard is slashing PhD admissions by more than half, what does this foretell about less-resourced institutions? Will my graduating seniors be able to continue their education?

The solution here is obvious. We all need brain implants, so we don't have to talk out loud. /s

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

Quantum Josephson junction circuits and the dawn of artificial atoms - Nature Physics In 1985, experiments revealed the quantum behaviour of a macroscopic degree of freedom: the phase difference across a Josephson junction. The authors recount the history of this milestone for the development of superconducting quantum circuits.

Want to read a Comment by the three Nobel Laureates on quantum circuits?

Here it is: ($)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to John Clarke, Michael Devoret, & John Martinis
Nobel in Physics "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling & energy quantization in an electric circuit" in 3 PRLs
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

1/14

Anecdotally, instructors feel that the loss has negatively impacted student learning. The students have requested more contact time in their course evals. But we lack hard data. So, I thought I'd ask here to see what others can share! 3/3

We lost them a few years ago by administrative fiat. Can't get into specifics here, but it boils down to a belief that recitations weren't a cost-effective use of resources. 2/

In ages past we had one hour per week marked as "recitation" with faculty running them (no grad TAs in our dept). Usage varied by instructor. Some used them as office hours, others as extra lecture time, and some as problem-solving sessions. 1/

Currently we have no discussion or recitation sections, hence the question.

Question for the #ITeachPhysics crowd: Does anyone know of a paper where they measure the effectiveness of recitation sections for university intro physics (calc or non-calc)? Trying to build a case that we need recitation, but need data to back it up.

Feeling this right now as I grade exams. Also see students mixing x and y components within the same step. I'm a big fan of data tables to make it clear what goes where (columns for x, y, and magnitude.), but few write the table on exams.

Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The datasets used correspond to integrated luminosities of approximately 4.8 fb...

See for example arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214

The author list is 8+ pages

I was thinking about your comment in the top of the thread that just contributing to the non-writing part of the project should not qualify one for authorship. For these truly large collaborations we see in physics, only a few hands actually craft the paper. How do we credit everyone else?

Scale matters, too. I take your point, but in a field like high-energy physics, having hundreds of authors on a paper is seen as necessary to acknowledge all of those who contribute. Any idea of how to condense the author list without harming junior team members or technical staff?

Finally got into a CVS. Had to wait for them to restock and update their website. Thanks to everyone who passed on tips!

We couldn't schedule children, at least at the locations near us. Adults were okay.

Where can kids get a COVID shot in Pittsburgh? CVS and Walgreens turned us away.

Happy 4^ / 3^2 / 5^2 day!!! (3^2/ 4^2 / 5^2 for us weird Americans) Not too many days satisfy the Pythagorean thm. @amermathsoc.bsky.social @austms.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com @monsoon0.bsky.social ht Peter Baxter for noticing. Looking forward to coming back to the US for joint maths in Jan.

“The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident”

Every day this line feels more and more relevant.

a bald man is making a funny face and saying inconceivable . Alt: a bald man is making a funny face and saying inconceivable .

"Once Guilder is blamed, the nation will truly be outraged—they'll demand we go to war"

I'm not saying we should sympathize with those who hate. But letting them speak is better that silencing them until they kill.

I condemn political violence. I don't think polarization is the cause. We must realize that violence becomes more likely when people feel disenfranchised, feel that they have no other way of being heard, feel that the only power they have left is the power to destroy.

Folks jumping on the plate gaffe are missing the bigger point. Voter intimidation works better if you have to cast your ballot in person in front of masked goons.

ScienceFriday.com Brain fun, for curious people.

Unless something exciting happens that pre-empts it, I should be on Science Friday this afternoon talking about the first 100 years of quantum physics. They said around 3:20 ET, if you want a more specific time. www.sciencefriday.com

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge This week I was looking for info on what cognitive scientists mean when they speak of ‘domain-general’ cognition. I was curious, because the nuances are relevant for something I am researching at t…

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...

It also helps that I have some awesome colleagues with interest in electronic music that help with demos.

Similar to others, but we drop modern in favor of sound. We felt waves are important enough that we should include them. Also, we have a fair number of speech and language pathology students in the course.