Prayer Doesn’t Help Heart Patients

Well the study on the effects of prayer on the health of heart patients has come out. It has been covered by the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, and Reuters. This is being treated as big news. The results are negative, from the Post
The long-awaited results, the latest in a series of studies that [...]

Testing Flickr

Ginger Standing
Originally uploaded by cyclequark.
Just a test of flickr blogging. I got a Nikon D50 for Christmas. It has allowed me to catch the girl's pet rabbits in the act, which I never could with my old point and shoot.
Flickr has a blog this button which will create a blog entry with a link to [...]

Everyday Physics: Driving in the Evening When It Is Wet

I had to go out to the store tonight to pick up milk and few other basics. It had been drizzling much of the day so the roads were wet, but it was not raining so much that visibility was affected. However, it was harder than normal to see. It seemed darker than it should. [...]

It Is Not Easy Being a Girl Geek.

My daughter expressed a strong desire for dopamine earrings. They are silver earrings in the form of the chemical structure of dopamine. Her mother and I gave her a pair as a gift, and she has been wearing them regularly. Today she told me that several people have complemented her on how interesting they look, [...]

Most Memorable Colloquim

I inspired Kristen at radioactive-banana.com to write about the best and worst colloquia she has heard, so I decided to write about the most memorable colloqium I ever heard. It was neither the best or worst, but I will never forget it.

Studying the Effects of Prayer Scientifically

I am beginning to think that I should call this blog, Reading the Washington Post so You Don't Have to. In today's Post there is a story on scientific research into the healing power of prayer. This is either a truly wonderful idea or a truly stupid idea. I am a firm believer in [...]

YoYo

Visit to Fermilab

I am spending a few days at Fermilab this week. It is always interesting to see how much goes on at a major physics research center like this. Two tidbits struck me. One was the weekly colloqium which was given by Elizabeth Simmons this week and was titled How to Popularize Physics. I [...]

Duct Tape Lousy for Ducts

In the close of an article singing the praises of duct tape , we learn the terrible secret.

Of course, for all its versatility, perhaps the most interesting thing about duct tape is also the most ironic: It’s lousy for use on ducts.
In 1998, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicists Max Sherman and Lain [...]

A Year of Gmail

I was cleaning up my mail the other day and I saw my Gmail welcome message from March 4, 2005. I have been using Gmail now for just over a year. The simple statistics are 117 MB used by 3444 emails. There have been 491 spam emails caught in the last 30 days. I have [...]