Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'
I thought about being in the choir myself, but decided I didn't have time. Now I wish I had done it.
At any rate, this is fantastic execution of a cool concept.
At any rate, this is fantastic execution of a cool concept.
2010 APS March Meeting
Last week was the APS March meeting conference. In Portland, this year. Thanks to Nathan and Jean for letting me stay with them!
If anyone is interested, here's the talk I gave:
Optically-Detected Electron Spin Resonance of Self-Assembled InAs Quantum Dots
If anyone is interested, here's the talk I gave:
Optically-Detected Electron Spin Resonance of Self-Assembled InAs Quantum Dots
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
in other news... BYU is "most popular" university
I don't think "most popular" is quite the right phrase to describe this, but it's an interesting statistic and interesting article:
http://heraldextra.com/news/local/article_b7595199-5bc9-5828-9737-e44bcf3673ab.html
BYU named most popular college in nation
Brigham Young University has been named the most popular university in the country by a national magazine.
Rankings released last week by U.S. News and World Report put BYU at the top of the list with the highest percentage of students who are accepted to the school choosing to attend.
According to the report, 78 percent of the students accepted to BYU decide to attend the university. That's 2 percent more than Harvard, which came in second. The magazine ranks Harvard as the best college in the United States, while BYU is ranked 71 on that list.
BYU spokesman Todd Hollingshead said U.S. News and World Report has been ranking schools by popularity for three years, and BYU has been battling Harvard at the top of the list every year. The two schools tied the first year, while Harvard came in first last year. Hollingshead said it is an honor to be mentioned among the elite schools of the country like Harvard and Stanford, which came in third this year.
Hollingshead said the ranking is great news, though it was not a complete surprise. He said it was a surprise to come in first, but BYU has always had a very high yield. Even before U.S. News began ranking universities by popularity, BYU steadily had between 75 and 80 percent yield, he said.
"I think it says that the students that come to BYU want to be here," he said.
Hollingshead said students who apply to BYU want to be a part of the academics and school community there. Many students planned to go to the university their whole lives, so they applied only to BYU or a select few schools. He said to be recognized nationally is an honor and exciting for the students, who may feel their decision to go to BYU has been validated.
"Any time BYU is ranked high, the students welcome that and are excited to hear that," he said.
http://heraldextra.com/news/local/article_b7595199-5bc9-5828-9737-e44bcf3673ab.html
BYU named most popular college in nation
Brigham Young University has been named the most popular university in the country by a national magazine.
Rankings released last week by U.S. News and World Report put BYU at the top of the list with the highest percentage of students who are accepted to the school choosing to attend.
According to the report, 78 percent of the students accepted to BYU decide to attend the university. That's 2 percent more than Harvard, which came in second. The magazine ranks Harvard as the best college in the United States, while BYU is ranked 71 on that list.
BYU spokesman Todd Hollingshead said U.S. News and World Report has been ranking schools by popularity for three years, and BYU has been battling Harvard at the top of the list every year. The two schools tied the first year, while Harvard came in first last year. Hollingshead said it is an honor to be mentioned among the elite schools of the country like Harvard and Stanford, which came in third this year.
Hollingshead said the ranking is great news, though it was not a complete surprise. He said it was a surprise to come in first, but BYU has always had a very high yield. Even before U.S. News began ranking universities by popularity, BYU steadily had between 75 and 80 percent yield, he said.
"I think it says that the students that come to BYU want to be here," he said.
Hollingshead said students who apply to BYU want to be a part of the academics and school community there. Many students planned to go to the university their whole lives, so they applied only to BYU or a select few schools. He said to be recognized nationally is an honor and exciting for the students, who may feel their decision to go to BYU has been validated.
"Any time BYU is ranked high, the students welcome that and are excited to hear that," he said.
Slap the Dickens, parts 2 and 3
For those who thought the original Slap the Dickens was a hilarious as Leslie and Emily did (OK, I'll admit it: and me, too), here are parts 2 and 3:
Friday, March 05, 2010
Darth Vader being a smart-alec
OK, the video doesn't use the word "alec". Anyway, it's some creative editing of a Star Wars scene; made me laugh.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
For those who like OK Go and/or Rube Goldberg contraptions:
And here's a news story about the filming: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/03/ok.go.video/
And here's a news story about the filming: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/03/ok.go.video/
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
"Moore's Law" for fusion
In our departmental colloquium today, the speaker talked about calculations he's been doing on energy dissipation due to turbulence in controlled fusion experiments. Much of the talk was very dry, but I thought this figure from his introduction was really interesting. (I googled it.)
He acknowledged that sometimes fusion is considered to be a laughing stock because for the past 50 years, a working fusion reactor has always been "30 years away". But while the progress has not been as anticipated, one thing that I hadn't realized is how consistent the progress has been.
What the graph shows, is that in order to have self-sustaining fusion, the "triple product", the product of the density (n), temperature (T), and time of reaction (tau), needs to be above a certain threshold. The upper left line shows that progress towards that threshold has very consistently been increasing at an exponential rate. One can compare that to the "Moore's Law" progress in computer chips shown as the red line. The speaker was confident that since the trend of constant progress towards the required triple product has shown no sign of halting, self-sustaining fusion really would occur in the immediate future (10 years, he said). Functioning commercial power plants would of course be many years after that.
He acknowledged that sometimes fusion is considered to be a laughing stock because for the past 50 years, a working fusion reactor has always been "30 years away". But while the progress has not been as anticipated, one thing that I hadn't realized is how consistent the progress has been.
What the graph shows, is that in order to have self-sustaining fusion, the "triple product", the product of the density (n), temperature (T), and time of reaction (tau), needs to be above a certain threshold. The upper left line shows that progress towards that threshold has very consistently been increasing at an exponential rate. One can compare that to the "Moore's Law" progress in computer chips shown as the red line. The speaker was confident that since the trend of constant progress towards the required triple product has shown no sign of halting, self-sustaining fusion really would occur in the immediate future (10 years, he said). Functioning commercial power plants would of course be many years after that.
