Always Write the Introduction Last

Here are some excerpts from the introductory sections of the very first drafts of some book chapters: [BLAH, BLAH, BLAHBITTY BLAH] and [Introductory blather goes here] and Blah, blah, stuff, blather. There’s a good reason for this, based on the basics of scientific writing, namely that the Introduction should give the reader a rough guide […]

Links for 2012-03-31

Physics – Cultivating Extra Dimensions The search for ways to unify and understand physical phenomena goes back to Kaluza and Klein, who in the 1920s tried to combine electromagnetism with gravity by adding a fourth spatial dimension to the usual three (plus time). More recent theoretical work has suggested that a theory of everything may […]

It Figures: The Historical Aesthetics of Scientific Publishing

Steve Hsu has a post comparing his hand-drawn diagrams to computer-generated ones that a journal asked for instead: He’s got a pretty decent case that the hand-drawn versions are better. Though a bit more work with the graphics software could make the computer ones better. This reminded me, though, of something I’ve always found interesting […]

Links for 2012-03-29

The Virtuosi: Money for (almost) Nothing I am not typically interested in lotteries. They seem silly and I am seriously beginning to question their usefulness in bringing about a good harvest. But this morning I read in the news that the Mega Millions lottery currently has a world record jackpot up for grabs. In fact, […]

Thursday Sick Kid Blogging

Last Saturday, at my book signing in Vestal, The Pip spit up a lot, several times, and wouldn’t stop crying. This lasted a few hours, and by the next day, he was more or less back to normal. When I dropped him off at day care on Monday, I mentioned this, and the teachers in […]

Links for 2012-03-28

The Religious Frenzy of a Court You Can’t Believe In – Esquire There are better places on the Intertoobz than this one to look either for a general overview of what may happen in the Court over the next three days — Ezra Klein’s joint did a masterful job this morning — and, if you’re […]