Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Poor Doug's Almanack

Welcome, readers of Discover Magazine! Thanks for coming by, and I hope that you find the discussion here interesting. The historical target audience of this blog has been undergrads, grad students, and faculty interested in condensed matter (solid state) physics and nanoscience. The readership also includes some science journalists and other scientific/engineering professionals. I would like very much to reach a more general lay-audience as well, since I think we condensed matter types historically have been pretty lousy at explaining the usefulness and intellectually richness of our discipline. Anyway, thanks again.

(By the way, I don't compare in any serious way with Ben Franklin - that was a bit of hyperbole from Discover that I didn't know was coming. Fun science fact: Franklin's to blame that the electron charge is defined to be negative, leading to the unfortunate annoyance that current flow and electron flow point in opposite directions. He had a 50/50 chance, and in hindsight his choice of definition could've been better.)

15 comments:

  1. well congratulations anyway. That's great to be standing out amongst all disciplines of science. And if it helps in promoting condensed matter physics as well it is great...

    Regarding your blog, looking at the "subscription trends" in my Google Reader shows me that your blog is almost as popular across all users of Google Reader as the "Dining & Wine" blog at the New York Times. Not bad at all!

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  2. I first thought the post is somehow related to CVs move to the Discover blogs... but then:

    Congratulations!

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  3. Congrats, Doug!

    Like Stefan, I too thought this was a post about your moving to Discover Blogs. The actual news is even better!

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  4. Anonymous7:50 AM

    Congratulations ! Keep up with the good work.

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  5. Congratulations! I suspect it's about time starting to see your name on THOSE lists (more often).

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  6. Thanks, everyone. Joerg, I hadn't realized that google reader let me track how many people subscribed to an RSS feed - that's pretty neat.

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  7. Wow, it evens says you should become a celebrity. I'll start keeping an eye out for your picture in People magazine when I'm in the checkout line at the grocery store.

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  8. Anonymous12:10 PM

    Congratulations, Doug!! Go Owls!

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  9. Anonymous12:58 PM

    now that you are a celebrity, does this mean you are going to start dating britney spears? after all, she is a famous physicist too:

    http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

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  10. Anonymous3:35 PM

    Congrats, Doug. The "Benjamin Franklin of Nanoscience"--priceless! Are you going to put that on a T-shirt?

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  11. Anonymous5:47 PM

    Good job!

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  12. Wow. And I can say I knew you way back when, before you became a celebrity...

    :) Congrats on some well-deserved recognition. It might not beat a trip to Norway, but it does beat a kick in the teeth.

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  13. Way to go Doug. If you hadn't had Lasik surgery, I would suggest a good pair of bifocals. I will also refrain from suggesting how much of your success must be a result of amazing grad students working in your lab. Seriously though, more folks reading your blog can only be a good thing for science (and a bad thing for Texas politics?).

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  14. Anonymous9:17 PM

    Yea and check out the front page at www.rice.edu, for more flashing lights and neon and what on earth are you looking at in that photo?

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  15. Congratulations Doug! Great you are making condensed matter so popular! Debra Kolah

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