nanoscale views

I wrote recently about phases of matter  (and longer ago here ).  The phase that tends to get short shrift in the physics curriculum is the ...

Today we had a seminar at Rice by Qian Niu of the University of Texas, and it was a really nice, pedagogical look at this paper  (arxiv ver...

Here are a few interesting results I stumbled upon recently: This preprint has become this Science paper that was published this week.  ...

Many many people have written about how to write scientific grant proposals, and much of that advice is already online.   Rather than duplic...

As I had posted a year ago:  Rice has a university-wide competitive postdoctoral fellow program known as the Rice Academy of Fellows .   Lik...

My apologies for the unusually long hiatus in posts.  Proposal deadlines + department chair obligations + multiple papers in process made th...

This continues to be a very very busy time, but here are a few interesting things to read: " Voodoo fusion " - an article from t...

As we await the announcement of this year's physics Nobel tomorrow morning (last chance for predictions in the comments), a brief note: ...

As I struggle with being swamped this semester, some news items: Scott Aaronson has a great summary/discussion about the forthcoming goog...

On the closing day of the PI meeting, some further points and wrap-up: I had previously missed work that shows that electric field can m...

Among the things I heard about today, as I wondered whether newly formed Tropical Storm Imelda would make my trip home a challenge: In ...

The first day of the DOE ECMP PI meeting was very full, including two poster sessions.  Here are a few fun items: Transition metal dichal...

The US Department of Energy 's Basic Energy Sciences component of the Office of Science  funds a lot of basic scientific research, and ...

Faculty position in Astronomy at Rice University The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University invites applications for a t...

Faculty position in Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University As part of the Vision for the Second Century (V2C2) , which is focu...

More questions  asked  by  Ross McKenzie 's son about the culture/history of condensed matter physics: 3.  What are the most interest...

Continuing, another question asked by Ross McKenzie 's son: 2. Scientific knowledge changes with time. Sometimes long-accepted ``fact...

Ross McKenzie , blogger of Condensed Concepts , is working on a forthcoming book, a Very Short Introduction  about condensed matter physics....

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to be able to speak at the first day of a week-long symposium at the American Chemical Society national me...

I've been asked by student readers over the years about how scientists come up with research ideas.  Sometimes you make an unanticipated...