“I have the stripes, but where is the zebra?”

Hi Everyone.  Sorry I haven’t posted anything in the long time.  My apology is a post that even longer and more meandering than usual.

I’m at Indiana University for the Biocomplexity X workshop on Quantitative Tissue Biology and Virtual Tissues.  It’s been great — perhaps because there are many physicists converted to biology.  There have been several talks that touched on non-linear elasticity, though most people’s background is in foams and not granular matter.   Rene Doursat gave an especially good talk today on agent-based models of morphogenesis in which he mentioned another alleged quotation, attributed to Alan Turing, who made either the titular comment or said “The stripes are easy, it’s the horse part that troubles me!” in reference to the ability of certain systems of equations to create seemingly biologically-relevant patterns without necessarily providing biological insight.  Brad has

Bob in Physics Today

Those of you who aren’t current in your APS subscriptions might miss this “Quick Study” article by Bob in this month’s Physics Today.

Bunton’s Winter CD: Track 9

Every so often I make up a mix CD of my favorite songs at the moment; mostly new songs, but with some old songs sprinkled in for flavor. I thought it’d be a neat feature of this new blog to go through, song-by-song, and explain a little about why it appeals to me.

I first encountered Iron & Wine on the soundtrack to Garden State (thanks, Brian). I didn’t realize that “Such Great Heights” was a reinterpretation of a Postal Service tune, and hearing it first I actually prefer it. In any case, I was taken with the singer’s unique voice, but I wasn’t moved to act on it.

Soon after I moved back to South Carolina, I discovered the KEXP Song of the Day podcast. Every weekday, a free mp3 selected by the staff at one of the arguably few “real” radio stations anymore, KEXP out of Seattle. One of the first songs I downloaded was “Boy with a Coin” (video) by Iron & Wine, from his album The Shepherd’s Dog. It’s addictive and glorious. Two years later, it’s still the most-played song in my iTunes. I still haven’t found a single thing he’s sung that I haven’t enjoyed, but for some reason I haven’t purchased any of his albums.

Next time: perhaps the most over-played song in recent memory

When Zombies Attack!

Mathematicians at Carlton University (which a Canadian friend of mine has described as the country’s “last chance” school) have studied the way a zombie outbreak would occur, and what human strategies would work in stemming the tide. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good for us. The entire paper is amusing, but I especially enjoy the introduction that establishes the difference between zombie folklore and “Hollywood” zombies.

Our Shrinking World

The schools of Duke and Coastal Carolina continue to get closer together. The first overtures were made when I went from graduate school in the Triangle to a job in the Grand Strand. Since, the link has remained strong. John and Ann visited in the spring to speak to my physics seminar classes, and I’ll be venturing back up to Duke very soon to collaborate with my former advisor, both activities I hope will become standing. An extensive interstate system will simplify the route between home cities. But perhaps the most important link between the two happened just this past week: CCU just got its very first Jimmy John’s.

Brontosaurus in Need

Brontosauruses have a lot of problems these days.  Foremost being that they don’t exist.  But that had never stopped the Durham Brontosaurus at the Musuem of Life and Science.  Unfortunately, some teens were too much for it and decapitated the landmark (well, a landmark in my mind, at least) last month.  Fortunately the museum has hired a sculptor to repair the behemoth.  It make actually work out for the best since the mueseum had been letting the elements have their way with the brontosaurus for quite some time (somewhat understandable given the upcoming dinosaur trail, which I expect will be awesome).

If the sculpture meant anything to you (having your wedding pictures taken there is not a prerequisite, please think of making a donation or buying a t-shirt at the Farmer’s Market this Saturday.

Student Contract Jobs at EPA RTP

If you know students with science backgrounds and computer skills looking for additional funding in the Research Triangle Park area, then there are several twelve month contracts available for work at the National Center for Computational Toxicology. The contracts can potentially be extended up to a total of two and a half years and pay a bit over $21 an hour.

Fat tails

There’s a recent article up at Slate spin-off DoubleX that does a nice job explaining some practical consequences of statistics in the real world.

Seems several major retailers have recently stopped carrying women’s plus sizes. At first blush it sounds odd at best — we don’t want your business, ladies. But it’s actually an economically motivated decision, due to the fact that 1) fabric represents the greatest part of production costs and 2) the probability distribution of women’s weights has a fat tail, meaning there are many different plus sizes. The plus market is spread out over lots of sizes, each of which is expensive to make and, compared to smaller sizes, relatively unpopulated — even though the total plus market may be sizeable.

Physics Thunderdome

Pardon me for talking shop for a minute, but I have a question for the group.

The subject of a coming controversy in my program has to do with the curriculum. As it exists, the four “upper level” physics courses undergraduates are required to take are mathematical methods, analytical mechanics, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. In addition, one must take four other science or math courses numbered 300 or above, the reason being that the degree is Applied Physics, whatever that means. One choice is, of course, quantum mechanics.

Grant Wishes

I suppose I can now call myself a real scientist. I have applied for funding from the NSF.

I’m listed as a co-PI on a Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant proposal. We’ve called it Improving the APplied Physics Laboratory Experience, or iAPPLE. The purpose of the grant would be to create a junior-level lab course sequence,

Artist’s conception of iAPPLE.

which hasn’t existed to date. Instead of doing the “classic” experiments, though, students would propose, design, and carry out independent projects. They would have to create mathematical models (using Mathematica, naturally) for the phenomena they’re investigating and produce some sort of physical apparatus of demonstration equipment-level quality. In turn, these would be folded back into the introductory courses, and the lab students would be responsible for assessing the quality of their work as it’s used in the intro classes. Therefore, a feedback loop is created, in which students come into the program and learn from materials more advanced students have made, then they make more materials for the next “generation”. These educational materials would accumulate in our department over time. It’s win/win/win… or so we believe.

 

The grant-writing process itself has been hectic, especially toward the end. I was gone on vacation for a week, though, so I missed a lot of the slog of writing and editing. I feel a bit guilty about it, but my responsibility in the actual execution of the grant is quite significant. But the last few days since I’ve gotten back have been a constant cycle of re-writes and edits and meeting to talk about grammar and re-formatting. We submitted it today, though, so the pressure’s off. We think we have a very good shot of getting funded. We’re all very excited about the project anyway, regardless of the NSF’s decision.

Now, it’s on to write another NSF grant about starting an REU program here…