Month: December 2007
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The top posts of 2007: number 2
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Breaking the Netflix prize dataset 27 November Hell, this is good work. In October last year, Netflix released over 100 million movie ratings made by 500,000 subscribers to their online DVD rental service. The company then…
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The top posts of 2007: number 3
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Invasion of the jivin’ nanoshrooms 24 August Convertin’ a constant force into an oscillatin’ one is a useful trick. Ya’ll seen em: gravity-powered pendulums and wind-powered turbines for example, them both set machines a-spinin and a-swingin…
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The top posts of 2007: number 4
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Einstein and the greatest scientific fraud of the 20th century 24 September In 1926, when the scientific world was still a-puzzling and a-wondrin over the wave-particle duality of light, Einstein asked a pal, Emil “Hurry” Rupp,…
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The top posts of 2007: number 5
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Mathematics: the foundation of reality 2 October “Our universe is not just described by mathematics — it is mathematics.” That’s the conclusion of Max “Peg Leg” Tegmark, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But…
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The top posts of 2007: number 6
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Cellphone records reveal new patterns of human activity 29 October Switch yer mobile phone on and it checks into the local network giving your location and the time you were there. The network also records the…
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The top posts of 2007: number 7
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. The frightening prospect of flu 23 November Bird flu may get all the headlines but the number of deaths it causes each year is currently measured in hundreds. The real killer, the one that should set…
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The top posts of 2007: number 8
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. Game theory and the future of Adwords 8 September Ain’t Google Adwords a miracle o’ modern science? Here’s a system that searches your web page for keywords, hunts for advertisers who wanna have their message displayed…
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The top posts of 2007: number 9
Over the holiday period, the physics arxiv blog is re-running the most popular blogs (by page views) of 2007. The incredible galactic foxtrot 30 August Ya’ll know the laws of physics are symmetrical–they have no preferred direction. The speed of light (and more or less everything else) is the same whichever way it is pointin’,…
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Apples ‘n’ pears
The best of the rest form the physics preprint server this week: A Novel Mechanism for Outbursts of Comet 17P/Holmes and other Short-period Comets The Production Rate and Employment of Ph.D. Astronomers Expanding and Improving the Search for Habitable Worlds The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks: Efficiency and Optimality Control Extinction risk and structure…
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In case ya missed ’em
This week’s posts: Why MHD propulsion won’t work The puzzling presence of DIBs The sunset on HD 189733b Tune into the snowflake channel Black holes may convert dark matter into cosmic rays