Mobile Technologies

I’m thinking about how academics are using mobile technologies. I will be teaching a class later in the Fall and plan on using the whitepaper,  “On the Move with the Mobile Web: Libraries and Mobile Technologies.” by Ellyssa Kroski http://eprints.rclis.org/15024/1/mobile_web_ltr.pdf ” as a course backbone. It is a great source for getting some ideas on how to introduce the capabilities of mobile technologies to library staff, and to our users.   I encourage you to look at some of the apps that have been developed, take a look at the mobile.hsl.virginia.edu and Duke University websites, and get into the mobile adventure! I’m currently reading iPHone SDK Programming, Developing Mobile Applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch, and so far so good!

Citing sources

I suppose I am getting ahead of myself, but I’m in the process of building a module in Owlspace (Rice’s Sakai/instruction space) for doing library research, so I thought I would also post some of the sources here.

Physics

AIP Style Manual (American Institute of Physics), 4th ed. 1990. QC5.45 .A45 1990 Fondren-Reference Desk
Available online at: http://www.aip.org.ezproxy.rice.edu/pubservs/style/4thed/toc.html
The AIP Style Manual serves as guidance in writing, editing, and preparing articles for publication by AIP and its member societies (in conjunction with the “Information for Contributors” page in the specific member journal).  The Addendum includes instructions for electronic submission and a list of AIP member journals.

Physical Review Style and Notation Guide – Guidelines for the American Physical Society’s journal Physical Review

Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers – Style Manual Committee, Council of Science Editors. T11 .S386 2006 Documenting Sources: CSE Style, from Diana Hacker, for an overview of CSE Style as well as examples: http://dianahacker.com/resdoc/

Physics Films

I launched a documentary film series for the Physics and Astronomy Graduate Student Association last Friday. Most of the films this semester will be about physics or astronomy, but the first one, by request, was The Corporation. An excellent documentary, about the role of the corporation in society.

Films to be shown (date to be announced):The Journey to Palomer (90 minutes)

This is the story of George Ellery Hale and his efforts to create
three of the greatest astronomical observatories in the world-the
Yerkes Observatory, the Mt. Wilson Observatory, and the Palomar
Observatory. Originally shown on PBS.

Richard Feynman: Take the World from Another Point of View (38
minutes) and  NOVA Feynman: The Best Mind Science Einstein (56 minutes)

Feynman describes how his sense of continuous wonder, his
childlike curiosity about anything and everything, led him to a life in
science. (Films for the Humanities and Sciences)

Albert Einstein and the Theory of Everything (50 minutes)

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku and experts form Cambridge, MIT,
and elsewhere discuss Einstein. A gripping dramatizaion of Einstein’s
last two days paints a vivid portrait of an idealistic scientist who
never gave up seeking.

Bye-Bye Planet Pluto (50 minutes)

How many planets are there? It depends on how you define a planet. Bye-Bye Pluto!

The Copenhagen Interpretation: Quantum Physics vs. Relativity (50 minutes)

(Films for the Humanities and Sciences)

Here is a great article about showing films for library promotions.

Oral History Interviews at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives

Just discovered that the Niels Bohr Library and Archives of the American Institute of Physics holds more than a thousand tape-recorded interviews. Many of the oral history interview transcripts are now online. The interviews, conducted by the staff of the AIP Center for History of Physics and many other historians, offer unique insights into the lives, works, and personalities of modern scientists.

Deciphering physics citations from the arXiv

It can be very confusing to track down a citation that looks like this:
arXiv:0809.3599v1 [astro-ph].
The arXiv is located at: http://arxiv.org/ and is a great online source of information. Paul Ginsparg  started the repository for preprints in 1991. It was originally hosted at Los Alamos National Laboratory, but is now operated by Cornell University. It was THE original open access model, and is a crucial source for physics, astronomy, mathematics. 

To find a paper in the arXiv:
If You Know the Archive and Paper Number

Archived submissions are each assigned a unique identifier of the form
yymm.nnnn (or arch-ive/yymmnnn for older submissions).
To retrieve the abstract page of a paper simply enter the identifier in
the "Search or Article-id" box in the top right of most pages.

You can also construct the URL (web address) for a paper with a
given identifier as
http://arxiv.org/abs/<identifier&gt;. For example,

http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9603067
http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0123

From the abstract page you will be able to choose your preferred
format for downloading and viewing the paper.

If You Want to Search for it Via the Web Interface

Using the world wide web interface, you can search
for papers based on archive subject area, title, author,
or keywords in the full abstracts. You are encouraged
to try it out.

So, to find the paper at the beginning of this blog post, you would go to http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3599v1 Viola! 

A Young Planet Search in Visible and IR Light: DN Tau, V836 Tau, and V827 Tau
Authors:
L. Prato,
M. Huerta,
C. M. Johns-Krull,
N. Mahmud,
D. T. Jaffe,
P. Hartigan

Refuting Pseudoscience

There comes an occasion in everyone’s life where pseudoscience pops up. I faced such a situation this week–a question that seemed serious enough, quickly unraveled, as I did a literature review.
So, here are a few places to look when you are refuting pseudoscience!

Dr. John Kramer has a nice column he does for Analog: http://www.npl.washington.edu/av/

Q172.5 .P77 C37 2003

The skeptic’s dictionary : a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions

Carroll, Robert Todd, 1945-

Personal author:	Carroll, Robert Todd, 1945-
Title:	The skeptic’s dictionary : a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions / Robert Todd Carroll.

Q172.5 .P77 W96 2001

Quantum leaps in the wrong direction : where real science ends– and pseudoscience begins

Wynn, Charles M.

Personal author:	Wynn, Charles M.
Title:	Quantum leaps in the wrong direction : where real science ends– and pseudoscience begins / Charles M. Wynn and Arthur W. Wiggins ; with cartoons by Sidney Harris.

Austria leaving CERN?

This is interesting..from the Not Even Wrong Blog: "I mentioned this here
when I first heard about it, but by now more information is available.
Last Thursday the Austrian government announced their intention to
withdraw from membership in CERN, effective late 2010. This decision
still needs to be approved by the parliament. An official statement
from CERN is available here, news stories here and here, blog postings many places including here."

Will this have an impact on SCOAP3?

Great Photo Collection!

Several years ago I took a tour of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives and the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics. It is supported by donations from the Friends of the AIP Center for History of Physics and by an endowment from Rosa Segrè.

The collection has more than 30,000 historical digital images,
photographs, slides, lithographs, engravings, drawings and other visual
materials. The collection is richest in portraits and snapshots of
modern American physicists, astronomers and geophysicists but includes
many other scientists as well as photos and illustrations of
laboratories, telescopes, accelerators and other instruments, objects
and places.

One of the coolest things? The collection of physicists riding bicycles. No, really!

History of Scientists: Physicists

Interested in finding out more about the life of your favorite physicists? Here is a short list: 

• Eric Weisstein's World of Science Includes extensive encyclopedias of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and scientific biography. Entries include definitions, diagrams, formulas, cross-references, and related resources. Searchable, and browsable alphabetically or by topic. Also has a "random entry" feature. The author is a scientist with advanced degrees in physics and planetary science. http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/

• The Galileo Project  This site looks at the life and works of Galileo Galilei, mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Features a biography, including patrons, theories, and inventions; timelines; portraits of Galileo and other scientists; brief biographies of his contemporaries; figures in the Catholic Church that played a role in the Inquisition; a glossary, bibliography, maps, lesson plans, and related links. Searchable. From Rice University, Houston, Texas. http://galileo.rice.edu/

• Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics  Profiles of nearly 90 20th-century women "who have made original and important contributions to physics" before 1976. Includes "descriptions of some important work they have done and also biographical information regarding their lives, work, [and] achievements." Searchable, and browsable by field of study. Includes writings, an annotated gallery of photographs, and a collection of quotes. From the University of California, Los Angeles. http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/

• ECHO Exploring and Collecting History Online) is a directory to 5,000+ websites concerning the history of science, technology, and industry. You can search it, browse it according to category, or even look at the tag cloud they have generated. Has some primary source resources. http://echo.gmu.edu/

Reviews by Librarian's Index to the Internet http://www.lii.org

Physics Societies & Organizations

I'm working on a comprehensive listing of physics societies and organizations. Here is the first pass:

• American Association of
  Physics Teachers (AAPT) 
• American Astronomical Society
  (AAS) 
• American Institute of Physics
  (AIP) 
• American Physical Society
  (APS) 
• Astronomical Society of
  the Pacific 
• Biophysical
  Society 
• Center
  for Advanced Space Studies (CASS) 

  ---

• European Physical Society
  (EPS) 
• Fermi National Accelerator
  Laboratory 
• Institute of
  Astronomy (University of Cambridge) 
• Institute of Electrical and
  Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) 
• Institute of Physics
  (IoP) 
• Lunar and Planetary
  Science Institute
• Materials Research
  Society 
• 
  

  ---

• National Academy of Sciences
  (NAS) 
• National Aeronautics and
  Space Administration (NASA) 
• National Institute of
  Standards and Technology. Physics Laboratory 
• Optical Society of America
  (OSA) 
• PhysLINK
  Physical Societies

  ---

• Scholarly
  Societies Project (University of Waterloo) 
• Sigma Pi
  Sigma – National Physics Honor Society 
• Society for Industrial and
  Applied Mathematics 
• Society of
  Physics Students