Posts by Ross Mason
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Hmmm...Higgs Boson.
No "S" or a "B" in Maori.
We've gone a long way from the post eh what. Aren't connections wonderful.
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Hard News: Higgs Live!, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Don't you be starting them off with homoeopathy allusions, there'll be no settling them for the night...
Heh. But I have just done a back-of-the-envelope calculation. If the Earth was concussed and diluted into the known universe, each molecule would be spread apart by at least a lightyear.
Your task, should you agree to undetake it: 1) Reassemble Earth and make me whole. 2) Convince me we are relevant.
Now to settle well for the night.
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Roughan is a driller and a miner. Maybe he too has succumbed to the idea that science and technology are one and the same. Far from it. Environmentalism attacked the use of technology with no regard to the environment. It wasn't the science that was the problem. It is the usual problem of how we use it.
His high school experience was different to mine. I go my damascus happening when I argued what the hell was one more supersonic airliner going to do with all that sky? The rebuke I got from one of my fellow students suddenly struck a chord and from then on I had this fascination to try and discover consequences.
As for the moon sunrise suggesting we were giants. Shit. It brought home the fact that we were on one small blue ball in an unfathomably ginormous universe and we are much much less than a pimple on the arse of it. And, I have this wee suspicion that It doesn't give a razoo about us either. But that is athiest talk. Rational but.
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Hard News: Higgs Live!, in reply to Kumara Republic,
"Two sevens"
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Hard News: Higgs Live!, in reply to Russell Brown,
He seems to see the Higgs breakthrough as a return to proper Man Science.
As our greatest Man Rutherford said:
"All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
But he also added another which obviously has much to do with this discussion:
"An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid."
and for the beggars in NZ science:
We've got no money, so we've got to think.
Wiki sourced to remind me of the exact words!
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I'm just suggesting it's not only a healthy contribution to the culture for more scientists to develop that ability, but entirely in their enlightened self-interest. Science isn't just about the seminar room and the research lab.
Surprisingly you don't see too many accountants giving (good) public presentations either. Scientists are the same. Some do, some don't. It is a skill. If you sat down at the tea table with a nerd - physics or otherwise - you would have the time to ask questions and I know nerds have fun explaining their esoteric existence to non nerds - or those here who are nerdy designers. Crowds are scary places.
We had a principal at the school down here who was really keen on the kids having presentation skills. His mantra was "Presentation is everything". I recall the meeting where the selection committee presented their report. "He presented well". He was a waste of time.
But that is the other extreme. Scientists should take the time to improve their presentation skills. Toastmasters was a great place to do this by the way. But the audience needs to well endowed to see through the floss.
We do need more Lawrence Krauss's, Richard Dawkins, Attenboroughs, Callaghans and Hitchens in this world. They do us all a service.
These sorts of discoveries come once a century. The learnings are a wee bit few and far between.
Einsteins theory of generality relativity was met the same:
Asked in 1919 whether it was true that only three people in the world understood the theory of general relativity, Sir Stanley Eddington allegedly replied: 'Who's the third?'
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Hard News: Higgs Live!, in reply to Russell Brown,
Meanwhile, actual tweets. Take that, atheists!
Heh. Here is where the phrase came from. Bloody Publishers. Spoil all the fun.
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That Free Me From Those Money Grubbing Printers and let me at "Desk Top Publishing". Now THAT has a lot to answer for......
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Hard News: Higgs Live!, in reply to Russell Brown,
Doesn't that suggest that it's in the interests of good scientists to communicate effectively?
Yes. But understand. The "unpresenters" would say: "My talk was understandable to my peers. I find that sufficient for me."
I DO have to tell you we have some "Presentation Skills" seminars doing the rounds at the moment. ;-)
Bart mentions talks he has been to. That is not the problem with the "Comics of Cern". It is the non science folk (and reporters) who are watching and trying to understand - and probably having a little difficulty given the questions asked at the news conference along the lines of "What should I write about this event in my paper?" - thus they concentrate on the how rather than the what.
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I don't worry about how poorly good scientists present using quarky fonts like comic sans, but it scares the shit out of me watching a not so good scientist do a presentation with a really cool presentation.
It is those that get the ear of the managers and the marketers. Regrettably they are usually the type who "want to go far". Utterly regrettably......they usually end up doing so.