illuminating science

This is just a snippet of posts today. First up, a great discussion of the Physics Face from Uncertain Principles. This is the expression that people have when they ask “What do you study?” and you say “Physics!”. Chad Orzel’s story is probably familiar to every physicist:

…their mother asked me “What is it you’re reading that’s so engrossing?” I explained that it was a textbook for my class next term, and she asked what I teach.

When I said “Physics,” she made The Face. “Oh, I hated that when I took it in high school.”

It’s the must frustrating of all responses, although “Gee, you must be really smart.” comes pretty close, particularly paired with “I was hopeless at physics”. There’s a great story about physics vs astronomy that I blogged about a while ago, too.

There’s also the potentially quite exciting news that a drug which successful healed severed spinal cords in rats is going to human trials in the near future. Being realistic, I don’t think we can expect a miracle cure, but if we’re finally reaching human trial stages then we’re starting to make some progress.

And last but not least, my friend Brett and I have been working on a secret project which is due for release tomorrow! It’s a website, a little bit experimental and we hope very interesting for all who visit! It’s not directly about science, but there’ll be some overlap. Full details (and the link!) tomorrow!