Postage stamp honoring C. S. Wu

If asked to name a famous female physicist, the name Marie Curie is the one most likely to come to mind. But there are many others and one of the people who should be much better known is Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997), who used to be often referred to as Madame Wu.

It was her careful experimental work that showed that parity violation did indeed occur, as predicted by theoretical physicists Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee. Yang and Lee received the Nobel prize for this in 1957 but Wu’s contribution was not recognized, an omission that has been widely criticized.

Wu was a remarkable physicist who did receive many other honors, as can be read in this biographical article. She was the first Chinese-American elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958 and in 1967 she served as the first female president of the American Physical Society.

Yesterday, on the occasion of the sixth International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new forever stamp to honor her.

Cautious optimism about the pandemic

There is a glimmer of light in the pandemic darkness. The number of hospitalizations has been dropping and is close to half of what it was at its peak in early January. The number of deaths is also dropping.

But the current figures are still well above the previous peak values in the spring and summer of 2020.

We should also be concerned that people will take this news as license to let their guard down and that could cause yet another spike, which is what happened after numbers came down last summer.

Round two of my conflict with turkeys

Readers may recall my earlier close encounter with the wild turkeys that wander around the housing complex where I live. We could call that encounter a draw. But a couple of days ago, I had a rematch with one of them and this time the turkey was clearly the victor.

What happened was that I was going out somewhere and as I started driving on the road that exits the complex, I saw four turkeys ahead of me, straddling the road. I stopped to let them move on but turkeys are pretty casual about getting out of the way of cars and just hung around. After waiting some time, I drove around them but one of them took umbrage at this act of disrespect and chased after my car. I sped up and left it behind.
[Read more…]

Snake handling as a sign of faith

In general, the things that Jesus is reported to have said are fairly benign. (I do not want to get into the question of whether Jesus actually existed or said these things, which is something over which there is heated debate). But there is one thing that is highly problematic and that is found in the verses Mark 16:17-18 where, after his resurrection, he told his disciples the following:

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

[Read more…]

The anti-vaxxers seem to be more militant than the anti-choicers

We know that the anti-abortion crowd can be very militant and resort to extreme violence, to the extent of murdering people who provide abortion services. But I notice that recently anti-vaxxers seem to be approaching and even exceeding that level of fervor, as can be seen when protestors temporarily shut down a covid-19 mass vaccination site that had been opened in the Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles.
[Read more…]

Super Bowl = Super Spreader

The encouraging news is that the number of covid-19 infections and hospitalizations in the US seem to have started to decline, though the death rates are still high. Since death rates is a lagging indicator by about two weeks, we can hope that they too will begin to decline soon. This graph shows how super spreader events like Thanksgiving and Christmas caused spikes that are only just abating.

By The New York Times | Sources: State and local health agencies and hospitals

But now there is another potential super spreader event and that is the Super Bowl to be held this Sunday. A poll suggests that 25% of all Americans will be “gathering with other people that live outside of your home (i.e., with people that are not roommates/cohabitants, etc.,) to watch the upcoming Super Bowl.” 64% said no and 11% said they don’t know or have no opinion.

25% of the population is a lot. While I can sort of understand how some people feel the pull of family gatherings at Thanksgiving and Christmas to be so strong as to overcome common sense advice to just stay at home, risking one’s life to attend a party to watch a sports event on TV seems truly idiotic, especially since only half watch it to see the game with the other half split between wanting to see the commercials and the half-time show, both of which can be easily seen later.

The news about the vaccines is really, really good

I have had conversations with friends in Sri Lanka who ask me about the vaccines. They particularly want to know if I am going to get the vaccine and when I tell them that of course I will as soon as I become eligible, they are relieved because that country seems to be awash with all manner of false information that is scaring the hell out of people, such as that wearing masks can cause you to get sick and that the vaccine can give you HIV and even alter your DNA. This makes them apprehensive and I try my best to assure them that these stories are all false.
[Read more…]

Expect more masked madness and violence

Joe Biden has issued Executive Orders mandating that masks must be worn in a wide variety of venues.

Under the executive order, Biden is directing departments and agencies under his jurisdiction “to immediately take action to require people in federal buildings or on federal lands, on-duty or on-site federal employees, and on-site federal contractors to wear a mask and maintain physical distance,” according to the White House.

But the order also requires masks on various modes of public transportation, including trains, airplanes and intercity buses. And it’s that provision, attorneys who have challenged mask mandates in the past say, that could be the most vulnerable to a legal challenge.

[Read more…]