Dogs as a danger to wildlife

Domesticated dogs tend to be widely loved as companions and I am no exception to this feeling. Hence I was startled to learn that feral and free-roaming dogs may be responsible for the extinction of a large number of animal species.

There are now an estimated 1 billion domestic dogs across their near-global distribution.

Domestic dogs include feral and free-ranging animals (such as village and camp dogs), as well as those that are owned by and completely dependent on humans (pet dogs).
[Read more…]

The strange academic career ladder

In a BBC interview that was brought to my attention by Matt, this year’s co-winner of the Nobel prize in physics Donna Strickland was asked why she was still an associate professor and had not been promoted to full professor, something that I had noted in my earlier post, and she replied that she had never applied for promotion to full professor. Matt asked me to explain the weird academic rank system, so here it is.
[Read more…]

John Oliver on the Kavanaugh hearings

Although the Brett Kavanaugh hearings have been analyzed extensively, John Oliver manages to find some aspects that were largely ignored and sheds some new light on why Kavanaugh is a poor choice. He wonders why Republicans have chosen him as the hill they wish to fight and die on, when there are any number of highly conservative judges who do not have the same baggage and would be as eager as Kavanaugh to restrict abortion rights, which seemingly has become the issue they care most about.
[Read more…]

This year’s Nobel prize in physics

The award was announced today and went to three people: Arthur Ashkin (b. 1922) at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Gérard Mourou (b. 1944) at École Polytechnique in France, and Donna Strickland (b. 1959) at the University of Waterloo in Canada. The press release announcing the winners provides concise descriptions of the work for which they were recognized.
[Read more…]

Hooray! There is no sexism and racism in physics!

This is according to Prof Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University.

Prof Strumia, who regularly works at Cern, was speaking at a workshop in Geneva on gender and high energy physics.

He told his audience of young, predominantly female physicists that his results “proved” that “physics is not sexist against women. However the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside”.
…
[Read more…]

For how long can you hide in a public men’s room?

As expected, women everywhere are challenging Republican congresspeople in public spaces. Senator David Perdue was being challenged by women at what looks like an airport and dove into a men’s room to escape. I wonder how long he stayed in there? Maybe he put on a disguise to escape?

Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell got the same treatment.

Extreme right wing German party wooing Jews

It is often said that politics make strange bedfellows. This happens when some common link or goal between two groups is strong enough to overcome other factors on which they diverge. But one occasionally comes across developments that are surprising even if one is accustomed to such unexpected alliances, such as this report that the extreme right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has announced that it wishes to be seen as a viable alternative for German Jewish citizens.
[Read more…]

“It’s not the heat, it’s the dew point”

We all know that some hot days feel fairly comfortable while others at the same temperature feel clammy and muggy. We tend to identify the difference as caused by the relative humidity and this sentiment is often expressed by the statement “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”. But actually, the humidity is not the best measure to use to measure the level of discomfort. A better measure is the lesser-known ‘dew point’. The National Weather Service explains what ‘dew point’ is and why this is the case.
[Read more…]