Zero Gravity (and Levity)

On that final note, I think it’s time to bring this blog to a close.

Now that I’ve moved on from graduate student to post-doc, my priorities have shifted, and you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting enough to keep this blog respectable.  This seems like more of a permanent change in my work habits than a temporary increase in busyness, so I think that now is the right time to close down Gravity and Levity.

It’s been a tremendous amount of fun, and along the way I somehow attracted a sort of dazzlingly intelligent set of readers leaving intelligent comments.  So thank you.

I leave unfilled a fairly significant list of half-started blog posts and half-developed ideas for future posts.  So if anyone ever wants to invite me to write a guest blog post, I will likely be highly tempted to do so.  If for whatever reason you would like to make such an invitation, feel free to say so in the comments and I will respond by email.

Since this post will sit at the top of Gravity and Levity for the forseeable future, I’ll close with a list of my 16 personal favorite blog posts.  Thanks again, everyone.

Parenting and the feeling of time: My eight lifetimes

In which I speculate about how we live in logarithmic time.

The fastest possible mile

I search for an asymptote in the progression of the mile word record and come up with 3:39.6.

Finding the hot (and cold) hand at a local gym

With a statistical analysis rebuked, Mrs. G&L and I head to the gym in search of the “hot hand.”  We find instead only evidence for the cold hand.

When Nature plays Skee-ball: the meaning of free energy

I explain free energy by imagining a four year old girl playing Skee-ball.

Braess’s Paradox and the Ewing Theory

An analogy between highway traffic and basketball might explain why your favorite team can get better when its best player is sitting out.

Friedel oscillations: wherein we learn that the electron has a size

Wherein Friedel oscillations are explained using the following sentence: “It’s a bit like letting the richest men in America decide the tax code: it may be right for the guys up front, but it’s too damn much for the people that come later!”

The most important idea in science, and why it’s true

Explaining atomism and the Lennard-Jones law using cheap hand drawings and a youtube video.

Does your culture really affect the gender distribution?

In which I play King Solomon with a suggestion made by science author Matt Ridley.

Your body wasn’t built to last: a lesson from human mortality rates

What we can learn about the human body from the mathematics of mortality.  This post is responsible for more than 1/3 of all web traffic to G&L.

The path integral: calculating the future from an unknown past

Using a life-or-death situation for ants to illustrate the power of path integrals.

A story about quasiparticles on the beach

A good story in science will affect your summer vacation.  In the best possible way.

Being pushed around by empty space: the Casimir effect

Dancing witches produce the Casimir effect.  True story.

“So is the universe made of tiny springs or isn’t it?!”

A memory of being exasperated in quantum field theory class.  Also, Freeman Dyson is much smarter than me.

Feynman’s Ratchet and the perpetual motion gambling scheme

Can you spot a (thermodynamic) scam when you see one?

LeBron James and the Lottery in Babylon

Jorge Luis Borges explains beautifully why we are so drawn to sports.

This is not a story about irony

In which I remember “Paul”, who felt strongly about his calling in life.