More Random Walks in Science

R.L. Weber

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351430128
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Probability & Statistics
• Index: Mathematics

More Random Walks in Science is an anthology of fascinating and frequently amusing anecdotes, quotations, illustrations, articles, and reviews that reflect the more lighthearted aspects of the scientific world and the less serious excursions of the scientific mind. The book is guaranteed to delight anyone who has a professional or amateur interest in science.

Contents

Preface

Splitting the infinitive Charles R Langmuir

Broken English H B G Casimir

NPL haiku

Four dimensional stress analysis (photograph) P L Kirby

Federalese G R Hicks

Readability ratings

God grant . . . (poem)

A note on the game of refereeing J M Chambers and Agnes M Herzberg

Why should editors not be gluttonous? (quotation)

Preparing scientific papers N S Haile

Huxley quotation

Commandments for the writer of a dissertation

Moore’s report on Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein (quotation) Bertrand Russell

A philosophical joke

Shaw quotation

Royalties: the Quatorze connection Marque Bagshaw

Perish, but publish! William J McGlothlin

Clarification

How to win arguments V D Landon

The acceptance of a scientific idea J B S Haldane

On the reading of scientific papers Eugene F Dubois

Clerk Maxwell’s comments on Herbert Spencer

Advice to lecturers Michael Faraday

The use of small dogs in physics teaching A W S Tarrant

Teaching Picasso

Teacher evaluation John Gauss

Refraction cartoon P Hewitt

Proclamation Michael Scott

Free thinking Alexander Calandra

A revised PhD comprehensive

Syllabus for a detective story written by a physics professor H R Crane

Challenging experiments John H Reynolds

Images W S Franklin and B McNuit

Mission statements Richard Chait

The rank order on campus Pearl G Aldrich

Budget

The University hierarchy—who’s on top?

View from the bottom C E K Mees

On the problem of innovation Amrom H Katz

In the days of old . . . (poem) J D Pye

An undergrad from Trinity . . . (poem)

The Dreistein case J Lincoln Paine

Artsimovich quotation

The Hydrogen Dog . . . (poem) Frederick Winsor

Science and wisdom (quotation) Arthur Stanley Eddington

Punch quotation

Sir Edward Victor Appleton’s Nobel Award (1947) Ronald Clark

Hypothesis A S Parkes

Bruno quotation

Finagle’s laws

Twain quotation

Murphy’s Law (photograph) J A Venables

Descent of man D L Austin and J D Bu’Lock

Schrõdinger quotation

Sullivan quotation

Doyle quotation

Literacy in an age of technology George Steiner

How to live with the Philistines Henry E Duckworth

A Philistine asks for equal time Sister Johnell Dillon

Brain Drain Joan Butt

Robert Boyle’s tombstone

When hydrogen played oxygen . . . (poem)

Chemistry and physics (quotation) Frederick Soddy

Quips from Orbit

Pan’s pipes Robert Louis Stevenson

Seventeenth-century recognition of resonance Andrew Marvell

Voltaire quotation

Precipitates ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Splitting the infinitive Charles R Langmuir
• Broken English H B G Casimir
• NPL haiku
• Federalese G R Hicks
• Readability ratings
• A note on the game of refereeing J M Chambers and Agnes M Herzberg
• Preparing scientific papers N S Haile
• Commandments for the writer of a dissertation
• Royalties: the Quatorze connection Marque Bagshaw
• Perish, but publish! William J McGlothlin
• Clarification
• How to win arguments V D Landon
• The acceptance of a scientific idea J B S Haldane
• On the reading of scientific papers Eugene F Dubois
• The use of small dogs in physics teaching A W S Tarrant
• Teaching Picasso
• Teacher evaluation John Gauss
• Free thinking Alexander Calandra
• A revised PhD comprehensive
• Syllabus for a detective story written by a physics professor H R Crane
• Challenging experiments John H Reynolds
• Images W S Franklin and B McNuit
• Mission statements Richard Chait
• The rank order on campus Pearl G Aldrich
• Budget
• The University hierarchy—who’s on top?
• View from the bottom C E K Mees
• On the problem of innovation Amrom H Katz
• The Dreistein case J Lincoln Paine
• Sir Edward Victor Appleton’s Nobel Award (1947) Ronald Clark
• Hypothesis A S Parkes
• Finagle’s laws
• Descent of man D L Austin and J D Bu’Lock
• Literacy in an age of technology George Steiner
• How to live with the Philistines Henry E Duckworth
• A Philistine asks for equal time Sister Johnell Dillon
• Brain Drain Joan Butt
• Pan’s pipes Robert Louis Stevenson
• Seventeenth-century recognition of resonance Andrew Marvell
• Demon theory of friction Eric M Rogers
• Natural-science viva, C1890
• Physics instructor John N Shive
• Influential textbooks: The Feynman lectures on physics Ivar Giaver
• A lecture to a lady on Thomson’s reflecting galvanometer James Clerk Maxwell
• European atom
• Error bars Jerry D Wilson
• The British high energy physics community John Ziman
• The future European harmonic pendulum
• The fluttering, spiralling flight of cyclotron evolution David L Judd
• E O Lawrence, driver
• Ten commandments of electrical safety
• hv G Stead
• Tea-time with Rutherford A S Russell
• Pauli in Heaven
• Tracking the elusive quark Lewis Grossberger
• Spin-orbit coupling Maria Goeppert Mayer
• Reference frames John N Howard
• Space Felix Bloch
• The Einstein and the Eddington W H Williams x
• Einstein’s philosophy of science Philipp Frank
• Relativity Robert Williams Wood
• R W Wood—improviser
• Schuster’s library Robert L Weber
• Captain DeKhotinsky Paul E Klopsteg
• My anecdotage Ronald D Edge
• The diabolical heating scheme of J C Maxwell John Lowell
• Proof by induction Edgar W Kutzscher
• Stauffer’s law of the entropy of change Don Stauffer
• International Court of Scientific Nomenclature, rival claims of scientists: Celsius vs McKie A S McKie
• mμ—an opticist’s lament M J Merrick
• The King who kept his 0°C Edward Crow ley
• Name for unit radian frequency M Strasberg
• On the mathematics of committees, boards and panels Bruce S Old
• The ‘Legal’ value of Jt M H Greenblatt
• Science in double dactyls Alan Holden, Jay M Pasachoff and A P French
• Hymne to Hymen Blanche Descartes xi
• Resolution of the paradox Abner Shimony
• Saving time: a commentary Norman Sperling
• Could the earth run backward? J B Priestley
• Twixt earth and sky with matter-horns Richard H Lyon
• Astronaut cartoon
• O, telescope! Johannes Kepler
• Planetoid for sale H H Turner
• Celsius—the astronomer
• The satellite question
• Astronomical abberation Clarence Day
• Creation of the Universe Jay M Pasachoff
• Creation
• Stressing the astronauts Tom Wolfe
• On the spot?
• Cocking a Snootnik at Sputnik David S Evans
• Still in the galaxy Jeanne Hopkins
• A damsel in distress John Scoffern
• Chemical history is shaped by a maker of wine bottles
• To err is human . . .
• A chemical hoax
• Professionalism—to the end
• The purist Ogden Nash
• The ant Ogden Nash
• Fellowshipmanship Ian Rose
• Outline of evolution as dimly recalled from college education Stephen Leacock
• Struthiomimus J Maynard Smith
• The dinosaur Will Cuppy
• R W Wood Paul E Klopsteg
• The dry-rot of our academic biology William Morton Wheeler
• Name dropping Robert L Weber
• Pollution Kenneth E Boulding
• Modelling the cat falling Henry Petroski
• The speed of the deer fly Robert L Weber
• Designer genes: a new look in fish genetics Joel E Cohen
• Curve fitting David W Roubik and Robert M Hazen
• Biorhythm: imitation of science W S Lyon, F F Dyer and D C Gary
• On being blinded with science D E H Jones
• That thing will never work Don Groves
• Errors and myopia
• Extracts from Modern Geography £1740
• Continental drip Ormonde de Kay Jr
• Sir Isaac Newton quotation
• Acknowledgments