It's really amazing to think about what you can get into a comic book, especially if your goal is to teach about scientific concepts. I've highlighted some of the gems that have come my way over in our science comic books list, and I've just had the opportunity to get through a new one: The Manga Guide to Relativity.
Every month, I get physics books from all over the place. I only get an opportunity to review a fraction of these books, though I feel bad about each one that I have to pass up. Plus, it's kind of hard to remember which books came out in a given year when I'm working on my "Best of the year" posts in December.
I've been thinking a lot about scientific values lately, since watching a talk by neurologist Sam Harris, where he is speaking on whether science can say anything about morality. I won't speak to his larger point (other than to direct readers to his book The Moral Landscape), but I will pull this one quote out of his statements (starting around the 19:30 minute mark on the video):
...Two physics stories in 2012 easily eclipsed all the others, making headlines all over the place. Here are the two stories that caused the entire physics world to sit up and take notice:
...
First, I have posted an article about the most recent season 5 episode, "The Speckerman Recurrence," which features Sheldon watching the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics awards streaming live online. This episode, therefore, took place on December 10, 2011.
...A couple of weeks ago I mentioned one of my favorite science-related Christmas gifts, the copy of The Physics of Christmas which I received as a teenager from my grandmother. If you're still in the process of searching for a great gift for your positively neuro-atypical friends and family members, here are a few other suggestions.
...
Physicist and popular author Brian Greene hosted a series of four documentaries as part of the American public television station PBS' NOVA science series. The documentary, Fabric of the Cosmos, ...
As a science geek, once of the coolest gifts I ever received was a copy of The Physics of Christmas, given to me by my grandmother only a few years before her death. In addition to some discussion of the thermodynamics of cooking turkey and the possible scientific explanation of the Christmas star, there's a great historical analysis of how Christmas has change over the years. One of the most fun parts for me was the chapter which discussed Santa. How could he travel the whole world in one night? Well, physics offers some ideas.
Politicians often make decisions that have an impact on science, but because they usually lack basic scientific literacy, they really don't have an understanding of the scope involved in these decisions. In his new book, Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, filmmaker and science advocate Shawn Lawrence Otto argues that scientists need to become more engaged in the political realm and politicians need to have a better scientific understanding in order to make more informed decisions.
Most people don't think of comic books as a way to learn about science, but sometimes even unorthodox sources can provide great insights. Some of them are formal reference books, like those in the Manga Guide series, while others are more narrative, such as the Feynman biocomic. I've gathered some of these books together into a list of science comic books.
Planet Physics is a site that is updated daily, by adding new summaries of weblogs that are concerned with Physics. Every day, you can find something new and exciting on our site. Every day, there are new summaries and new ideas, in order to reflect the Physics news and facts as soon and as accurately as possible. Read the blogs that are written by great authors, who all have the same main interest: Physics.
Updated on January 27, 2012 10:09 PM UTC. Entries are normalised to UTC time.
Powered by Planet!
Is this planet missing something?
Do you want to add/remove your blog's feed?
We would be happy to get your feedback.
You can contact us with the email address below:
contact [at] planet-physics.org
