Monday, July 17, 2006

A couple of random things

One of the more popular physics blogs, Cosmic Variance, has an interesting post about rumor mill websites. If you aren't familiar with the concept, rumor mill sites have been around for a number of years associated with physics and astrophysics faculty job searches. The atomic/molecular/optical and condensed matter rumor page is here. Mark over at Cosmic Variance has interesting things to say on the subject.

Also, as a follow up: I did hear back from Phys. Rev. Letters about the possible data falsification that I pointed out to their editors. They heard back from the authors of the paper in question, and say that the authors showed them "raw" data, and that it was some sort of image processing artifact that made all the noise in the relevant images really look identical. Hmm. I'm unconvinced, but the editorial office says they're satisfied. If anyone wants to see the paper in question, contact me.

I'll put up more cond-mat and physics related postings soon; I need to tend to a couple of papers from my students, as well as a not-so-minor crisis involving our cleanroom facility.

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