Chad Orzel

The controversy just never ends... - Chad Orzel

How the Milky Way looks at a variety of different wavelengths. - Chad Orzel

"There's no particular reason to think parapsychologists are doing anything other than what scientists would do; their experiments are similar to those of scientists, they use statistics in similar ways, and there's no reason to think they falsify data any more than any other group. Yet despite the fact that their null hypotheses are always true, parapsychologists get positive results. This is disturbing, and must lead us to wonder how many positive results in real science are actually wrong." - Chad Orzel

"There are a couple of logistical reasons that may help explain why the mainstream press has not exactly risen to the occasion. The first problem for reporters was the sheer size of the cache—I doubt that many journalists had time to comb through all of the e-mails.... The second major problem is that there are quite a few controversial lines. Figuring out and explaining each and every one of them in a single article is damn near impossible. However, that is exactly what’s called for—over the course of the coverage, at least—and the press still hasn’t lived up to its responsibilities. With national and international policy on the line, this story deserves more and better coverage. To assess what it has done well and poorly so far, it’s useful to group criticism of the e-mails into two categories: what they say about the science of climate science, and what they say about the politics of climate science." - Chad Orzel

"As part of my board work, I have been asked to assess the environments in oil fields, and have had frank discussions with oil company employees at all levels. I’ve also worked with executives of mining, retail, logging and financial services companies. I’ve discovered that while some businesses are indeed as destructive as many suspect, others are among the world’s strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability." - Chad Orzel

"I think that the lines between self-publishing and vanity publishing have become so hopelessly blurred, both by custom and ideology, that crafting an authoritative set of definitions is impossible (not to mention, no matter what one comes up with, someone is always bound to disagree). I think it makes more sense to see fee-based publishing as a continuum, with true self-publishing and full-on vanity publishing as the extremes, and many variations in between." - Chad Orzel

"We recently got a delivery of some electronics (OK, it was a bunch of lasers. You can’t build a death ray without lasers. Oh, wait, did I say death ray? Forget that. I meant clock), and the packaging for each had both a shock sensor and a freeze sensor. Naturally, I had to take the freeze sensor apart." - Chad Orzel

Any celebrities who are planning a meltdown, please contact me to receive a free book to leave in your wrecked car... - Chad Orzel

It even includes a book about science... - Chad Orzel

"In the following pairs of excerpts, which sample, A or B, is from a Royal Society letter, explaining earnest scientific endeavor, and which is the work of a deeply skeptical satirist in the guise of Lemuel Gulliver? " - Chad Orzel

"The scene was not unlike 12 Angry Men (or, in this case, 3 Shlubby Men, 1 Exasperated Woman, And A Dude On Speaker Phone From Arkansas): Armed with lists of their favorite movies of the decade, the five core A.V. Club film writers spent days sequestered in a stuffy, un-air-conditioned room—okay, it was actually just a few hours, and we were comfortable—in an effort to forge consensus on the Top 50 films of the ’00s. The result: A ranked list that is in no way arbitrary and will serve as the canonical standard for decades to come. You’re welcome. " - Chad Orzel

Rhett explore my favorite demo from intro mechanics. - Chad Orzel

"It looks as if the accreditation groups decided that they were faced with a choice: commit themselves to judging what sorts of presentations should count for CE credit (which you might think was their job), or just toss out anything that has any connection with industry. That way you can look virtuous and save time, too. My apologies if I'm descending into ridicule here, but as an industrial scientist I find myself resenting the implication that my hands (and those of every single one of my colleagues) are automatically considered too dirty to educate any practicing professionals." - Chad Orzel