I am so pleased with how the students in my Honors Introductory Physics (PHYS 1010) course met the new challenges posed by COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, producing excellent final projects for the class. Please enjoy them!
Yearly Archives: 2020
22 posts
My Honors Physics class is a very hands-on class. Managing that in the age of COVID-19 has been an interesting challenge. Tonight, I invited my students (if it was safe to do so) to buy some inexpensive kitchen items – food dye, corn starch, and chocolate – and participate in […]
We humans cherish beauty, even in our mathematics. Beauty – or “symmetry” – is taken as a sign of success and simplicity in a mathematical model or physical theory. But what if that beauty was a threat to a complete understanding of nature? In this, the first part of a […]
Paul Adrian Maurice (P.A.M.) Dirac, or just Paul Dirac, is one of the most brilliant physicists who has ever lived. He is also one of the most curious human beings ever to be a physicist, and that’s saying a lot in a field where curious personalities litter history. This week, […]
A podcast for our uncertain times, featuring readings from stories and articles (set to period music) that reflect the intersection of the unexpected and physics. Subscribe on FeedBurner or directly subscribe to the RSS feed for this podcast: https://people.smu.edu/ssekula/?feed=rss2&category_name=podcast/uncertainty-principle-podcast
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is changing everything about our society right now. Social distancing is essential to slowing the spread of the virus, which is particularly dangerous to anyone with underlying cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, especially combined with advancing age. SMU is keeping us up-to-date as […]
Are people born to a profession, or do they stumble into it? Is personal talent the most important thing, or a mentor entering the picture at a key moment? Let’s explore this question anecdotally in this episode, drawing on the memoir of SMU alumnus and astrophysicist Donald D. Clayton. Show […]
A podcast for those times of uncertainty in physics Episode 1: Isaac Newton’s Pajamas To help us feel a bit more connected during these weird and uncertain times, enjoy the first in a short series of podcasts that ties the quirky things in life to physics. Show Notes “During a […]
I am happy to be at CERN Feb. 28 – March 5, 2020. This is my first trip to the laboratory since fall, 2018. In part, that was because of a funding gap as our old grant expired in spring 2019 and the new grant came online in summer 2019. […]
Two of my recent former students nominated me for an Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence (HOPE) award. As described on the award’s website: “Each year since 1998, Residence Life and Student Housing (RLSH) has encouraged students living on campus to honor their outstanding professors by nominating them for the HOPE Professor […]