Day: December 3, 2004

Posted on

Master Master

During a talk today by Sid Redner, the question came up as to the origin of the expression “master equation.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first such use of the term was given in by A. Nordsieck et al. in Physica 7, p. 353, 1940

The required probability of an energy distribution will be a function of the numbers ni and of x, which we will denote by W(n1, n2,..; x). From this function W one can find all other distribution functions… When the probabilities of the elementary processes are known, one can write down a continuity equation for W, from which all other equations can be derived and which we will call therefore the “master” equation.

Posted on

Reality TV Show Needs Scientists

From a Caltech postdoc mailing list:

I am working on two science show teasers for Discovery and we are looking for a couple of articulate, passionate scientists who would be interested in appearing in reality television. The first show is called “Get Out of There” in which we recreate survival situations that actually occured and two scientists have to figure out how to get out/survive. The second show is called “Brain vs. Brawn” in which two contestants are both given the same challenge and one is coached on how to accomplish it by a scientist and the other by a non-scientist. The challenge we will be shooting for the pilot/teaser will be fire-walking, so ideally we will have scientist who can explain the physics behind it and the other will be a new agey-type who will focus on a more mind over matter approach. If you can recommend anyone, please contact: *******

(if you really want to know who to contact, please email me.)