Ian Clancy @nuadatt@qoto.org
Irish physicist with research interests in complex systems, dynamic phase transitions, critical phenomena and long-range correlations. Normally lecture in Mechanics, Thermal Physics, Modern Physics, and Computational Physics.
Joined Nov 2022
Ian Clancy
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Some thoughts on #research prioritisation, and the implications for the membership of the Board of the new research agency in Ireland: firstly, and to get it out of the way, there are benefits to prioritisation. What's often missed is the downside.
In Ireland, for the past decade or so, we've prioritised funding in certain areas. The focus has been so tight that research in non-priority areas is, de facto, not funded. This is not normal, and there's good reason for that. 1/
@telescoper
Very difficult. Had to take a hotel for my time here, but my wife is also on sabbatical and we took the children so it worked out well. While I didn't use them my host suggested one of the Residencia here. They book up fast I believe. See https://www.resa.es/es/ciudad/barcelona/
@telescoper
That's why I am here myself! I can't speak highly enough of the place.
@telescoper
Being Irish, I've been blissfully unaware of St George's day beyond knowing he is the patron saint of England. But Catalunya has the English beaten on this where Sant Jordi's day (as he is known here) is like a combination of Valentine's day and world book day. Gifts of a rose and a book are the order of the day. Book stalls everywhere on the Ramblas in Barcelona. Huge crowds of people in a good mood. No sign of Nigel Farage here. https://www.spain.info/en/discover-spain/fiesta-sant-jordi-barcelona/
Ian Clancy
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Pet peeve of the day: all the people talking about how ChatGPT is not “conscious” and how it does not “understand” what it is saying, but just putting likely-sounding words together into likely-sounding sentences.
Extra bonus points for using an example of a math problem as a way to show how these AI chat-bots talk about things they don’t really understand.
The irony. The lack of self-awareness. It burns.
Ian Clancy
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Exams shouldn't be scrapped, but shouldn't just be memory tests...
https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2023/03/05/examinations-and-memory/
Ian Clancy
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Ian Clancy
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I'm delighted that our recent paper on turbulent dynamics in Carina's Western Wall has been chosen as an ALMA Science Highlight: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/alma/news/arc-newsletter/2023jan.html
In this work we were able to show that just looking at the surface of an irradiated molecular cloud tells you important and fascinating information about what structures exist deep within the cloud.
We also showed that there's a characteristic (i.e. important) length-scale of 0.02 - 0.03 pc in the Western Wall. 1/
Ian Clancy
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So you know how if you wash a duvet without buttoning it up then most of the other things in the wash end up inside the duvet? This feels like it violates some entropy condition, though I guess it's coz once something enters the duvet it's "hard" to get back out.
Seems like a nice exercise for students. Anyone know if this has been dealt with from a thermodynamic perspective? #thermodynamics #physics
Ian Clancy
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Folks are treating the recent tech layoffs as something spontaneous. They were not. The current layoffs were orchestrated by a hedge fund (TCI Fund).
This hedge fund demanded that the big tech companies lay people off because they were being paid too much. Let that one sink in: a hedge fund manager saying that you're being paid too much.
Note that TCI is demanding that Google lay off more people.
Ian Clancy
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‘We were afraid’: Ireland’s far-right is mobilising, and they are coming to a town near you
@telescoper Indeed, and yet according to the Teaching Council many/most physicists (myself included) would not meet subject requirements for accreditation to teach Applied Maths at Leaving Cert...😂 😅 😩 😭
@telescoper I should also say I strongly agree with you on the point of physics versus maths as indicators of achievement (progression to graduation and award classification). I found leaving cert physics was not nearly as strong an indicator as leaving cert maths from analysing the data. Even when I did my leaving some 27 years ago leaving cert physics was less like university physics than applied maths at leaving cert, which was very good preparation for the first year of my UG.
@telescoper This is a serious problem for leaving cert physics also and I suspect the issues are similar. But I don't know you can necessarily blame A-level/Leaving Cert Physics as the issue is getting them in the door to choose the subject in the first place. I think the problem stems from the junior cycle and perhaps will be exacerbated by the new JC Science. I am not sure it is necessarily clear to students what physics is at this stage and the stuff that clearly identifies as physics may be too closely related to engineering which has a similar (perhaps worse) issue of imbalance. Some of the interesting stuff like how metabolism works (fundamentally physics , isn't everything? ;-P ), can be too easily spun as simply biology or chemistry and physics loses out in any way as contributing. In Ireland, the vast majority of science teachers have biology backgrounds and not physics. This situation is likely to degrade further as the Teaching Council is not accrediting junior cycle science and so will not require science teachers to have ANY physics-specific credits in their third-level education. So a teacher specialising in biology and chemistry could teach science at JC including all the physics-related material. The situation is already bad where there is a severe lack of physics specialists teaching JC science but at least teachers typically had some physics in their background. I can't see how things get better with these constraints.
Ian Clancy
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Look. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If Harry has a problem with his family then he needs to persuade the French to fund him, raise an army, invade and seize the crown.
What else was Brexit for, if not to restore traditional British approaches and values?
Ian Clancy
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Ringing in a new platform with my very first "content" -- a video response to an awesome conversation @hankgreen started with @vihart that overlapped with conceptual labor a whole lot. https://youtu.be/x_B38n8mIes
Full blog post about it here: https://www.conceptuallabor.com/blog/viral-math
Ian Clancy
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There were three men came out of the West
Three kings both great and high
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Mastodon must die.
They took a tank and ran him down
With bullets in his head
And they have sworn a solemn oath
John Mastodon was dead
But when the Spring came kindly on
And showers began to fall
John Mastodon got up again
And did surprise them all...
Ian Clancy
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Ian Clancy
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Hello Mastodon!
Ian Clancy
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I found this paradox in an old mathematics book...
https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2022/11/29/a-paradox-in-probability/
Irish physicist with research interests in complex systems, dynamic phase transitions, critical phenomena and long-range correlations. Normally lecture in Mechanics, Thermal Physics, Modern Physics, and Computational Physics.
Joined Nov 2022
