This was one of the funniest things going around the Physics department when I was in school. I can assure you it is older than 2007. 1998 or ‘99 iirc.
I saw it in undergrad, 2001.
Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
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Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#22Assuming this is real, it looks like he measured some high quality noise. No way the resistivity would jump 2x over 5 degrees and stay constant at constant temperature (the biggest suspect according to his own confessions).
When you do it right you get this sort of picture. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3753/2b8a21825d66633f33684a...
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#23I guess this must be from '99. Consequently the author went to get his Masters and PhD in CS.[0]
Having gone through a similar ordeal and frustration at the end of my uni career, in the end I went out with the highest admiration for the experimentalists and their tech staff.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#24Pretty funny, but what seemed disturbingly true: > Going into physics was the biggest mistake of my life. I should've declared CS. I still wouldn't have any women, but at least I'd be rolling in cash. I wish academia pays better.
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Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#25Pretty funny, but what seemed disturbingly true: > Going into physics was the biggest mistake of my life. I should've declared CS. I still wouldn't have any women, but at least I'd be rolling in cash. I wish academia pays better.
It's not just the pay; the pressure as a graduate student and not-yet-tenured professor is immense. The darkly humorous "A (de)motivational letter", purportedly by one "Prof. Hardass Slavedriver", sums it up: https://lifesciencephdadventures.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/a-...
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#26Exactly my experience back in the days doing the mandatory "advanced experimental physics laboratory semester" where you had to do like 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester on old equipment that would break during the experiment, with less than motivated PhD students or post grads as teachers. Of the 14 experiments only two worked and we got the expected r…
> on old equipment that would break during the experiment
Isn’t that closer to the real conditions in a research lab?
I met some NASA scientists doing atmospheric sampling on a plane, and they had to accompany their equipment to manage any equipment glitches during the expensive sampling process (a custom modified 747 flying from Hawaii to New Zealand IIRC)
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#27Exactly my experience back in the days doing the mandatory "advanced experimental physics laboratory semester" where you had to do like 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester on old equipment that would break during the experiment, with less than motivated PhD students or post grads as teachers. Of the 14 experiments only two worked and we got the expected r…
Yeah I don't quite understand how the physics curriculum is set. There is more and more physics discovered over time and yet the time you get to study remains the same. 4 years is not enough time to learn the math and physics you need to do anything real, not counting the other important stuff you need to do (like English comp and partying and getting your heart broken).
Heh this strikes me as funny. I remember studying hierarchical image classifiers... If you think physics changes fast you should check out CS sometime.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I don't quite understand how the physics curriculum is set. There is more and more physics discovered over time and yet the time you get to study remains the same. 4 years is not enough time to learn the math and physics you need to do anything real, not counting the other important stuff you need to do (like English comp and partying and getting your heart broken).
Heh this strikes me as funny. I remember studying hierarchical image classifiers... If you think physics changes fast you should check out CS sometime.
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Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#29Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#30So what was the final grade - did whoever did the grading just look at the pictures?
did he quit and go into CS, is he on HN?
Did he make any other discoveries regarding the assiness of other fields of human endeavor as the years went by?