Steve Dodge
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jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Steve Dodge
@jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
47 followers 6 following 180 posts
Physics professor @ Simon Fraser University. Experimental research in quantum materials and optical spectroscopy.

[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@jsdodge on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Happy Pride in STEM Day!
🏳️‍🌈

https://prideinstem.org/lgbtstemday/
"LGBTQ+STEM Day" on a background that shows the visible spectrum from violet at the left to red at the right. A schematic atom with rainbow colours fills the orbitals. Text below shows "18 November" and the "#LGBTQSTEMDAY" hashtag.
November 18, 2025 at 9:01 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Our department is preparing to celebrate the International Day of 2SLGBTQIA+ People in STEM on November 18, and one of our students made a great set of posters. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the posters highlights @timnitGebru and her work at DAIR! 👏
Poster entitled "LGBTQ+ STEM Spotlight" with an image of Timnit Gebru, describing her as "A pioneering computer scientist whose work exposed bias in large-scale AI systems. As a queer Black researcher and founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), she champions transparency, accountability, and justice in technology, reshaping how the world thinks about ethical AI."
November 15, 2025 at 5:43 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
A few years ago I organized an assessment of the social climate in my academic department. One of the most significant findings was that queer students did not feel like they belonged. After discussing this with a queer student who I knew fairly well, I […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
An indoor workspace featuring gray cubicles. In the foreground, a wooden counter has a sign labeled "PHYSICS." In the background, a large progressive pride flag several smaller pride flags are displayed.
June 26, 2025 at 2:24 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Blunt and effective Thursday message
A chalkboard sign for Main St. Brewing advertises a happy hour from 2 to 6 PM, encouraging people to skip work and drink beer. A heart is drawn at the bottom.
May 30, 2025 at 2:08 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
@historianess
Here he is, looking for the guy behind Harvard Derangement Syndrome
Still frame of The Hot Dog Guy from I Think You Should Leave
May 24, 2025 at 2:45 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
@johncarlosbaez
Cool find! I looked it up and it’s a dynamic effect, so you need to be in a regime where the charge relaxation in the sphere is slower than in the liquid.

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.043014
Illustration depicting the polarization of a spherical particle in an electric field \( E_0 \). On the left, the induced dipole \( P \) is in the same direction as the field when the charge relaxation time in the particle \( \tau_2 \) is less than that in the liquid \( \tau_1 \). The polarization points in the opposite direction when the timescales are reversed.
May 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Saw this mural in Paris (13e) and have since discovered that it’s by an Angeleno artist, Tristan Eaton

https://www.tristaneaton.com/the-revolution-will-be-trivialized/

https://www.tristaneaton.com/work-avenue#/the-revolution-will-be-trivialized-paris-france/
Mural on a building with the words “The Revolution Will Be Trivialized” and various pop-culture images, including Tom and Jerry, superimposed on a replica of Jacques-Louis David’s “Napoleon Crossing the Alps.”
May 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
The Munich airport has an exercise machine that confused the hell out of me. It measures “energy performance” and displays the energy, not the power, in Watts! (Also, it should not be capitalized.) Then I saw the fine print at the bottom: “The physically […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
A digital display shows energy performance of 3.42 Watts, indicating that it can charge one smartphone at 3.00 Watts. A progress bar is partially filled to represent energy usage. There is fine print at the bottom that explains that they use watts as an energy unit “for better understanding.”
May 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
My street today
A scenic street lined with blooming pink cherry trees, casting dappled shadows on the road. Several cars are parked along both sides of the street, under a clear blue sky.
April 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
I bought this dish cloth today because I love rainbows and because I am fascinated by the different ways artists (mis)represent them.

Initially I thought they didn’t pay attention to the colors but after looking at it a bit longer I suspect something got […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
A rainbow-like image with the word "LOVE" in varying shades, printed on a dish cloth. The rainbow is divided into stripes of different colors that are uncannily not like a rainbow: red-orange, salmon, ochre, sea-green, cyan, and maroon, in order from the outside to the inside.
March 15, 2025 at 11:16 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
@aram @admin1 @nik @ubiquity75 @rwg @tstruett @paufder @atomicpoet
Interesting — I just tried the same prompt for myself and it directed me back to the platform. Any idea what causes the difference? I used the GPT-4o through DuckDuckGo.
A chat window with a question to ChatGPT about a specific Mastodon user account. It responds, “I'm sorry, but I can't provide information about specific users on Mastodon or any other platform. If you're looking for someone on a social media platform, I recommend searching directly on that platform or reaching out to them through appropriate channels.”
January 12, 2025 at 6:51 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
First week of class is over! I added a new slide on automated text generation software to the course introduction
Title: Automated text generation tools • I strongly discourage you from using ChatGPT or similar technologies for your homework assignments • Don’t believe the hype! ChatGPT is notoriously unreliable. I have checked it on several assignment questions and it regularly produces plausible-sounding but incorrect responses that ultimately take more time to identify and fix than solving the problem without ChatGPT. • In his book On Bullshit, the late philosopher Harry Frankfurt argued that the essence of bullshit is a “lack of concern for the truth.” Liars know they are not telling the truth. Bullshitters don’t care about truth at all. • Frankfurt also notes that “Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.” • Chatbots like ChatGPT are incapable of concern for truth. They are also designed to respond without knowing what they are talking about. They are prolific bullshitters. Accompanying image: flowchart by Aleksandr Tiulkanov entitled "Is it safe to use ChatGPT for your task?" The flowchart indicates that it is unsafe to use ChatGPT if truth is important and you lack the expertise to verify the output.
January 12, 2025 at 3:37 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco has a stained glass window that features Albert Einstein

#physics #science #scicomm
A stained glass window featuring Albert Einstein, with E=mc^2 written near his feet
December 22, 2024 at 11:02 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
This headline is a work of art
December 14, 2024 at 9:36 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Thanks to @vicgrinberg for a great recipe! Delicious.

https://www.veganricha.com/atakilt-wat-ethiopian-cabbage-potato/
November 4, 2024 at 7:08 AM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
The NOAA weather app is trolling Canada
A weather report displaying current conditions in Vancouver that finishes sentences with “eh?”
September 2, 2024 at 3:13 PM
jsdodge.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
I guess I’m too nerdy for the NYT Spelling Bee (also tried and failed with NAND)
Rejected NYT Spelling Bee attempt showing that KAON, a fundamental particle, is not in its word list
September 1, 2024 at 9:07 AM