When he’s not lecturing a class on velocity and the motion of bodies, classical mechanics, the atomic nature of matter or Newton’s Laws, physics education Associate Professor Dr. Rhett Allain is writing for Wired, a monthly magazine that focuses on how emerging technology can affect culture and politics. Allain has been a part of Wired’s online blog since Sept. 14, 2010.
“I had a blog from before at ScienceBlogs, which is owned by Seed Media Group; they [have a] partnership with National Geographic now,” said Allain. section.'”
Wired was looking to create a smaller group of bloggers, branching out of ScienceBlogs, who could help specialize in specific fields of science.
“They tried to get a range of people who focus on biology, medicine, psychology, geology and physics,” said Allain. “I am the physics comments.”
Allain does admit that some complaints can be legitimate and help him improve his own work.
“I recently did a calculation of how fast rain would fall and I made the assumption that raindrops were raindrop-shaped, but it appears that’s not true,” said Allain. “So that’s a legitimate complaint and I agree with people.”
In a recent article, “Do Artists Need Math,” Allain addressed the idea of college students who question their curriculum and ask, “Why do I have to take these courses?”
“I think that education should be about exploring the different aspects of what makes us human, which art is a part of that, science, music, literature; all of those things are very important,” said Allain.
Wired does not pressure Allain to post by deadlines, which allows him to enjoy science blogs and use his research for class assignments as well.
According to Allain, Wired has given him access to writing, a medium he never wants to lose.
“I just enjoy science blogs,” said Allain. “I enjoy talking to people so I would be okay with moving to another medium, but I still want to write. I always want to