Right around the time I sent in the manuscript for my own book explaining relativity to Emmy, I got an email offering me a review copy of The Manga Guide to Relativity, part of a series of English translations of Japanese comic books explaining complicated concepts in a friendly way. That was clearly too good… Continue reading The Manga guide to Relativity by Nitta, Yamamoto, and Takatsu
Category: Books
Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief [Library of Babel]
I’ve heard a lot of buzz about The Quantum Thief— see, for example, this enthusiastic review from Gary K. Wolfe, so I was psyched when it finally became available in the US a little while back. Of course, the down side of this sort of buzz is that it’s almost impossible to live up to… Continue reading Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief [Library of Babel]
Child of Scientist-Approved Beach Reading
While it is not yet officially summer, according to astronomers and horologists, it was approximately the temperature of the Sun here in Niskayuna yesterday, so de facto summer has begun. Accordingly, we have acquired a pool: Of course, one of the main things you do with a pool is to sit next to it and… Continue reading Child of Scientist-Approved Beach Reading
Short Story Club: “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made”
In past years, I have griped at length about the awful, maudlin dreck that Mike Resnick keeps putting on the Hugo ballot– see this 2009 post for example. I think Abigail Nussbaum put it very well back in 2009, when she wrote of Resnick’s “Article of Faith” from that year’s short story ballot that “his… Continue reading Short Story Club: “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made”
How the Hippies Saved Physics by David Kaiser
I heard David Kaiser talk about the history of quantum foundations work back in 2008 at the Perimeter Institute, and while I didn’t agree with everything he said, I found it fascinating. So when I heard that he had a book coming out about this stuff, How the Hippies Saved Physics, I jumped at the… Continue reading How the Hippies Saved Physics by David Kaiser
More on Divided by Infinity
I had intended last Wednesday’s post on the Many-Worlds variant in Robert Charles Wilson’s Divided by Infinity to be followed by a post on the other things I said when I did a guest lecture on it for an English class. What with one thing and another, though, I got a little distracted, and I’m… Continue reading More on Divided by Infinity
Short Story Club: “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson
Kij Johnson’s “Ponies” is the second on Locus’s Short Story Club list of award-nominated stories. More than that, though, it’s an actuall award winner, having claimed a share of the Nebula for Best Short Story. I enjoyed Johnson’s two novels, The Fox Woman and Fudoki quite a bit, so I’m happy to see her doing… Continue reading Short Story Club: “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson
Short Story Club: “The Jaguar House, in Shadow,” by Aliette de Bodard
As mentioned a little while ago, Locus is running a Short Story Club to discuss the award-nominated stories that are available online. First up is Aliette de Bodard’s “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”. Like her novels and other notable short fiction, this has a Central American theme, though it’s alternate-history SF rather than fantasy. This… Continue reading Short Story Club: “The Jaguar House, in Shadow,” by Aliette de Bodard
Short Story Club 2: The Locussing
For both of the readers who enjoyed last fall’s Short Story Club, there’s another round starting up soon, this time run by Locus, featuring award-nominated works. I’m busier now than I was in the fall, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to participate in all of these, but then, I’ve already read two of… Continue reading Short Story Club 2: The Locussing
The Real Point of Zero Point
While Kenneth Ford’s 101 Quantum Questions was generally good, there was one really regrettable bit, in Question 23: What is a “state of motion?” When giving examples of states, Ford defines the ground state as the lowest-energy state of a nucleus, then notes that its energy is not zero. He then writes: An object brought… Continue reading The Real Point of Zero Point