Scientific American has an article by David Albert and Rivka Galchen with the New Scientist-ish headline Was Einstein Wrong?: A Quantum Threat to Special Relativity and the sub-head “Entanglement, like many quantum effects, violates some of our deepest intuitions about the world. It may also undermine Einstein’s special theory of relativity.” An alternate title for… Continue reading Non-Locality Is Created Locally
Category: Physics
Not Your Normal Press Release
EurekAlert offered a press release from the American Physical Society over the weekend that may indicate that someone in the press office has won a round of drinks: The American Physical Society (APS) is elated that the Senate has approved the FYO9 Omnibus Bill, which will allow scientists to continue cutting-edge research that will lead… Continue reading Not Your Normal Press Release
Talk Like a Physicist
One of last year’s highest-traffic posts was, weirdly, Talk Like a Physicist. I say “weirdly” because it wasn’t much more than a link to Tom at Swans On Tea. It’s that time of year again, and Tom’s back with an updated list of vocabulary for your physicist-talking needs. I don’t have much to add, but… Continue reading Talk Like a Physicist
Martin Rees Against Fundamentalism
There’s a really good article from Martin Rees in the latest issue of Seed, on the scientific challenges that won’t be affected by the LHC: The LHC hasn’t yet provided its first results, the much-anticipated answers to questions we’ve been asking for so long. But they should surely come in 2009, bringing us closer to… Continue reading Martin Rees Against Fundamentalism
Atoms as Little Solar Systems
Most people’s first exposure to the ideas of modern atomic physics comes through the Bohr model of hydrogen, which treats the atom as something like a little solar system, with the positively charged nucleus as the sun, and negatively charged electrons orbiting in well-defined circular orbits. It’s a very compelling picture, and works well for… Continue reading Atoms as Little Solar Systems
Atomic Physics Gordon Conference
The Gordon Research Conferences are a great program, if you’re in a field that offers them. These are mostly in New England in the summer, and involve a lot more down time than most professional conferences, to allow for more informal interaction between attendees. At past Gordon conferences, I’ve played soccer with a Nobel laureate,… Continue reading Atomic Physics Gordon Conference
Numbers of Order Unity
Over at Unqualified Offerings, Thoreau is bemused by his students’ reaction to unusual numbers: [I]t is fascinating how we condition people to be used to numbers in a certain range, and as soon as a number is either very big or very small it becomes disconcerting. On one level, I’m glad that they are able… Continue reading Numbers of Order Unity
You Can’t Get To DAMOP From Here
I’m looking travel arrangements for this year’s DAMOP meeting in Charlottesville, VA in May, and, boy, do the options suck. Flying into Charlottesville itself involves at least one stop, and undoubtedly one of those ridiculous little prop planes that require me to spend the whole flight in something close to a fetal position. Driving would… Continue reading You Can’t Get To DAMOP From Here
How Not to Write a Press Release
EurekAlert had a press release yesterday titled Quantum paradox directly observed — a milestone in quantum mechanics, which sounds like it ought to be great. The actual release, though…. For one thing, the description of the actual experiment is so vague as to be completely useless. It’s not easy to quote without copying the whole… Continue reading How Not to Write a Press Release
Wire Like a Physicist
One of last year’s physics majors is spending the year in rural Uganda working at a clinic/ school there. He’s keeping a blog, which is intermittently updated by western standards, but remarkably up-to-date given where he is. This week, he blogged about putting his physics education to use: I have been doing a lot of… Continue reading Wire Like a Physicist