The particle physics community in the US has rolled out a new site promoting the Large Hadron Collider, because, you know, there was a danger that we might forget that it’s there. As part of the site, they’re featuring four new physics blogs, by Monica Dunford, Pam Klabbers, Steve Nahn, and blogosphere veteran Peter Steinberg.… Continue reading Particle Physicists Have All the Blogs
Category: Physics
Bunnies Made of Cheese: The Book
I’m checking a last few things and putting papers into an envelope when the dog wakes up from her nap. “Hey,” she says, stretching, “What’re you doing?” “I’m getting ready to mail this,” I say. “What is it?” “Several copies of a book contract that I just signed.” “It’s a book about me, right?” she… Continue reading Bunnies Made of Cheese: The Book
Flying Things
Steinn reports that the NRC has made its recommendations for NASA’s Beyond Einstein program. The winners appear to be LISA, a gravity wave observatory, and JDEM, a competition of dark energy focussed satellites. Steinn has lots of links to the various projects. The executive summary of the report is availabe here (pdf). I know next… Continue reading Flying Things
What is String Theory?
The title of this post is a famous question (posed, for example, by Joe Polchinski) which is modeled after an even more famous question by Ken Wilson, “What is Quantum Field Theory?”. I certainly can’t answer the first question, but Wilson’s question now does have a widely agreed upon answer (which is sadly not well… Continue reading What is String Theory?
Maldacena on the Beach
As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently attending the Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics at Stony Brook University. The weather finally warmed up today, and we relocated to Smith Point Beach to hear Juan Maldacena tell us a bit about AdS/CFT and gluon scattering. If you’re looking for a precis of the talk, I’m afraid… Continue reading Maldacena on the Beach
Ask a String Theorist: Update
Thanx to everyone for all the interesting questions in the previous thread. I apologize for not being able to answer every one of them. I just arrived at a workshop on Long Island, and I’m also feeling a bit under the weather. From what I’ve seen so far, I think I will do a post… Continue reading Ask a String Theorist: Update
Ask a String Theorist
First of all, I’d like to thank Chad for the keys to his internet-house for the next few weeks. If you’re here, you know that one of the things Chad believes in (and is quite good at) is using his weblog for the exposition of science for the general public. While I don’t think I… Continue reading Ask a String Theorist
Fundamental Research Funding
Michael Nielsen, who’s so smart it’s like he’s posting from tomorrow, offers a couple of provocative questions about the perception of a crisis in funding for basic science: First, how much funding is enough for fundamental research? What criterion should be used to decide how much money is the right amount to spend on fundamental… Continue reading Fundamental Research Funding
Lucky Number 13
The thirteenth edition of the physics-themed blog carnival Philosophia Naturalis has been posted at Cocktail Party Physics. There’s a whole bunch of good stuff there, and also some links to the recent silliness about the term “God Particle.” If you’re looking for good physics-related reading on the Internet, it’s your one-stop shopping source.
Dorky Poll: i or j?
A simple but high-stakes fill-in-the-blank question: The right and proper symbol to represent the square root of negative one is _______. The incorrect answer will brand you as an engineer, and you will be cast into the outer darkness to spend eternity converting drill sizes into sensible units. Choose wisely.