Back in late July, I got email from a writer for Physics World magazine (which is sort of the UK equivalent of Physics Today), asking my opinion on a few questions relating to particle physics funding. The basis for asking me (as opposed to, you know, a particle physicist) was presumably a post from April… Continue reading Thoughts on the LHC and ILC
Category: Physics
Understanding vs. Mathematics
Over at Crooked Timber, Daniel picks up the Harry Collins thing I talked about last week, and asks an interesting question about the role of math: We don’t want to make “understanding the subject” mean “being able to do calculations about the subject”, unless we have some reason to believe that this is a necessary… Continue reading Understanding vs. Mathematics
Open Letter to Scientific Equipment Manufacturers
I know I have said this before, but it obviously didn’t take, so I’ll do it again. Allow me to explain a basic principle of economics. You make high-quality technical instruments. I am interested in getting my hands on some high-quality technical instruments. In fact, I am sufficiently interested that I will write grants to… Continue reading Open Letter to Scientific Equipment Manufacturers
Lee Smolin, The Trouble With Physics
Lee Smolin’s The Trouble With Physics is probably the hot physics book of the year. Granted, that’s not saying very much, relative to whatever Oprah’s reading this week, but it’s led to no end of discussion among physics types. And also, frequently, the spectacle of people with Ph.D.’s squabbling like children, so reviewing it is… Continue reading Lee Smolin, The Trouble With Physics
Physics Contains Multitudes
I finished Lee Smolin’s The Trouble With Physics last night, and will write up a full review in the next couple of days. On the whole, I thought it was a well-done book, and he makes some good points. It’s not without its problems, though, chief among them being the fact that the title is… Continue reading Physics Contains Multitudes
How to Lie With Test Scores
Sean Carroll comments on an item in the Atlantic Monthly on test scores compared across nations. There are two things that really bug me about this item, the most important of which is the deeply dishonest graphic the Atlantic did to illustrate the item. Here’s the honest version of the graph, redone using data from… Continue reading How to Lie With Test Scores
Classic Edition: The Transporters Aren’t Working. Again.
Third and final post in a series about “teleportation” from July 2002. This one is mostly dedicated to voicing the same complaints I have about the more recent stories that kicked this whole repost business off. The more things change, the more I keep repeating myself.
Classic Edition: Beam Me a Photon, Scotty
Part two of three of an explanation of “quantum teleportation” experiments, from July of 2002. This one goes through the basics how teleportation works. I might be able to do better now, having worked through it in more detail in order to teach about it in my Quantum Optics class, but it’s been a busy… Continue reading Classic Edition: Beam Me a Photon, Scotty
Classic Edition: Spooky Interaction at a Distance
As threatened in the previous post on new “quantum teleportation” results, here’s the first of three old articles on teleportation. This one discusses EPR states and “entanglement.” It’s somewhat linkrotted– in particular, the original news article is gone, but the explanation is still ok. This dates from July of 2002, which is like 1840 in… Continue reading Classic Edition: Spooky Interaction at a Distance
The Latest in Teleportation
The latest physics news is an experimental demonstration of “teleportation” involving both light and atoms, done at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and reported on by the Institutes of Physics and CNN, among others, and remarked on by Dave, among others. I wrote up some stuff about teleportation in the early days of this… Continue reading The Latest in Teleportation