In a lot of ways, the OPERA fast-neutrino business has been less a story about science than a story about the perils of the new media landscape. We went through another stage of this a day or two ago, with all sorts of people Twittering, resharing, and repeating in other ways a story that the… Continue reading Experimentalists Aren’t Idiots: The Neutrino Saga Continues
Category: Relativity
Shameless (if Belated) Self-Promotion: Me on the Radio
If you want to know how stressed and busy I’ve been lately, you don’t have to look any farther than the fact that I’ve totally fallen down on the shameless self-promotion front: I was on a radio show, and forgot to post about it here. I know, bad blogger, no pageviews… Anyway, I talked about… Continue reading Shameless (if Belated) Self-Promotion: Me on the Radio
Faster Than a Speeding Photon: “Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam”
There have been a lot of pixels spilled over this faster-than-light neutrino business, so it might not seem like something I should take time away from pressing work to write up. It is the story of the moment, though, and too much of the commentary I’ve seen has been of the form “I am a… Continue reading Faster Than a Speeding Photon: “Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam”
Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo
The final sentence of the neutrino paper that everybody is buzzing about: We deliberately do not attempt any theoretical or phenomenological interpretation of the results. From a somewhat older work in physics: Rationem vero harum gravitatis proprietatum ex phænomenis nondum potui deducere, et hypotheses non fingo. Quicquid enim ex phænomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est;… Continue reading Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover
I’m looking at an email from my editor when Emmy wanders by the computer, sniffing around just in case a crumb of food has fallen on the floor in the last five minutes. “Hey,” I say, “Come here and look at this.” “Look at what?” “This:” “It’s the cover for my new book.” “A-hem.” “OK,… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover
The Bat Diet: Live Longer Through General Relativity
A scientific theory hasn’t really arrived until the cynical and unscrupulous find a way to use it to extract money from the credulous and gullible. This has posed a significant obstacle for general relativity, dealing as it does with gravity, which requires really gigantic masses to produce measurable effects. That makes it a little difficult… Continue reading The Bat Diet: Live Longer Through General Relativity
The Manga guide to Relativity by Nitta, Yamamoto, and Takatsu
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
The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science
NASA held a big press conference yesterday to announce that the Gravity Probe B experiment had confirmed a prediction of General Relativity that spacetime near Earth should be “twisted” by the Earth’s rotation. A lot of the coverage has focused on the troubled history of the mission (as did the press conference, apparently), but scientifically… Continue reading The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science
What to Tell Your Dog About Einstein
Regular blogging has been interrupted this week not only because I jetted off to southern MD but because this week was the due date for the manuscript of the book-in-progress. It’s now been sent off to my editor, and thus begins my favorite part of the process, the waiting-to-see-what-other-people-think part. I’m pretty happy with it,… Continue reading What to Tell Your Dog About Einstein
Progress Report: No Proposal Outline Survives Contact with the Writing Process
Blogging will continue to be minimal, as I’m buried in grading, and feeling significant time pressure regarding the book-in-progress. I thought I’d pop up briefly, though, to provide a look at the current status of the book-in-progress. The way this process works (or at least has worked for me) is that I write up a… Continue reading Progress Report: No Proposal Outline Survives Contact with the Writing Process