I did one sketchy update from Portland last Tuesday, but never wrote up my impressions of the rest of the March Meeting– when I got back, I was buried in grading, and then trying to put together Monday’s presentation. And, for reasons that will become apparent, I was unable to write anything up before I… Continue reading Belated March Meeting Wrap-Up
Category: Theory
Sketchy March Meeting Notes: Monday
I’m terrible about taking notes on conference talks, especially when I’m jet-lagged and was sleep deprived even before I got on the plane. I do jot down the occasional paper reference, though, so here are the things I wrote down, and the talks they were associated with. This should give you some vague idea of… Continue reading Sketchy March Meeting Notes: Monday
Entanglement Happens
There have been a bunch of stories recently talking about quantum effects at room temperature– one, about coherent transport in photosynthesis , even escaped the science blogosphere. They’ve mostly said similar things, but Thursday’s ArxivBlog entry had a particular description of a paper about entanglement effects that is worth unpacking: Entanglement is a strange and… Continue reading Entanglement Happens
From Eternity to the Web
The Firedoglake Book Salon with Sean Carroll last night was a lot of fun. I was generally impressed with the level of the questions, and the tone of the discussion. We went through all of the questions I had typed out in advance (I type fairly slowly, and revise obsessively, so it’s hard for me… Continue reading From Eternity to the Web
Continuity, Discretion, and the Perils of Popularization
Last week’s Seven Essential Elements of Quantum Physics post sparked a fair bit of discussion, though most of it was at the expert level, well above the level of the intended audience. such is life in the physics blogosphere. I think it’s worth a little time to unpack some of the disagreement, though, as it… Continue reading Continuity, Discretion, and the Perils of Popularization
Theoretical Particle Physics Is Always in Crisis
Dennis Overbye is a terrific writer, but I have to say, I hate the way that he falls into the lazy shorthand of using “physics” to mean “theoretical particle physics” in this article about a recent conference built around debates about the state of particle physics. He’s got lots of great quotes from Lisa Randall… Continue reading Theoretical Particle Physics Is Always in Crisis
Zitterbewegung!
One of the few sad things about the recent American domination of physics (says the American physicist) is that new physical phenomena are now mostly given boring, prosaic American English names. Don’t get me wrong, I like being able to pronounce and interpret new phenomena, but when the pre-WWII era of European dominance faded away,… Continue reading Zitterbewegung!
What Keeps Me Up at Night
One of my pet peeves about physics as perceived by the public and presented in the media is the way that everyone assumes that all physicists are theoretical particle physicists. Matt Springer points out another example of this, in this New Scientist article about the opening panel at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival. The panel… Continue reading What Keeps Me Up at Night
Historical Physicist Smackdown Explained: Electric Theory
So, who are the people in yesterday’s poll about theoretical physicists, and why should you know them?
Historical Physicist Smackdown: Electric Theory
I’m nearly done with Graham Farmelo’s biography of Dirac (honest), which discusses the major attempts to understand the behavior of electrons in quantum mechanics. this calls for a dorky poll: Which theorist of the electron was the best?(poll) Try not to base your selection on which of these historical physicists has the best biography written… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Electric Theory