Posted by Chad Orzel on November 25, 2010 It’s Thanksgiving here in the US, so blogging will be light to nonexistent. For the sake of those looking for a quick escape from the chaos of a family gathering, or, you know, those poor benighted souls in other countries for whom this is just another Thursday, here’s a thematically appropriate poll about science:
Have a great holiday/ Thursday.
Mu.
It’s not like I’ve mastered any of those. I can at best dabble in QM and SR.
BB cosmology: yeah yeah life began with a bang in a ‘love field’.
Standard Model: soon to be forgotten in light of string theory. Are we really that confident about our geometries?
QED: this can be fixed, it’ll take a few conferences of about 40 physicists on an island. Start with electrohydrodynamics and vacuum energy e.g. http://zeo-tech.de
Matrix QE: a matrix? Oh that’s just a list in mathematica..
Schroedinger: nicely probabilistic. Next try probabilistic geometries. After all it was 1954 when M.E Wise gave the first geometric interpretation of a statistical parameter..
GR: nice Riemann and tensor analysis. Thanks Tullio and Marcel.
SR: brilliant, thanks Al.
TOE: does that include superconductivity? wow..
Internet polls: thank you..
You've read the blog, now try the books:
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books. "“Unlike quantum physics, which remains bizarre even to experts, much of relativity makes sense. Thus, Einstein’s special relativity merely states that the laws of physics and the speed of light are identical for all observers in smooth motion. This sounds trivial but leads to weird if delightfully comprehensible phenomena, provided someone like Orzel delivers a clear explanation of why.” --Kirkus Reviews "Bravo to both man and dog." The New York Times.
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner. "It's hard to imagine a better way for the mathematically and scientifically challenged, in particular, to grasp basic quantum physics." -- Booklist "Chad Orzel's How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is an absolutely delightful book on many axes: first, its subject matter, quantum physics, is arguably the most mind-bending scientific subject we have; second, the device of the book -- a quantum physicist, Orzel, explains quantum physics to Emmy, his cheeky German shepherd -- is a hoot, and has the singular advantage of making the mind-bending a little less traumatic when the going gets tough (quantum physics has a certain irreducible complexity that precludes an easy understanding of its implications); finally, third, it is extremely well-written, combining a scientist's rigor and accuracy with a natural raconteur's storytelling skill." -- BoingBoing
November 25, 2010
November 25, 2010
