History of Science
Category archives for History of Science
Wolfgang Pauli, Father of the arXiv
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 10, 2013 The book-in-progress (which is coming along, albeit slowly, thanks for asking) is built around making analogies between scientific discoveries and ordinary activities. This necessarily means telling a lot of historical stories, which is both good and bad. The bad part is that actual history is way messier than the streamlined version you get to use…
Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution by John Gribbin
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 2, 2013 
Erwin Schrödinger is one of the more colorful figures in physics history. He’s best known for Emmy’s favorite thought experiment, of course, which attempts to demonstrate the absurdity of quantum physics through locking a cat in a box. This overshadows the Schrödinger Equation, the central equation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, which won him a Nobel…
Real Scientists Have Families, Too
Posted by Chad Orzel on April 15, 2013 I was re-reading bits of James Gleick’s Feynman biography, and ran across a bit near the end (page 397 of my hardcover from 1992) talking about his relationship with his children, talking about how ordinary he seemed at home.I particularly liked the sentence “Belatedly it dawned on them that not all their friends could look…
The Higgs Boson in Context
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 6, 2013 
I ran across this recently while looking for something else, and was reminded of it by this discussion of jargon. It’s an attempt to explain the general historical context of the whole Higgs Boson thing, and why it’s important. I improvised this in response to somebody’s question about how I would explain that, drawing mostly…
Physics Is About Rules, Not Facts
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 24, 2013 While in the library looking for something else, I noticed a book called The Trouble with Science by Robin Dunbar, whose description made it sound very much on point for my current project: In The Trouble with Science, Robin Dunbar asks whether science really is unique to Western culture, even to humankind. He suggests that…
Blast From the Past: Letter to and From Luis Alvarez
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 22, 2013 
I have mentioned before that when I was a kid, I wrote a letter to Luis Alvarez, the 1968 Nobel laureate in Physics, asking some questions about his theory that an asteroid impact killed the dinosaurs, which had been featured in a NOVA special. I got a very nice letter back from him, very graciously…
Proving Bethe Wrong: On Theory Inspiring Experiment
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 18, 2013 As research for the work-in-progress, I recently read Luis Alvarez‘s autobiography, Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist, which contains a passage that I was reminded of last night while reading another book, that seems like an amusing follow-up to yesterday’s rant about theory and experiment. This is from the end of the chapter where he joined…
Top Physics Breakthroughs of the 13th Baktun
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 21, 2012 
We’re at that time of year where people publish lists of top stories of the year, but as many crazy people will be happy to remind you, this Friday marks the end of another calendrical period, in the Mayan calendar. So, I’m going to steal an idea from a college classmate on Facebook, who wrote:…
How to Think Like a Scientist
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 6, 2012 
I have made allusions to a work-in-progress at various points recently, but my general policy is not to reveal any details until things become official. Well, as you can see from the above photo of signed contracts, it’s official: I sold the work-in-progress to Basic Books, my publisher for How to Teach Relativity to Your…
Science Is Our Human Heritage
Posted by Chad Orzel on October 18, 2012 
In which I get a little rant-y about yet another proud display of ignorance from the Washington Post’s education blog. ———— Some time back, I teed off on a school board member who couldn’t pass a simple math test, who proudly told the world about his ignorance via a post at the Washington Post‘s education…
