Physics Blogging Round-Up: November [Uncertain Principles]

I’m not posting as much as I did last year, when I was on sabbatical (gasp, shock, surprise), so making Forbes-blog links dump posts a monthly thing is probably just about sustainable.

— What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends: Some thoughts about, well, the math you need to learn to be a physicist. Which may not be all that much, depending on your choice of subfield. Prompted a nice response from Peter Woit, too.

— Physics And The Science Of Finding Missing Pieces: One of several recent-ish posts prompted by my last term teaching from Matter and Interactions.

— How To Make A White Dwarf With Lasers And Cold Atoms: An explanation of ultracold plasma physics, prompted by a visit and a very nice colloquium talk by Tom Killian from Rice.

— Here’s The Physics That Got Left Out Of ‘Arrival’: As noted previously, the movie adaptation of Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” is very god but would’ve been better if they’d kept more of the physics from the original story. This is an explanation of that physics.

– Three Candidates For The ‘Hamilton’ Of Physics: Because I needed something frivolous and morale-boosting, some suggestions for splashy Broadway biographies of some notable physicists.

So, that’s the month of November for you. The math and Arrival posts did really well, traffic-wise, but I’m probably happiest with the cold plasma one. But, you know, such is science blogging.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/2gpICEE

I’m not posting as much as I did last year, when I was on sabbatical (gasp, shock, surprise), so making Forbes-blog links dump posts a monthly thing is probably just about sustainable.

— What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends: Some thoughts about, well, the math you need to learn to be a physicist. Which may not be all that much, depending on your choice of subfield. Prompted a nice response from Peter Woit, too.

— Physics And The Science Of Finding Missing Pieces: One of several recent-ish posts prompted by my last term teaching from Matter and Interactions.

— How To Make A White Dwarf With Lasers And Cold Atoms: An explanation of ultracold plasma physics, prompted by a visit and a very nice colloquium talk by Tom Killian from Rice.

— Here’s The Physics That Got Left Out Of ‘Arrival’: As noted previously, the movie adaptation of Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” is very god but would’ve been better if they’d kept more of the physics from the original story. This is an explanation of that physics.

– Three Candidates For The ‘Hamilton’ Of Physics: Because I needed something frivolous and morale-boosting, some suggestions for splashy Broadway biographies of some notable physicists.

So, that’s the month of November for you. The math and Arrival posts did really well, traffic-wise, but I’m probably happiest with the cold plasma one. But, you know, such is science blogging.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/2gpICEE