Book Review: "The Pope of Physics"
The Pope of Physics is a 2016 biography of Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), written by Gino Segre and Bettina Hoerlin. Segre's uncle Emilio was a student of Fermi's in Rome, whereas Hoerlin's father knew...
View ArticleVox Explains Henrietta Leavitt's 1908 Discovery of How to Measure Distances...
Vox provides a very clear explanation of Henrietta Leavitt's 1908 discovery that allows us to estimate the distance to stars and galaxies. The book Einstein's Greatest Mistake (which I previously...
View Article2022 Nobel Physics Prize to Quantum Entanglement Researchers
The 2022 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three researchers for their work in quantum entanglement and its applications. This posting from Daily Kos features a compilation of links,...
View ArticlePhysicist Alan Nathan on Baseball Podcast
My friend Alan Nathan, a retired professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and one of the leading experts on the physics of baseball, appeared on the Society for American...
View ArticleBook Review: "Einstein's Greatest Mistake"
David Bodanis begins his 2016 book Einstein's Greatest Mistake with a depiction of a once-great scientist who had become a forlorn figure in his later years. He was usually alone when he walked home...
View ArticleVox on Olympic Ski Jumping
Vox explains "Why ski jumpers hold their skis in a V," as opposed to the older style of keeping their skis parallel (link).
View ArticleVox on 2021 Nobel Physics Prize to Climate-Change Researchers
Voxexplains the climate-change modeling -- "account[ing] for the roiling randomness present in everything from materials to the motion of the atmosphere, and still mak[ing] useful predictions" -- that...
View ArticlePhysicist Samantha Schultz Helps Oakland A's Pitchers Optimize Their Delivery
The San Jose Mercury News reports on physicist Samantha Schultz's position as a pitching analyst with the Oakland A's Major League Baseball team (link). The following paragraphs from the article...
View ArticlePhysics of Football's Spiral Forward Pass
For fans of American football, the New York Times has an article (link) on three physicists' explanation of why the axis of a spiral forward pass changes -- from nose pointing up at release to nose...
View ArticlePhysics of Bowling: The Near Impossibility of a Spare on the 7-10 Split
The 7-10 split is when the only pins standing after a bowler's first shot of a frame are the leftmost and rightmost pins in the back row. It's obviously extremely difficult to knock out both pins on...
View ArticleNew York Times Piece on Quantum Mechanics
Sean Carroll has a piece in the New York Times, arguing that physicists have largely lost interest in understanding the foundational principles of quantum mechanics. The article provides a clear...
View ArticleMurray Gell-Mann (1929-2019)
To mark the passing of Murray Gell-Mann, who died 10 days ago at age 89, I offer a link to this 2000 article from The Atlantic on the often-difficult working relationship between Gell-Mann and his...
View ArticleBook Review: "The Cosmic Cocktail"
If you were to leave the book The Cosmic Cocktail on your coffee table, any guests would likely think it pertained to bartending. However, this book by University of Michigan professor Katherine...
View ArticleThe Technology Behind the Black-Hole Image
Five-Thirty-Eight explains the data collection and processing technology behind the just-released "glowing-doughnut" image of a black hole. As the article notes, the black hole was not directly...
View ArticlePhysics Data on Baseball Home Runs
The Twitter feed MLB Barrel Alert provides a lot of data on how well the batter has gotten the barrel of the bat on the ball for each home run hit in the major leagues. The tweets provide, in visual...
View ArticleBook Review: "We Have No Idea"
Jorge Cham is the creator of PHD Comics and himself a Ph.D. holder from Stanford. Daniel Whiteson is professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. Put the two together and...
View ArticleWhat Makes Water Slippery?
This new article explain's water's slipperiness in terms of density, chemical-bonding, and friction. There's even a theory that there are two kinds of water! The writer quotes James Kakalios, whose...
View ArticlePossible New Clues on Dark Matter
Two recent Nature articles offer possible progress in the quest to characterize dark matter. A Science Daily article quotes one of the authors, Tel Aviv University professor Rennan Barkana, to the...
View ArticleFrustration for New Theories
Via Peter Woit/Not Even Wrong, the Economist has an article on how elaborate experiments designed to test unified theories are not providing support for them.
View Article2017 Nobel Prize for Detection of Gravitational Waves
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their work on the detection of gravitational waves. The official award announcement is available here, whereas some...
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