Tag: Science
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Non-Linear Art. (Should Actually Be: Random Thoughts on Fluid Dynamics)
In my favorite ancient classical mechanics textbook I found an unexpected statement. I think 1960s textbooks weren’t expected to be garnished with geek humor or philosophical references as much as seems to be the default today – therefore Feynman’s books were so refreshing. Natural phenomena featured by visual artists are typically those described by non-linear…
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In Praise of Textbooks with Tons of Formulas (or: The Joy of Firefighting)
I know. I am repeating myself. Maurice Barry has not only recommended Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow to me, but he also runs an interesting series of posts on his eLearning blog. These got mixed and entangled in my mind, and I cannot help but returning to that pet topic of mine. First, some statistically…
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This Year in Books: Biographies, Science, Essays.
I hardly review books on this blog, but I mull upon specific questions – to which books may have answers. This is my pick of books I enjoyed reading in 2013 – and the related questions! Biographies I have a penchant for physicists’ lives in the first half of the 20th century. How did scientists…
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“Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory”
As other authors of science blogs have pointed out: Most popular search terms are submitted by students. So I guess it is not the general public who is interested in: the theory of gyroscopes, (theory of) microwaves, (theory of) heat pumps, (theory of) falling slinkies, or the Coriolis force. I believe that these search terms…
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Learning Physics, Metaphors, and Quantum Fields
In my series on Quantum Field Theory I wanted to document my own learning endeavors but it has turned into a meta-contemplation on the ‘explain-ability’ of theoretical physics. Initially I had been motivated by a comment David Tong made in his introductory lecture: Comparing different QFT books he states that Steven Weinberg‘s books are hard reads because at…
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Fragile Technology? (Confessions of a Luddite Disguised as Tech Enthusiast)
I warn you – I am in the mood for random long-winded philosophical ramblings. I have graduated recently again, denying cap-and-gown costume as I detest artificial Astroturf traditions such as re-importing academic rituals from the USA to Europe. A Subversive El(k)ement fond of uniforms would not be worth the name. However, other than that I…
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On the Relation of Jurassic Park and Alien Jelly Flowing through Hyperspace
Yes, this is a serious physics post – no. 3 in my series on Quantum Field Theory. I promised to explain what Quantization is. I will also argue – again – that classical mechanics is unjustly associated with steampunk pictures of clocks and trains. It looks more like representations of time-lines in Back to the…
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The Science of Search Term Poetry
In the break after the second session on Quantum Field Theory I am showing off light edutainment with a scientific touch. Every quarter I save the search terms as displayed in WordPress Stats for highly sophisticated statistical, psychological and linguistic analysis. That is, I do create a Search Term Poem. Rules are as follows: The…
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May the Force Field Be with You: Primer on Quantum Mechanics and Why We Need Quantum Field Theory
As Feynman explains so eloquently – and yet in a refreshingly down-to-earth way – understanding and learning physics works like this: There are no true axioms, you can start from anywhere. Your physics knowledge is like a messy landscape, built from different interconnected islands of insights. You will not memorize them all, but you need…
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On Science Communication
In a parallel universe I might work as a science communicator. Having completed my PhD in applied physics I wrote a bunch of job applications, one of them being a bit eccentric: I applied at the Austrian national public service broadcaster. (According to Wikipedia Austria was the last country in continental Europe after Albania to…
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Quantum Field Theory
An overview of a series of 2012-2013 posts. For more than a decade, this was a Page. In 2026, I am finally converting this into the blog post that it always should have been (Publication date is the date the page had originally been published. ~ .In the 1990s my fields of expertise were laser…
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Space Balls, Baywatch and the Geekiness of Classical Mechanics
This is the first post in my series about Quantum Field Theory. What a let-down: I will just discuss classical mechanics. There is a quantum mechanics, and in contrast there is good old classical, Newtonian mechanics. The latter is a limiting case of the former. So there is some correspondence between the two, and there are rules…
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And Now for Something Completely Different: Quantum Fields!
Do I miss assignments and exams? Definitely not, and I am now – finally, really, absolutely – determined to complete another program I had set for myself about 2-3 years ago. I had not been able to pull it off in addition to being a moonlighting student. Since about 10 years I have been recycling my physics knowledge on…
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I Want to Be Antifragile and Have Skin in the Game
Having read The Black Swan and Antifragile by Nassim Taleb I might have become an orthodox member of the Taleb Cult. The more Taleb’s ideas struck a chord with me intuitively, the more I try to scrutinize them. I jumped to the 1-star reviews amazon.com to challenge my gullibility, and I tried my best to…
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Theory and Practice of Trying to Combine Physics with Anything
You have told me, you miss my physics posts. I have missed them, too, and I give it a try. But I cannot help turning this into a cross-over again, smashing together half-digested psychology, physics, IT networking, and badly hidden autobiographical anecdotes. In 2005 I did research on the incorporation of physics-style thinking and mathematical…
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Transhumanism and the Extended Self
This transhuman and extended post has now transcended all other related posts on gamification. Blogging singularity! But wait… we did not factor in the lawyers! The target of this reblog is now offline, but I want to conserve the URL to the embedded video here – The Singularity, Ruined by Lawyers.
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Creepy Game of Life
Every undergraduate in a science degree program has to develop some variant of Game of Life – in a programming 101 course. These – not very intelligent – life-forms on a checkerboard evolve by following very simple rules – ‘cell’ live or die, depending on its number of neighbors. The pattern is determined by the…
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On Time Travelling: Rigorous Categorization of Science Fiction Movies
Do you remember the scary moment when Ashton Cutcher alias Evan recognizes suddenly that his arms are crippled – and that they have been crippled since many years? This is a scene from The Butterfly Effect: Evan discovers that he is capable of time-travelling to his troubled childhood. He tries to fix the present by…