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The Way the Universe is–Anthropic Selection
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Tag Archives: physics
“If this sticker is blue you’re driving too fast”
…. on a red bumper sticker from the American Physical Society.
“Antiprotons aren’t evil. They’re merely misunderstood.”
…. a comment by beamjockey on an article about a new orbital cosmic ray detector.
“…black holes aren’t too hard to find. They’re bright.”
See 1300 black holes
Blast from the Past
Blast of Giant Atom Created Our Universe, from the December, 1932 issue of Popular Science. From the (2007) introduction:
This is a pretty amazing article. It’s a concise summary of the big bang theory published only 3 years after Edwin Hubble made his famous observations about the redshifts of distant galaxies. Yet it’s pretty much identical to one you’d see today. Only a few details like the size of the initial “atom” and the age of the universe seem off. Keep in mind it took another 35 years or so before the scientific community came to accept that the big bang really happened.
Found via a post at Cosmic Variance, which emphasizes the work of Father Georges-Henri Lemaître, and concludes
Lemaître passed away in 1966, a year after Penzias and Wilson detected the microwave radiation leftover from the Primeval Atom.
I.e, Lemaître lived long enough to see his work confirmed by observation.
The Dangers of Scientific Terminology
From Cosmic Variance
The spheroidal distribution of stars in the centers of rotating disk galaxies is called the “bulge”. Now, introduce a bunch of bored and horny 19 year olds into the mix, and you have a dangerous cocktail. One of my colleagues lost complete control of a 250 person lecture class when she had two male students hold up pictures of different galaxies, while she expounded on how “This guy over here has a small bulge, but the bulge of this guy is quite prominent.” The titters started as she forged ahead unknowing, until the entire class collapsed in hysterics. At that point, you just have to put down your laser pointer, send the class home, and head for the bar. Learning is over.
This reminded me of how my classes in quantum mechanics taught me about the mathematics of bras.
Old memories and present reflections
My brief note last night concluded with a physics joke; perhaps my subconscious was looking ahead to the next day. Continue reading
Skipped one bar for another
We skipped colgaffneyis Night at the Pub last night, but went out tonight and met several friends from that organization at an Irish Bar near downtown Minneapolis. The band was loud and rather indistinct where we were sitting, which was a disappointment. It was also very crowded. We had seven people in a booth for six. As a result I was squeezed between mia_mcdavid and c_nocturnum. I have no complaint ;-)> Working our way out through the crowd I tried to imagine what the place is like on St. Patrick’s Day and failed. Maybe they repeal the Pauli Exclusion Principle :-)>
Mike Casper, R.I.P.
I just learned that one of my favorite professors at Carleton died on Saturday. In a small department at a small college there is a lot of student-faculty contact. Mike was one of the people who really shaped my life. I have posted the e-mail about him at 72 dpi.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 