July 27, 2021
Another bit of sad news today for the physics community, with the passing of Steven Weinberg. He was not only a Nobel Laureate and well respected expert in several branches of theoretical physics, but was also a very talented writer and lecturer who brought modern physics to the general public with his many books and articles.
In the physics community he is best known for being one of the people who unified electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces into a single theory, known as the SU(2) Gauge Theory, which is still the accepted model of two of the three Standard Model forces that describe the interactions of subatomic particles. On a more personal level, he also developed some of the effective field theories that I studied and worked on for my Master's thesis, as well as writing the first textbooks on quantum field theory that I bought and attempted to learn from.
To those who are interested in the popularization of modern physics, he is best known for his book, The First Three Minutes, that provides an accessible introduction to both particle physics and cosmology. (For those who are wondering, the title refers to the span of time during which our Universe came into existence, expanding, cooled down, formed three separate fundamental forces, and then produced protons and neutrons, before entering the nucleosynthesis stage in which all of the light elements were formed.)
He was 88, and yet still died far too soon.
July 24, 2021
Yes, this week astrophysicists made the slightly provocative claim that our entire Universe is a giant doughnut. And no, this isn't a pandemic induced mass delusion.
Let us begin with a little background information. For the past century scientists have been aware that space itself is curved in the presence of mass and energy, which is one of the basic principles of general relativity. In fact it is the curvature of space and time that creates the phenomenon that we perceive as gravitational f...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Astronomy
June 17, 2021
As many of my long time readers are aware, I fit into the Venn diagram of research scientists and 3D printing enthusiasts. Add in an interest in medical research, and one can see why this latest scientific breakthrough caught my attention this week.
Biomedical researchers have finally been able to 3D print human tissue.
Technically scientists have already produced 3D printed tissue, but there has always been a major obstacle to producing functioning organs. When organs grow naturally, they deve...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Medical
June 12, 2021
A bit of news for my fellow University of Victoria alumni, there is some sad news today with the announcement that Dr. Reg Mitchell has passed away. To most of the community he is better known as Dr. Zonk, the green-haired chemist who demonstrated cool chemistry experiments to school children (and many adults) for over thirty years at public events and lectures.
He was a skilled chemistry researcher, and an even better educator, and he will be missed by the local scientific community.
Continue reading...
May 18, 2021
I still remember that day over twenty years ago when I was just starting out as a graduate student in theoretical physics, and hearing the faculty and students buzzing about this shocking new discovery from the astrophysics and cosmology community. Not only was the Universe expanding, but it seemed to be accelerating.
Subsequent studies using supernovae and the cosmic microwave background confirmed this discovery, leading to the dark energy problem in cosmology. Approximately three quarters of...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Astronomy
April 27, 2021
Welcome!
As many of you are already aware, for the past fifteen years I have been maintaining a series of scientific blogs in which I write simple reviews of complicated scientific theories and concepts, as well as articles summarizing recent news and research from the scientific community.
Within those articles I have often created very brief explanations for concepts in modern physics and related scientific fields. These often take the form of simple analogies or diagrams that simplify the id...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Administrative
April 9, 2021
With the landing of Perseverance on Mars, and the ongoing research into the use of mRNA splicing and viral vector vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, it is easy to overlook other less publicized research results. This is even more true of results that do not affect our daily lives, such as the announcement from the particle physics community today regarding the magnetic properties of subatomic muons.
Most people know about electrons. They are tiny particles that orbit th...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Particle Physics
February 19, 2021
Perseverance is a good word to describe the year that was. We have persevered through a global pandemic at a level of severity not seen in more than a century, and we have persevered through endless restrictions and lockdowns that were instituted to combat it and stop its spread.
And so it is that this news story is particularly appropriate now.
Perseverance is the name of the latest NASA mission to the planet Mars, and today the team behind it announced that it has landed safely on the red pl...
Continue reading...
Posted In : Astronomy
December 31, 2020
Is it safe to come out from under the bed yet?
Every year at this time I wrap up the year with a quick review of the scientific highlights of the year, but I think we all know that there was only one story dominating our attention for the past twelve months - the global nightmare that has been COVID-19. It has not been a great year for anyone, and certainly not one conducive to scientific advances.
And yet there were a few.
Of course the lead story must be the record setting development of a COV...
Continue reading...
I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.
