Going against the flow in science: Science requires some level of skepticism, outside of 'the textbook'

 In theoretical physics for the past 50 or so years, thousands of the world's best physics minds have dedicated themselves to looking for the quantum theory of gravity. Since Einstein, the dream has been to unify gravity with the other three forces of nature into a single theory - no one has done it, despite the HUGE effort given to this problem for decades. And on the experimental side, nothing has been found that suggests gravity comes in 'bundles' just like something like light comes in bundles of energy we call a photon.                  

Despite the lack of any substantial breakthrough, everyone keeps plugging away, assuming gravity MUST be quantized since the other forces are. In science, putting blinders on while looking to answer the unknown is dangerous. Part of the process of science is to be skeptical, even of things we do know! Check out this article and video about physicist Jonathan Oppenheim from University College of London, who has made the assumption that maybe gravity is not quantized as we all have been thinking - what if it is how Einstein describes it in General Relativity, where it is not a true force but rather just the consequence of curved space-time? 

Prof. Oppenheim and his students are developing a theory, as well as suggestions for experiments, that could test whether gravity is simply different and is a 'classical' force rather than a quantum force. When I teach gravity and Einstein's model, and we get into the modern thinking about quantum gravity, we have over the years asked the question if gravity might not be quantized, and that's why it is so different from the other three forces of nature and why no one has found the unified theory. It is good to see this possibility getting some attention and those isolated few who question the textbooks and group think that can happen in science...scientists are still humans, and fall into the same patterns and traps as everyone else! 

I look forward to seeing where this work goes, as all that matters is we make progress in understanding the true nature of Nature, regardless of whether it fits into our assumptions and expectations or not! 

Using AI to learn programming

 Most of my students who want to learn how to program in some language, and that mostly being Python, do so independently since it is not really taught in high school classes. Most college students and graduate students are using Python in science research because of its power and speed when it comes to data analysis and presentation. While Python and all the resources you need are free and online, one can watch YouTube videos and learn how to code in Python, or any other language. 

While that is how it's been done for a long time by many students, artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT are providing a new way. One can ask ChatGPT to write programs in Python, for example, to do many things a student may be interested in coding up. One can ask for instructions, as well, for running the programs ChatGPT writes. By giving it a problem and studying, editing and modifying the code, students and adults have a new option for learning how to code. It is effectively the same as getting code from someone else and learning by doing, which is how most people learn to code. Just wanted to put this out there if anyone is interested. Always remember, though, to cite code or all other pieces from which  you actually do find and use information.

Quantum Computing - Learn the basics through this free text and course

 Quantum computing is already here in prototype form, and is rapidly evolving into a next generation computing technology, the consequences of which we do not fully understand. But let's also recognize that many companies, universities, national labs, the military, finance and business sectors, medical research and most other fields you can think of, will be in great need of workers who know what this is and how to use it. And the day is also coming where quantum computing and AI become mixed. 

If you are curious about this field and technology, here is an online textbook that is setup as a course in quantum computing. Use it and go at your own pace. Have fun! 

Institutions and Countries with most top Physicists

 The productivity and 'success' of scientists can be measured several ways, and perhaps the most popular is looking at the number of publications and citations a scientist has. This makes sense because to be  published in peer reviewed journals shows the work is considered strong, and people cite it when they find it useful, valuable, and well done. Citations mean the work is affecting the field. There is a measure called the D-index based on these criteria.

So you can find the countries and institutions with the most physics personnel with high D-index values. By far, the United States leads for countries, followed by Great Britain. For institutions, Caltech leads the way, and the only non-US institutions in the top ten are the Max Planck Institute and University of Cambridge.

How basic high school science can help in real-world research: Why NOT to use magnets to search for meteorites

 What happens when a magnet gets close to an object that may have a weak magnetic field? 

Hopefully any senior who has gone through E&M should be able to answer that the weaker magnet can be affected and changed by a stronger magnet. 

A common way of searching for meteorites is to use magnets, since rocks from space are likely to have some iron in them. But this also means that using a magnet can change any magnetic field the meteorite may have, thus erasing valuable scientific information about the magnetism in our solar system that that rock had carried for perhaps billions of years before finally crashing into the earth. This is a problem for scientists who need meteorites to study and collect information about the ancient solar system! And this is a problem since so many meteorites are found by amateur 'hunters'. 

So basic physics we learn in high school make a difference in real life research efforts! 

                             

April 18, 1955 - the day Einstein died

 April 18, 1955, was the day the world lost one of the greatest minds, certainly scientific, in human history, when Albert Einstein died at the age of 76. 

For an interesting summary of what that day was like, check out this Life article. The below photo is from biography.com. 

ChatGPT - How does it work?

 ChatGPT and other AI platforms are causing a great deal of excitement, concern, ethical questions to be asked, and lots of interesting applications and concerns. And we are just scratching the surface of how artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT will be able to assist in scientific research. 

But how does it actually work? 

A decent introductory article about how it works is here, from Stephen Wolfram.