Advance in Physics

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar

A good friend recommended this book to me and it is great.  I am only part-way into to it and I have been laughing out loud since starting it, learning at the same time.

For example, here is one of the jokes they use to illustrate one of Leibniz's philosophical thoughts:

"An optimist believes that this is the best of all possible worlds.  The  pessimist fears that the optimist is right."

I have a feeling I may be posting more jokes from this book in the future so stay tuned!! Better yet, check out the entire book yourself!!!

Literature Anticipates Quantum Physics

"Had Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam's hand in Argos or Julius Caesar not been knifed to death. They are not to be thought away. Time has branded them and fettered they are lodged in the room of the infinite possibilities they have ousted. But can those have been possible seeing that they never were? Or was that only possible which came to pass Weave, weaver of the wind."    

- James Joyce's Ulysses. 

Happy Birthday General Relativity!!!!

It was on this date, 100 years ago, that Einstein (books by this author) submitted his paper The Field Equations of Gravitation for publication (1915). The paper included 10 equations, which made up his Theory of General Relativity. The equations lay out Einstein’s theory of gravity: where it comes from and how it interacts with “spacetime.” Einstein’s theory viewed space and time not as two separate elements, but interwoven such that a change in one produces an effect on the other. He didn’t come up with the idea of a space-time continuum — that idea came from his former professor, Hermann Minkowski — but Einstein elaborated on it.  .  .   

Einstein worked on expanding and fine-tuning his Special Relativity theory for almost a decade. Once he felt confident that his equations could accurately describe gravity’s effect on spacetime, he published them as The Field Equations of Gravitation or — as they’re more familiarly known, the Theory of General Relativity.  .  .

Read more (click here) - Thank you Writer's Almanac!

Outer Space Twitter Banter

Building the International Space Center

Way cool!  Amazing!

Video Tour of the International Space Station

Speaking for myself, I don't think often enough about the International Space Station orbiting around us.  When I do, I am amazed.

The link below contains a number of great video tours of the inside of the space station.  Check them out!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/suni_iss_tour.html

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition by Richard Rhodes comes out in paperback again next week. When it first came out, this book won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Award.

This book remains the seminal and complete story of how the atomic bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan.

.I loved The Making of the Atomic Bomb when it first came out in paperback and I read it in the early 1990s. It is still one of my favorite books of all time. Why? It is a fantastic combination of history, politics, biography, project management, science and morality.

One of the best things about it, it is very readable even for non-technical people.  Pick up and read The Making of the Atomic Bomb when it comes out again. You won’t regret it.

One of My Favorite Days of the Year

Today is the Winter Solstice - one of my favorite days of the year because the longer days ahead are evidence we are on our way to Spring even as we brave winter weather.  The ancients were no dummies when they built temples and monuments to track the path of the sun to know this day.

45th Anniversary of Apollo 8 - The First Earthrise Seen by Humans

In December 1968, the Apollo 8 crew became the first humans to experience an Earthrise from the lunar orbit. This visualization is based off of the actual photos and satellite imagery. Narrated by Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon.

Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

James Webb Space Telescope - Hubble's Cosmic Successor

SPACE.COM - NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018, will probe the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Big Bang to alien planet formation and beyond.

Scientists are planning to use the infrared telescope to search for the first galaxies that formed at the beginning of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will also have the ability to look through cosmic dust clouds to find newly forming planetary systems and seek out the chemical origins of life in the solar system.

        The powerful $8.8 billion spacecraft is also expected to take amazing photos of celestial objects like its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.  Read More -

Hubble - Window to the Universe

Click on this to check out NASA's Hubble Website.

Santa Is For Real!

I heard an interview of Gregory Mone, a scientist author, who has just came out with a book named The Truth about Santa: Wormholes, Robots and What Really Happens on Christmas Eve.

I found it interesting and pretty convincing. It is worth checking out. Don't just read it, be sure and listen to it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121247367