Ask a theoretical physicist turned teacher, lecturer and author

[Alex K]

Also, questions concerning the TRUTH about rock crushers are allowed if your heart is with the ONE true faith.

Also, don't forget to vote, or Trump wins.

[Jesster]

Why do you keep lying about your job? Everyone knows you really have a middle management job at a shoe store.

[Alex K]

Why do you keep lying about your job? Everyone knows you really have a middle management job at a shoe store.

I want everyone to love and admire me.

[The Grand Nudger]

What has been, in your estimation, the most consequential discovery in physics in the last 5 years?
(open ended, could be experimental results, a theorem, or a practical application - but..preferably, one that flew under the radar)

[Edwardo Piet]

Why do you keep lying about your job? Everyone knows you really have a middle management job at a shoe store.

I want everyone to love and admire me.

Uh oh... I think you caught some sort of penguin-based disease.

Anyways I'm off to bed, ni night.

[Alex K]

What has been, in your estimation, the most consequential discovery in physics in the last 5 years?

Well, the biggies in fundamental physics are obviously the Higgs boson 5 years ago, and gravitational waves two years ago. Those two have a huge impact on their respective fields, but I wonder whether there wasn't another discovery in an applied field which I simply haven't yet heard of and which will have a profound impact on everyday technology. For instance, the Nobel for Grünberg who discovered the giant magnetoresistance which was the basis for hard disk data storage. I didn't know it existed at all until he got his Nobel even though he was basically in my back yard, and it was arguably a very important discovery for our everyday lives.

I'll exclude the Higgs boson because it has been 5 years and a few weeks, so the big one is Gravitational Waves, for several reasons: we finally have direct evidence that black holes exist, and that Einstein's equations are pretty much exactly valid even in those extreme conditions where two black holes merge. With a bit of luck, this will open up a whole field of observations using gravitational waves, and (e)LISA, to me the most incredible space experiment ever conceived, can go forward.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Am I right in thinking that lasers are so ubiquitous in modern technology because they're so much fun to play with that physicists have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get funding to do research with them?

On a more serious note, what's the gender balance like in Physics? In Comp Sci it's about 10% women to men now.

Also, how plausible is it that the creation of a black hole can create a new universe?

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Also, questions concerning the TRUTH about rock crushers are allowed if your heart is with the ONE true faith.

P.S That WMF Garlic crusher you posted a picture of absolutely rocks. I stroke it lovingly every Sunday after crushing a week's garlic for my packed lunches.

[Alex K]

Am I right in thinking that lasers are so ubiquitous in modern technology because they're so much fun to play with that physicists have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get funding to do research with them?

They are fun, super versatile, and they are (comparatively) cheap as dirt. I'll never forget the laser experiments at our advanced lab course. I think I had my supervisor jumping for cover once or twice

On a more serious note, what's the gender balance like in Physics? In Comp Sci it's about 10% women to men now.

Probably slightly better. I don't have the numbers, but I'm sure it is below 20% in this country.

Also, how plausible is it that the creation of a black hole can create a new universe?

I don't find it plausible at all. The mathematical solutions corresponding to theoretical (idealized, eternal Schwarzschild) black holes contain infinitely extended bridges to parallel universes which can in principle be reached by falling through the black hole if it rotates or is electrically charged. This is what the corresponding spacetime diagram looks like:



and this is what a realistic computer rendering true to Einstein's equations looks like of you falling into it across the horizon into a new universe:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/8748890
an absolutely spectacular+cinematic simulation considering that it is not an artists impression!

However, these mathematical solutions with new universes attached don't usually apply to black holes which are finite in time, i.e. created at some point, and then evaporate via hawking radiation. I don't think there is much of a universe in a black hole.

[Amarok]

Why do you keep lying about your job? Everyone knows you really have a middle management job at a shoe store.

I want everyone to love and admire me.

Ah ha we knew it all you critics who aren't themselves physics but read some blogs about it .And assert outdated idea's about concepts like singularities (place holders) were right .

[Alex K]

I want everyone to love and admire me.

Ah ha we knew it all you critics who aren't themselves physics but read some blogs about it .And assert outdated idea's about concepts like singularities (place holders) were right .

Exactly!

huh?