Enjoy History Of Science? Here's A Book For You

Forbes, Nancy; Mahon, Basil. Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics. New York: Prometheus Books, 2014.

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You think the subject is old stuff. You think you know the subject pretty well. You studied the subject in physics class 1966-1968 and most of the seminal research took place in the 19^th century.

You spot this book on the "New Books" shelf at the library. You yawn. You shrug and check it out anyway.

Then you read it and you're blown away...

Seriously: this is popular science writing at its best.

CNN Anchor Don Lemon: Advances 'Black Hole' Theory Of Lost Maylasian Plane

BLACK HOLE Military Surplus

Here I use the word "theory" in the casual sense, meaning "crack-brained notion that no sane person would consider for even two seconds." But Catherine Thompson of TPM reports Lemon's conjecture, which he himself admits is "preposterous," as... well, as preposterous:

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[Lemon] read out tweets that compared the mystery to "Lost" and "The Twilight Zone" before asking Mary Schiavo, a former U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, to weigh in on the black hole theory.

"That's what people are saying," Lemon said. "I know it's preposterous — but is it preposterous you think, Mary?"

"Well, it is. A small black hole would suck in our entire universe so we know it's not that," Schiavo said. "The Bermuda Triangle is often weather. And 'Lost' is a TV show. So I think -- I always like things for which there's data history, crunch the numbers. So for me those aren't there."

"But I think it's wonderful that the whole world is trying to help with their theories and I absolutely love their theories," she added.

Australian officials said early Thursday that two large objects which may be debris from the plane were spotted a four-hour flight away from that country's southwestern coast, so perhaps Lemon and his panelists will have some more concrete evidence to pore over on Thursday night's show.

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(More likely, they will pour concrete over any actual evidence...)

Both the appropriately-named Lemon and Ms. Schiavo are more evidence, if we need more, that journalists should refrain from speculation about scientific matters. I am soooo glad I don't watch much TV "news" ...

Englert, Higgs Win Nobel For Higgs Particle Discovery

TPM/AP has a tiny announcement. Fortunately, at age 84, British scientist Peter Higgs is still alive as one of the two recipients of the prize; he is responsible for the earliest theories of the Higgs boson particle and the Higgs field over five decades ago. The other recipient is Belgian scientist François Englert, also very much still alive and active at age 80, also very involved in the theoretical work in the early 1960s. Some of the other theoreticians involved have since died, and thus were ineligible for the prize. The particle was discovered in experiments over the last few years using at least two projects at the Large Hadron Collider, Europe's (!) particle collider, the largest and most powerful in the world.

If you want more info about the awarding of the prize for the Higgs boson, Matthew Strassler at Of Particular Significance has written a post, good if a bit overladen with sports metaphors. If the Higgs boson is completely new to you and you have some scientific curiosity, Strassler has written a whole series of posts, many about the Higgs, suitable for serious amateurs; they are tough going if you're not also somewhat familiar with the general state of particle physics... but Strassler can help you about that, too; he has written a large number of introductory papers suitable (if challenging) for nonscientists.

If you are my age (mid-sixties), the Higgs is by no means the first particle discovered in your lifetime... but its discovery is no less exciting for that; it is the particle that gives some other particles their mass, and hence is responsible for our existence. (Anyone who calls it the [you-know-what] particle in comments will have their comment summarily removed at my discretion. Just don't do it!)

NOTE: there are great pics at many of the above-linked sites, not of the Higgs discovery but of the LHC and various example particle collisions in the LHC. Not only would it be redundant for me to post these here, it would be impossible to select only one or two. Allow yourself 15-30 minutes to browse the pretty photos of equipment and its results; they're beautiful in a way.

‘Spooky Action At A Distance’

Google it, or better yet, just go to the wiki. That was Einstein's derogatory (dismissive) phrase for what is now usually called quantum entanglement. But the phenomenon is real, has been experimentally demonstrated and is as controversial as ever when physicists talk about possible mechanisms. I've been reading about it in a rather old book (1995, "old" by physics standards) by John Gribbin titled Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality, billed as a successor to his relatively famous In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, but advanced beyond the span of years between the books. Kittens is filling in some gaps in my eternally spotty understanding of quantum mechanics, and it may be the perfect book for the purpose.

Quantum entanglement aside, I've always wanted to form a band and name it Spooky Action at a Distance, but someone has already used the name for an album title. Another great idea meets the reality that Someone Else Thought of it First...