Internet

It started with an innocent, and possibly joking, request on Twitter: “Can you explain M-theory?” Having previously been asked to defend the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics and various other topics, I didn’t take it very seriously.

But upon further reflection — why not? Obviously nobody is going to give a full and comprehensible account of any reasonably complex topic when limited to 140 characters, but it might be fun and even useful to try to distill the basic point of something down to its tweetable essence. Still, in a single tweet there is almost no chance to do much but introduce jargon, so I decided to allow myself three tweets. Here’s my go at summarizing M-theory. (Remember chronology is bottom-up.)

Obviously, there is more to be said, but I think some actual information is conveyed. Different people might choose different aspects of a subject to spend their precious three tweets on, but that’s part of the beauty. As someone pointed out, a poetic aspect results from subjecting yourself to such stringent limitations on what you can say.

And if it works for M-theory, what else? And thus a hashtag was born: #3tweets. Yesterday I took a stab at the Higgs boson.

This reminded me that quantum field theory is probably the single most under-popularized subject in all of fundamental physics. Particle physics, yes; string theory, sure; quantum mechanics, endlessly; but the structure of QFT itself is rarely explained in its own right. It’s worth at least a few tweets.

I certainly hope to try a few more examples. But — it’s everyone’s internet. Feel free to join in, with new topics or ones previously covered. I’m sure someone has a different take on quantum field theory than I do.

Carl Zimmer is annoyed that other people are getting work done, so he points us to the launch of World Science Festival TV. It seems mostly to be snippets from various WSF events, of which there have been scads. The kind of time-sink I can get behind. Here’s (former blogger) Monica Dunford explaining how we can look for new particles when we’re not sure what it is we’re looking for.

This is a fun thing to check out: the Physics Stack Exchange is a crowd-sourced approach to asking (and getting answers to) physics questions. (Hat tip to Chad.) Someone asks a question, others suggest answers, which then get voted up or down depending on how helpful they are perceived to be. It’s like an Urban Dictionary for Physics.

A quick peek around reveals that there are some really smart physicists answering questions there. See the FAQ for more details about how the system works. Note that it’s aimed at “active researchers, academics and students of physics.”

I know that I’ll be forwarding this site to people who email with physics questions. Which means that really I should contribute to answering some of them. You all should too!

Usually I don’t pimp out blog competitions, as too often they end up honoring crackpots, climate denialists, etc. But here (via Phil) is a contest sponsored by Physics.org, where the other entries are all very good blogs:

• Starts With a Bang
• Dot Physics
• Bad Astronomy
• Physics Central

Admittedly they left off some other very awesome blogs, but there’s always next year. So, yeah; I’m happy to advertise blog competitions in which I wouldn’t mind losing.

There are also competitions for best podcast, best online magazine, etc. Let your voice be heard.

3 Quarks Daily has embarked on an annual hunt for the best blog posts in four areas: science, politics, philosophy, and arts & literature. Nominations have now opened for this year’s science prize; you have until May 31 to suggest your favorite science blog post from the last year; then there will be a round of public voting, and a final award bestowed by a celebrity judge. Last year the science prize was awarded by Steven Pinker; this year it will be Richard Dawkins. Someday I’m sure they’ll work their way up to having a physicist serve as judge.

Feel free, of course, to nominate your favorite posts from Cosmic Variance; I’m far too shallow to be reluctant to win awards. But even better would be to find a really great post at a smaller blog that not as many people know about, and use this contest as a vehicle for bringing more attention to really good writing. There’s too much good stuff out there, it’s impossible to follow all of it, so it’s always nice to hear about new bloggers doing great things.

A handful of fun things that shouldn’t pass unremarked:

• Natalie Wolchover, an aspiring science writer, has started a fun blog called Facto Diem. For those of you who didn’t attend Catholic school, that’s Latin for “Fact of the Day.” (Or a close enough facsimile.) I didn’t even know there were that many facts in the world!
• In the more venerable sections of the blogosphere, Chad Orzel is running a poll concerning the most amazing application of lasers. Considering that “death ray” is not among the options, it’s a pretty good list.
• We should also link to Scientia Pro Publica #27, over at Melliferax. (Clearly Latin is the lingua franca of the science blogosphere.) Most of the posts involve living things in some way or another, but they should nevertheless be of interest to those of us with more inorganic inclinations.