RIP Philip Anderson (1923–2020)

The extraordinary condensed-matter physicist Philip Anderson died today.

I can't yet find an obituary to include as a hyperlink.

Update (3/30/20): The New York Times has published an obituary.

Update (3/30/20): Here is an obituary from Princeton University.

RIP Mitchell Feigenbaum (1944–2019)

Mathematical physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum, known for his work on the period-doubling route to chaos in the logistic map and other nonlinear phenomena, died over the weekend.

Here is his wikipedia page.

Update (7/18/19): Today, The New York Times published an obituary of Feigenbaum. The first picture in it is fantastic!

Update (7/23/19): Here is a very nice blog entry by Stephen Wolfram about Feigenbaum, his constant, and other bits of Feigenbaum's history.)

RIP Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019)

Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann, one of the giants of theoretical physics (including some work in complex systems, in the later stages of his career) died today.

Update: Here is an obituary from Caltech that focuses on his things like his contributions to particle physics (e.g., his development of quarks and quantum chromodynamics). By contrast, his obituary from Santa Fe Institute focuses on his contributions to the study of complex systems.

Update: The New York Times has now published an obituary.

(Tip of the cap to John Preskill.)

Look at Me, I'm 𝞧 sub d...

I am going to have a field day for puns with this new (for me) nugget of information...

Sooo, Max Born, who gave us the statistical interpretation of the quantum mechanical wavefunction, is the grandfather of Olivia Newton-John @olivianj of Grease fame. How did I not know this.

— Michelle Kuchera (@MKizzyy) October 3, 2018

You Wouldn't Like These Functions When They're Angry

There is a family of special functions called Anger functions. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.

Here is the context: Physics Today has agreed to publish an obituary for Norman Zabusky, so I needed to find some information that they require to be part of it. This led me to Norman's PhD thesis, which I found online. It briefly mentions something called Lommel polynomials, with which I wasn't familiar. The definition in a thesis appendix was terse — it's not exactly an important part of the thesis — so I looked at Wikipedia, and I kept seeing links to special functions that weren't familiar to me, and I have followed a couple of them. Anger functions are one family.

These various special functions are closely related to Bessel functions.

"Is it Possible to Take All Words Out of Mathematical Expressions?"

I just read a really cool new article in American Scientist about terminology, symbolic, and pictorial developments in mathematics.

Matrices, chaos, and birdtracks all make an appearance. The article also includes appearances by Gibbs, Silvester, Yorke, Cvitanović, and others.

"Opposite" Jobs

According to this website, the "opposite" job of a kindergarten teacher is a physicist, whose opposite job is a model (so it's a directed similarity measure, as it should be, so really one should write "most different" rather than "opposite" to encapsulate the directionality).

According to this, the most different job from "mathematician" is "mine shuttle car operator".

Huzzah!

A Classic Article: "More is Different"

Now that it's officially August 4th, today marks the 45th anniversary of Philip Anderson's famous article, More is Different, a landmark article for the study of complex systems. Here is a link to the full article, in case you don't have access to Science articles.

(Tip of the cap to Michael Stumpf.)

Mathematicians and Physicists on Twitter

Here is a list of mathematicians on Twitter with 1000+ followers. However, they missed me. I would rank number 70, assuming they didn't miss anybody with more followers than me.

Here is a list of physicists on Twitter with 1000+ followers. I am not on this list either, though it can be argued that I am also a physicist (in addition to being a mathematician).

Update (8/03/17): My account is now on the list of mathematicians.

"The Tonight Show" Starring Edward Teller?

Wow. Here are some pictures of Edward Teller as a television-show host.

OMG OMG. Edward Teller tried a run as a television show host in 1955. How did I not know this? These photos are AMAZING. This is so bonkers. pic.twitter.com/lGsPPpQkbz

— Alex Wellerstein (@wellerstein) July 19, 2017

"Dynamics of a Human Spiral Wave"

The authors tried to get us to make a human spiral wave at the 2015 Snowbird meeting on applied dynamical systems. Unfortunately, despite (because of?) our expertise in nonlinear systems, we failed.

"I'm From the Physics Department, and I'm Here to Help"

I am amused. :)

The 10 scariest words in the social sciences: "I'm from the physics department and I'm here to help."

— Simon DeDeo (@SimonDeDeo) January 7, 2017

(Tip of the cap to Bruno Gonçalves.)

2016 U.S. Election Cartograms

Mark Newman has again posted cartograms for the United States election results.

(Mark ought to give those of us who know him a secret link for the sarcastic version.)

Aside from the joy of squishing the continental USA, they also provide a very nice visual way to normalize out by something (population, population density, etc.) to help make maps less misleading.

RIP Deborah Jin (1968–2016)

I just heard through the Twitterverse that Deborah Jin has died of cancer.

She was a great experimentalist in Bose–Einstein condensates and related topics, and I think she was probably going to get a Nobel Prize at some point in recognition of her work.

(Tip of the cap to Sean Carroll.)

Update (9/19/16): Here is the NIST news release.

Update (9/20/16): Here is the new release from the American Physical Society.

Update (9/24/16): The New York Times also posted an obituary. It's good to see recognition of Jin's importance in "mainstream" media. (Tip of the cap to Cynthia Gong for the link.)

A Spectacular Rejection Letter for Einstein (but Unfortunately it's Fake)

Albert Einstein once received this spectacular rejection letter. Wow!

(Tip of the cap to Nelson Fernández.)

Update: Thanks to Sam Cohen for suggesting that I look up whether this letter is fake. It is.

Headline: "Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider"

Here's a headline you don't see every day.

Choice quote: "There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems."

(Tip of the cap to Graeme Smith.)

New Comic: "I'm Afraid She's a Physicist"

I really like the new SMBC today.

A Physics Circus

Walking back to the hotel from dinner, I noticed a bunch of vans from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. So now we're going to have the physicists and a literal circus present at the same location in space-time. Six years ago, we had a coincidence of the American Physical Society March Meeting and a young cheeleaders conference. (Each group was completely perplexed by the other.)

Regardless of how things pan out, I am sure that hilarity will ensue.

Which Equation is the Most Beautiful?

They survey N mathematicians and physicists, and asked them to state which equation they think is the most beautiful.

Survey says?

(P.S. I wish this were a real question on Family Feud.)

Quantum Mosaic of John Stuart Bell

This mosaic of John Stuart Bell is very cool.