RIP Martin Mull (1943–2024)

Comedic actor, musician, and painter Martin Mull dies yesterday.

I found out about him via the song "Dueling Tubas", which I first learned about in Physics 2a through an acoustics demo by now-Nobel Laureate David Politzer.

My musically-inclined classmates were in emotional pain.

RIP David Goodstein (1939–2024)

David Goodstein (an emeritus physics professor at Caltech) died yesterday. This is the end of an era.

I watched many of The Mechanical Universe videos in high school. The beginning and end of each video showed Goodstein lecturing to students in the big Caltech physics lecture hall. I had Goodstein for Physics 1a (mechanics) in fall of my frosh year in that same lecture hall, and I remember how surreal it felt. That was one of my big "Wow, I am now at Caltech." things. Also, I came out of lectures feeling that I understood the material — but then I tried the homework and saw that I didn't actually yet understand it.

(h/t Barry Simon)

RIP Gary Lorden (1941–2023)

Gary Lorden, a profesor emeritus of mathematics at Caltech, died last night. In addition to being a mathematics professor, Gary held many leadership positions at Caltech. He was the only statistician in Caltech's math department, and I TAed for him during my junior year in the inaugural edition of the so-called "new core", which included major changes in Math 1 and Math 2. I got my gig as a consultant for the movie "Meet Dave" through Gary. He was also a very kind person.

Update (10/30/23): Caltech has posted a short obituary.

Serendipitous Convergence of the Dodgers and Tarzan Boy

On a few occasions this year, I had noticed the Dodger organist playing Tarzan Boy, and I was wondering why.

I had thought it was for something like certain leaping catches in the outfield, but it turns out that it is specifically for rookie James Outman. I figured that out last night because they played it when he got a hit in his first at bat. (I revised my opinion from seeing this when Outman was at the plate and running for a hit, with his locks flowing.) I thought it might have been because of his luxuriantly flowing hair.

I decided to google it to confirm whether I was right, and indeed Tarzan Boy is played specifically for good James Outman action, although it seems to actually be because of a nickname that is catching on. (I hadn't known about eh nickname.)

I am very amused by the fact that this is a convergence between the Dodgers and Tarzan Boy, given how many people from my Lloyd House days at Caltech would associate each of those two things individually with me.

RIP Jean-Paul Revel (1931–2020)

Cellular biologist Jean-Paul Revel, who was Caltech's Dean of Students for several years (including during some of my undergraduate time), died a few days ago.

À bientôt, Dean Revel.

Update (12/09/20): I am aware of what "À bientôt" means. I used that line because Dean Revel ended all of his articles with it. (So, in case you were worrying about me, there is no need to worry!)

2020 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced today.

The first thing that I noticed was that my Mathematical Institute (Unversity of Oxford) colleague Roger Penrose got half the prize. Additionally, Andrea Ghez from UCLA's physics department shared the other half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel. Ghez also got a Ph.D. from Caltech in 1992, so several of my institutions (and my former home department at Oxford!) did very well today. Congratulations!

Here is the terse citation: 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 with one half to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity" and and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy".

Some other websites to look at are the popular blurb and more advanced information from the Nobel page. Additionally, here are UCLA's press release and a blurb from University of Oxford's Mathematical Institute.

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.)

An Icosahedral Pecan Pie

In 2009 or thereabouts, Charless Fowlkes and his collaborators made a large icosahedral pecan pie.

Just don't roll a 1 on this 20-sided die.

(Tip of the cap to Karen Kustedjo.)

Real-Life Binary Trees!

Here is picture proof that (reasonably) balanced binary trees exist in real life!

[I took this picture about a decade ago in front of @peetscoffee a few blocks from @Caltech.] pic.twitter.com/iwxfYtVSV4

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) December 21, 2018

Extra Special Mathematics Terminology

One of my favorite terminology fails in mathematics is the notion of an "extra special group" (which has the added bonus that my undergraduate abstract-algebra professor was unable to say it without also giggling): https://t.co/BsW1dgDYaC

So inspired!#terminologyfail

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) November 27, 2018

What Happens at Caltech Stays at Caltech

Well, obviously.

The Perils of Generating Functions (and Submitting a Note from a Parent with an Exam)

When I taught Math 1d, my exam instructions included a joke line that went something along the lines of "You may also use a note from your mother, though you won't need one." One student (and fellow Caltech undergrad) actually got her mother to write this note, which is fantastic (despite the threats against both Lloyd House and the Los Angeles Dodgers).

I had this posted on my door at Georgia Tech when I was a postdoc, and I found the note a year ago today when I was going through an old spiral notebook.

As a @Caltech undergraduate, I taught a probability course (Math 1d) and introduced freshmen to the glories of generating functions.

My exam instructions included a line like: "You may also use a note from your mother, though you won't need one."

One student took me up on it. pic.twitter.com/I2Ocif9ttA

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) March 27, 2018

Physics Fashion Police: Save the Pocket Protector

Well, this is a bit awkward.

There's a new edition of "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" that just came out this month. Funnily and interestingly, the photo on the cover is the same as before, but the pocket protector is gone. How unfashionable! @dschwa8059 @phalpern https://t.co/wLaCGynpS2 via @amazon pic.twitter.com/7MOrBVnzVa

— Ash Jogalekar (@curiouswavefn) February 14, 2018

(Tip of the cap to John Dudley.)

A 1999 Death Knell for Examination "Blue Books"

This article from 1999 is "awesome" in historical context.

First, it's interesting to read about the origin of blue books. Here is part of it:

Michele V. Cloonan has a theory. As chairwoman of UCLA's Department of Library and Information Science, she believes they evolved from the cheaply produced, paper-covered school books, almanacs and novels known as the bibliotheque bleue, or blue library, in 18th century France.

Before the invention of chlorine bleach in 1774 revolutionized paper production, white books had to be made from white rags. Blue books came from blue rags, often from the old clothes of sailors. Blue paper was the cheap stuff, used for the covers of throwaway books.

And, earlier in the article, we have this excerpt: "Well, those exam booklets, after torturing college students with writer's cramp for almost 150 years, may finally be on the way out.

They're being replaced, of course, by the floppy disk." (LOL!)

And another beauty: "Equipped with the same level of encryption security used by the Federal Reserve Bank, the software makes cheating impossible." (LOL!)

And, of course, the blue book also ought to have a snake on it...

(Tip of the cap to @mathematicsprof.)

RIP Joel Franklin (1930–2017)

Joel Franklin, one of my favorite Caltech professors, died 11 days ago. Caltech posted an obituary yesterday.

During Junior year, a bunch of us took Joel Franklin's AMa 153 course on stochastic processes (especially during the first term, which could be used to satisfy Caltech's probability and statistics requirement). I also took Joel Franklin's linear programming course during my senior year.

Let's start with a story from Steve Van Hooser: "We'll start with the best story. Steven Michael, going through his material at the end of the term, found a homework set for Stochastic Processes that he forgot to turn in. He went to Franklin's office, and described his mistake. Franklin merely said: "Well..did you do it?" And Steven said yes. "Well...is it right?" And Steven said he thought so. So Franklin wrote a handwritten message to the registrar saying something to the effect of "Dear Judith [Goodstein], please change Steven's grade in AMa153 to an A. -J.N. Franklin". And that was that."

We invited Joel Franklin as a dinner guest in Lloyd House a couple of times, and Steve recounted a couple of those in his Facebook post.

Additionally, in Legends of Caltech III, we included a story filled with quotes from Joel Franklin. They give a good idea of the Joel Franklin experience, and this compilation from Jason Kastner (which I remember finding on his website at some point) inspired me to compile quotations from other professors who uttered many witticisms. Here is a version of the story from a .pdf of a pageproof version of the book. (I am pretty sure the typo in "the Navy way" definition was corrected before the final version.)

When I was in graduate school, I suggested Joel Franklin's book Methods of Mathematical Economics for the SIAM "Classics in Applied Mathematics" series, and thankfully that worked out. (Franklin originally published it with Springer, but there was some sort of falling out, and for a while the only way to get a "new" copy was as printed notes.)

In his honor, today we should all do something in "the Navy way".

(Tip of the cap to Steve Van Hooser, who was part of our AMa 153 contingent.)

Congratulations to Hall Daily on his Retirement!

Hall Daily, Caltech's Director for Government Relations, is retiring after a long tenure on the job.

Back in my undergrad era, Hall Daily was also the advisor for The California Tech (our student newspaper), of which I was a writer and co-editor. I learned a ton about journalism from Hall. He too someone who was someone who Autumn Looijen and I purposely earmarked as getting one of our free copies of Legends of Caltech III. He was an awesome advisor, and I owe a lot to him for my communication and journalistic skills. My experience with The Tech was probably more important for my career than any math or science class I ever took.

"New Textbooks for the New Mathematics"

Here is an article, called "New Textbooks for the New Mathematics", by Richard Feynman that appeared in Caltech's publication Engineering and Science in March 1965.

The article includes a reprint of a cartoon from The New Yorker that reminds me of this song. (The song is relevant to the whole article, actually.)

(Tip of the cap to Ben Rogers.)

Essay in Physics Today: "Commentary: In Defense of Crazy Ideas"

This essay by David Stevenson does a very good job of making an excellent point.

(And, apropos, I received an e-mail called "What is Reality?", from a group of people working on a crazy idea, while I was reading this article.)

P.S. David Stevenson is a great classroom lecturer. I had him for half of AMa 95 at Caltech.

Caltech Baseball Team Wins First Conference Game in 29 Years!

Yes, seriously.

(And I am looking forward to the stories on ESPN and other venues.)

I got the news from Greg Fricke's post:

BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN!

After 586 (est, including 83 I played in) straight losses in SCIAC, dating back to 1988:
Caltech Beavers DEFEAT Pomona-Pitzer 4-3 on WALKOFF single.

No one on this team had yet been born the last time Caltech registered a SCIAC win in baseball.


1988... such a magical year for baseball...

Update: And here are some details: Caltech baseball has just won its first SCIAC game since 1988! Trailing 3-2 headed to the 9th inning, the Beavers got a two-out single from David Watson, who was replaced on the base paths by Schaffer Reed. Senior Kai Kirk then smacked a double to left center to tie the game, bringing freshman Alex Corado came up to bat. The rookie got ahead 3-0 before facing a full count and slashed a single to left field to plate the historic walk-off run.

Update: Also take a look at the video and the ensuing victory celebration.

Update (4/01/17): This is not an April Fool's Day joke. (I know it sounds like one.)

Science has no Borders

As demonstrated at my undergraduate alma mater Caltech today, science has no borders.