Quantcast
Channel: The Dayside » Biography and personalities
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 12 View Live

May the force be with you!

Happy Star Wars Day! Because “May the fourth” sounds like “may the force,” fans of the movie series have picked the day to celebrate and talk about the exploits of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and...

View Article


Prince Charles and me

The Prince of Wales and I have some things in common besides our first names. We favor double-breasted suits, we studied Welsh, we went to Cambridge University, we enjoy grass-fed beef, and we like the...

View Article


Atomic rockets, space colonies, and x-ray binaries

There are at least three award-winning science fiction writers who do or did research in astrophysics. Gregory Benford studies space plasma at the department of physics and astronomy at the University...

View Article

Edward Condon’s reflections on the first 60 years of quantum physics

On 2 December 1960 Edward Condon stood in the auditorium of the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC, to address the 1500th meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington. The topic of his talk...

View Article

Five hundred small details

Among aficionados of men’s fashion, Cary Grant is as revered for his meticulous style as for his acting. His most celebrated suit—the lightweight woolen one he wore throughout North by Northwest—was...

View Article


China’s new president is a scientist

Yesterday Xi Jinping officially took over as China’s president, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, and chairman of the central military commission. In other words, he became China’s new...

View Article

Cosmic lobsters and electric bees

Like other science editors I scan a lot of press releases. Some of the titles catch my eye, either because their writers opted for something witty or cute (“Sweeping the dust from a cosmic lobster”) or...

View Article

Scenes from Married Life: A novel by a physicist about a physicist

I’ve just finished reading two novels by William Cooper, the pen name of Harry Hoff. Born in Northern England in 1910, Cooper studied physics at Cambridge University, where his academic adviser was...

View Article


A Czech prime minister and a Welsh wizard

The New York Times recently reported on the resignation of Czech prime minister Petr Nečas amid a corruption scandal. Hints of a romantic affair between Nečas and his glamorous and imperious chief of...

View Article


Nobel predictions for 2013

Predicting who will be awarded a Nobel Prize is difficult—at least it has been for me. In the 16 years since I joined the editorial staff of Physics Today, I’ve guessed right just twice: The 1998...

View Article
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 12 View Live