I found the Nordita intro video to be both informative and inspiring, without the usual hype; very human, as to suggest its better side, to reflect an environment that’s challenging, productive, collaborative and welcoming.
” Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in tbe narrow whirlpool of personal experience.”
Watching Oksana’s video made me think; why almost nobody (from the general public) cares about condensed matter physics? I mean when was the last time you saw a popular book about condensed matter physics or a TV science documentary? Me for example; I don’t have the slightest interest for condensed matter physics and I guess the vast majority of other laymen feel the same way more or less. On the other hand everybody talks about Quantum gravity and the theory of everything. Not fundamental enough to answer the important questions about the origin and true nature of things and excite people’s imagination? Perhaps…
Last time I saw a popular science book about condensed matter was a few months ago. There's actually quite a few of them if you look around, on very diverse topics. They have their readership. I would guess though it's just that this readership doesn't overlap very much with the circles you and I normally make our rounds. All the nano-stuff is presently very popular though. Best,
Why nobody of you researches the cold fusion, magnetic motors or something more useful? Actually many of these phenomena belong into quantum gravity applications (scalar waves, EM and Woodward antigravity drives) for example.
Yes I think you are right although with AdS/CFT and gauge/gravity duality in general the boundaries are obscure; while studying M-theory you may find yourself exploring condensed matter physics instead and vice versa, which is kind of miraculous...
One of our professors here at Nordita just got a major European grant. He's a prolific condensed-matterist, everything from superconductivity to the "nano-stuff" Sabine mentioned. Pouring lots of money on a scientist like that and see what happens is an interesting real-life experiment.
Yes, it's an interesting topic that would make for a good video except: visualizations are a problem. These videos were produced on a really small budget and animations are really costly. Which is why there are none. This means in practice any research that doesn't come with visuals already is difficult to get across in a video. So I'm thinking about what we can do, but mostly I'm thinking I'd like to have better funding. I actually went through the guidelines of all funding sources here that I know about and not a single one offers anything related to public outreach. I even wrote to them by email asking about it. Best,
B.
1:04 AM, April 08, 2013
[Image]The Nordita Newsletter has gotten a major technical upgrade and the first issue of the new version is now online at www.nordita.org/news
Most notably, you can now subscribe and unsubscribe yourself and we have rss feeds for the different Newsletter categories.
Subscribing to the Nordita Newsletter might be interesting to you if you are interested in the research we do, want to be informed about job opportunities and other application deadlines like program proposals or PhD visiting fellowships, want timely information on which upcoming conferences, schools or programs you can now register for, or if you work in physics or related field anywhere in the Nordic countries and are interested in our "Nordic News" about research in this part of the world.
A big benefit of the upgraded Newsletter is that individual news items can now easily be shared, which we're hoping will make this information more useful to pass on via social media.
The highlight of this issue is this little video that we produced about the institute:
Part of the shots were made during last year's programs on holography in October and the on Cosmology program in November so you might recognize a few faces here or there. Jump to 2:42 and see if you recognize the guy to the right. 3:16 onward, anybody looks familiar? 3:08 and 5:22, that was during the program I organizied.
And in another video you can meet Oksana, who you got to know earlier in my blogpost about Nematic Films. Here she explains her research in her own words:
posted by Sabine Hossenfelder at 3:53 AM on Apr 5, 2013
"First Issue of the New Nordita Newsletter!"
11 Comments -
This comment has been removed by the author.
5:27 AM, April 05, 2013
Hi Bee,
I found the Nordita intro video to be both informative and inspiring, without the usual hype; very human, as to suggest its better side, to reflect an environment that’s challenging, productive, collaborative and welcoming.
” Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in tbe narrow whirlpool of personal experience.”
-Albert Einstein, “Principles of Research”
Best,
Phil
5:33 AM, April 05, 2013
Watching Oksana’s video made me think; why almost nobody (from the general public) cares about condensed matter physics?
I mean when was the last time you saw a popular book about condensed matter physics or a TV science documentary?
Me for example; I don’t have the slightest interest for condensed matter physics and I guess the vast majority of other laymen feel the same way more or less.
On the other hand everybody talks about Quantum gravity and the theory of everything.
Not fundamental enough to answer the important questions about the origin and true nature of things and excite people’s imagination? Perhaps…
5:15 PM, April 05, 2013
Hi Giotis,
Last time I saw a popular science book about condensed matter was a few months ago. There's actually quite a few of them if you look around, on very diverse topics. They have their readership. I would guess though it's just that this readership doesn't overlap very much with the circles you and I normally make our rounds. All the nano-stuff is presently very popular though. Best,
B.
2:20 AM, April 06, 2013
Hi Phil,
Thanks for the kind words. It makes the effort seem quite worthwhile :o) Best,
Sabine
2:21 AM, April 06, 2013
Why nobody of you researches the cold fusion, magnetic motors or something more useful? Actually many of these phenomena belong into quantum gravity applications (scalar waves, EM and Woodward antigravity drives) for example.
9:24 PM, April 06, 2013
Yes I think you are right although with AdS/CFT and gauge/gravity duality in general the boundaries are obscure; while studying M-theory you may find yourself exploring condensed matter physics instead and vice versa, which is kind of miraculous...
4:24 AM, April 07, 2013
Ask Thorlacius appearing in first video for example; Now that I'm thinking about it the two videos are dual to each other:-)
4:41 AM, April 07, 2013
This comment has been removed by the author.
12:04 PM, April 07, 2013
One of our professors here at Nordita just got a major European grant. He's a prolific condensed-matterist, everything from superconductivity to the "nano-stuff" Sabine mentioned. Pouring lots of money on a scientist like that and see what happens is an interesting real-life experiment.
/Hans Mühlen
12:35 PM, April 07, 2013
Hi Giotis,
Yes, it's an interesting topic that would make for a good video except: visualizations are a problem. These videos were produced on a really small budget and animations are really costly. Which is why there are none. This means in practice any research that doesn't come with visuals already is difficult to get across in a video. So I'm thinking about what we can do, but mostly I'm thinking I'd like to have better funding. I actually went through the guidelines of all funding sources here that I know about and not a single one offers anything related to public outreach. I even wrote to them by email asking about it. Best,
B.
1:04 AM, April 08, 2013