"Here's my alternative proposed list of Ten Lessons from Einstein. Please feel free to create your own!" (vs http://www.dumblittleman.com/2010/03/10-amazing-lessons-albert-einstein.html which doesn't even deserve a working link, despite making Hacker News)

"Dr. Nielsen and other advocates for “open science” say science can accomplish much more, much faster, in an environment of friction-free collaboration over the Internet. And despite a host of obstacles, including the skepticism of many established scientists, their ideas are gaining traction." Interesting stuff on Arxiv et al.

"“The main point is religious rather than scientific,” [Dyson] writes, yet never acknowledges that this proposition cuts both ways, never seems to recognize the extent to which his own arguments proceed from faith. Environmentalism worships the wisdom of Nature. Dysonism worships the indomitable ingenuity of Man." This is a good read.

'“We spend all this time thinking about cities in terms of their local details, their restaurants and museums and weather,” West says. “I had this hunch that there was something more, that every city was also shaped by a set of hidden laws.”' Possibly flawed, but definitely interesting, and the NYT article sets the research in an interesting context. I'm looking forward to what comes out when he tackles companies.

"The health dangers from nuclear radiation been oversold, stopping governments from fully exploiting nuclear power as a weapon against climate change, argues a professor of physics at Oxford University." I suspect Wade Allison is right, but the comments prove the way nuclear power is feared by the population.

"Helium is the lifeblood of large particle accelerators. As the world’s supply dwindles, the particle physics community must take steps to preserve this precious commodity or learn to live without it." The problem is that it escapes into space as soon as it's released from the underground mines (typically for oil and gas) where it's found.

"we find that the streets of London form a self-organising system whose growth is characterised by a strict interaction between the metrical and informational space." via David Cantrell on (void)

" The scientist Graham Farmelo argues that Dirac has been overlooked due to his extreme distaste for publicity, which may have been a manifestation of his autism." A day left to download. Also that week, Ben Goldacre.

"Dirac was prone to very long silences and was famous for his apparently emotionless responses to events. He also often took a very literal interpretation of statements by other people. All are characteristics of autism."

"Dirac was the theoretician's theoretician, responsible for a crucial piece of the explanation of fundamental particles and forces." "Farmelo has used a stash of Dirac's letters and notes to build an enthralling yet deeply depressing narrative." It's worth following through to the quotes.

"[There] are extraordinary geniuses [whose] insights are so astonishing and run so counter to received wisdom that it is hard to imagine anyone else devising them. Einstein was one such genius. Paul Dirac, whose equations predicted the existence of antimatter and who died in 1984, was another."

A profile of Garrett Lisi, the E8-set unification theorist and surfer who made the headlines last year. Ironically I read this in a university library while waiting for candace to finish talk about PhDs.

How to get planetoids with the physical properties that Super Mario Galaxy seems to have. I haven't double-checked all the sums but it seems ok on a glance.

More on the funding crisis at the STFC, which may lead not only to pulling out of facilities (cf Gemini links) but also a cut in the number of PhD and postdoc places. Sigh.

Whiteboards are taking over everywhere else, but blackboards cling on in academia. Here's a US particle physics magazine on the subject.

I thought my Double Science GCSE was bad, but it sounds like it was an exam of deep rigour and seriousness compared to the current "physics" GCSE.

Even just scanning this I get a sense of Fourier analysis. Might come in handy.

"The Magazine's search for Britain's greatest unsung landmark is over. The thousands of votes have been counted and Jodrell Bank in Cheshire is the winner."

"Out of the Shadows provides an accurate and authoritative description of the women who made original and important contributions to physics in the twentieth century, documenting their major discoveries and putting their work into its historical context."

"How do you like my centrifuge, Mr Bond?"

I wonder what the impact of this will be. Probably good for big projects.

Very nicely designed brochures looking at quantum physics, and trying to gain support for US funding for fundamental research. Hurrah.

Got a lot of the way towards the Lorentz transformations, but fifteen years earlier. Not much on this page though.

"Whatever you're thinking now, that's what Zxaxgr is going to think." Good punchline.

Would aliens see differently? I added a link to mjd's really good piece, Yellow.

Someone get Londonist a Guide To Drawing Lasers Realistically

Trackbacks, physics, arxiv, and, er, stuff. In case there's anyone who hadn't heard about this localised, but big, dispute, and who's interested in trackback tech.

Some good links delving further into the Heim hyperspace papers. Well done for avoiding the lazy option of just propagating the Scotsman sci-tech story!

An actual, decent article from a proper science magazine about that story that's doing the rounds (from the Scotsman). Points out the flaws (no peer review, hard to follow theory)

More useful than astrology