Some new-ish physics-y blogs that you might not know about, but are worth checking out. (How do I know about them? Probably because at some point they linked to CV. Not that I ever check.)
- Backreaction is a group blog, I think by
some physics grad studentsmostly postdocs. Sabine Hossenfelder seems to be the lead conspirator. Great fun posts, full of interesting physics. - physics musings, subtitled “the tale of a physicist’s comeback.” Jao (Jose Antonio Ortega Ruiz) got a Ph.D. in gravitational-wave detectors, left the field, and has now been inspired to get back in.
- Charm &c. is by an experimentalist at Cornell, apparently working at Fermilab. Otherwise mysterious.
- Sexy Science is like Us magazine, for science. No physicists yet! Outrageous.
- Galactic Interactions is by occasional CV commenter Rob Knop. Articles about tenure and funding are must-reading.
- Brad Hoc is not entirely serious, but still he should post more. He’s single ladies!
Just a small sample of relatively new blogs that I happened to have noticed. As of this moment, Cosmic Variance is arguably the largest physics-oriented blog on the web. But the idea is just catching on, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we were overtaken at some point sooner rather than later. Which is great — let everyone do their thing, and the quality stuff will bubble to the top.
If you have your own science-type blog that you’d like to plug, or know of some good ones that deserve wider recognition, consider this thread the place to be shameless.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:24 am
While I’d like to plug mine, I wonder, if there is an adversion for some reason for not posting mine?
I look at your line up, and wonder sometimes, why I wouldn’t fit? I thought I’d ask anyway, and then be done with it.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:27 am
Organic and inorganic chemistries, where all the universe’s empirical fun hides, are graphic visual. Text blogs suffer. Two outstanding chem blogs among the few:
http://blog.tenderbutton.com/
Organiker with big brass cajones
http://thedisgruntled.blogspot.com/
Admittedly a physical chemist, but…
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2805/622/1600/sierra_mist_mentos_2.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=136670974&size=l
Be afraid, be very afraid.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2805/622/1600/P1011465.jpg
http://thedisgruntled.blogspot.com/2006/04/diet-coke-and-mentos-experimental.html
…he discovered a detonator for 2-liter soft drink bottles.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:48 am
A gem I stubled upon just yesterday.
http://interweave-consulting.blogspot.com/
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:07 am
Despite being a bleeding-heart-liberal who cringes at the sight of any weaponry device, I find the Disgruntled Chemist’s clip on thermite reaction quite amusing!
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
ummm, i plan to write more on physics once finals is over…. does that count? and i have a thermite clip! just click my name (…. i am such a shameless whore)
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:57 pm
My blog (link on the name) is partly physics (especially related to general relativity and quantum gravity), partly philosophical reflections, and partly random thoughts and links. I don’t know if it deserves wider recongnition… that’s for you to decide.
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Hey Sean,
Thanks for the attention! I can’t believe someone actually reads that word salad I call a blog. Lately, I’ve been busy doing physics and trying to make progress on my PhD. I realized that my brief foray into the blogosphere was part of an elaborate attempt to procrastinate and annoy my advisor and group members. In other words, I did it for all the wrong reasons. Now that the schoolyear is ending, I should be posting more. Thanks for reading!
Brad
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
PS–I’m not single anymore. But I am, of course, composed of single ladies.
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:11 pm
On a more academic note, one must visit Serkan Cabi’s blogsite and explore the incredible archive of physics seminar videos. For example, at The Space Telescope Science Institute (spring 2006), Jim Peebles waxes eloquently on the topic, “Successes and Problems with the Standard Cosmology.” Listening to this priceless pioneer in CMB/cosmology offer has insights into the lambda/CDM enigma is most fascinating! Thanks Serkan Cabi!
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Hi Sean,
thanks for mentioning our blog. Indeed, it seems I scared away the other contributers with the amount of words I write – or maybe they are too busy with reading Cosmic Variance…
Just wanted to mention that most of us are postdocs, not grad studs.
Best,
Sabine
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Well, there is my humble blog… Basically the random thoughts of a String Theory master student.
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Spatulated – your blogsite – A Bit Tasty – contains a phenomenal collection of video clips! Thanks for sharing!
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Sabine, thanks, I’ll fix it.
Dimitri’s blog is definitely a good one — only not mentioned because it’s been around for longer than the others.
And Brad, these are flimsy excuses. If you’re not single any more, all of the time you previously spent socializing can now be spent blogging.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:58 pm
[...] To my great surprise and pleasure, Sean has been so kind as to mention physics musings in his last post at Cosmic Variance. First of all, I just wanted to say thanks: i’m sure that in many cases reading Cosmic Variance is one of the reasons one starts thinking of writing a physics blog in the first place. At least it was for me. I’m also happy because i’m fond of Sean’s writings in more than a way. A few months ago, i spent some weeks getting up to speed, again, in General Relativity, and carried home several textbooks. Some from my university days, and others published in the interim. And of all those books, the only one that i finally read (and enjoyed) from cover to cover was Sean’s “Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity”. I’m sure it needs no presentation or recommendation, but, just in case, you can get a feeling of how good it is by reading the notes it’s based on or visiting the book’s website. [...]
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Shameless plug for my blog on astronomy, geoscience, physics, and other science fun (including a geiger counter).
May 3rd, 2006 at 4:36 pm
15 posts and still no mention of Sexy Science? What ever happened to us?!
May 3rd, 2006 at 6:11 pm
its officail, cosmic variance is the largest refferer of people to my site, thanks guys!!! and dont forget is Music Video week at A Bit Tasty! (yet another shameless promotion but thats ok on this thread, right? i promise i wont do it else where… to much)
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 pm
I have a physics-related blog at http://scientiaestpotentia.blogspot.com.
Sometimes I get sucked into the quagmire of politics or other things, but recently I’ve been trying to make some physics accessible to normal humans for submissions to the Tangled Bank (which I encourage everyone to visit). See my submission for the next issue regarding how physicists probe the world.
Ok…shamelessness over.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:16 pm
[...] First, the truly exciting news: Sean Carroll knows who we are! Or at least knows where this blog is. We’ve hit the big time in physics blogging! (An editorial we, of course.) [...]
May 4th, 2006 at 6:05 am
Our blog nyheter från Populär astronomi is the only Swedish-language source of almost-daily astronomy and space news. We’re the news people for the not-for-profit magazine Populär astronomi. And we mentioned Cosmic Variance just the other day.
May 4th, 2006 at 6:27 am
Shameless advertisement… Often in Error… is supposed to be a cosmology/physics blog, and supposed to be frequently updated… But in the end of the day it is just a small collection of random thoughts and findings (erroneous, as the name indicates
), updated from time to time, mostly because I am always trying to get ride of a referee report to publish, and also because translating all the posts to Portuguese generates some extra work…
May 4th, 2006 at 8:54 am
Oh, CV is a *physics* blog? I thought it was about food, jazz, gardening, wine, and endless self-congratulation. Silly me!
May 4th, 2006 at 11:46 am
[...] Added the Backreaction group blog, Jose Antonio Ortega Ruiz, Rob Knop and Brad Hagan (Bradley?) to Mixed States. Give them some love. Thanks, Sean! [...]
May 4th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Whoa, scooping up links for Mixed States like crazy.
May 5th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Thanks Cynthia for kind comments. I would appreciate any more contributions to the seminar videos. For those of you who might wonder what it is here is the link: Physics Seminar Videos
May 9th, 2006 at 12:54 am
While I’m not sure if I’m worthy to be part of the above company, I can certainly engage in some shameless promotion.
At The Den I ramble about astronomical goodies. Feel free to visit.
May 10th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I rarely write any more, and when I do write about physics it’s generally for a popular audience, but some might find the public policy posts interesting.
May 13th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
I have a blog about astrophysics and particle physics (among other things) at
http://sanchezluis.blogspot.com
Hope you like it =)
May 18th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Cynthia, if you liked Jim Peebles colloquim at STSCI see a similar talk at KITP at
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/peebles1/
Pay also close attention Jim Peebles’ questions when he was moderating the cosmology session at
the KITP 25 yrs conference to Guth , Turner, Ostriker.
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/kitp25/