Michael Birman

Writer, musician, molecular biologist, entropy's implacable foe.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@hyperionrecords @MarcAndreHam I've been waiting for quite some time for this. Given the challenges that Hamelin always poses for himself (Godowsky's fiendishly difficult Chopin Etudes), Beethoven's mighty Hammerklavier Sonata should reveal some more of its secrets.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@PhysInHistory Newton's scientific greatness is indisputable. He was also the last of the great alchemists, convinced that elements like lead and mercury might be transmuted into gold and silver if only the right magical sequence could be discovered. Newton was also a great religious mystic.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@PhysInHistory If quantum information can be retrieved from hairy black holes, then the notion of a singularity from which information is irretrievably lost is redefined and now all information in the universe leaves a discoverable footprint. Handy when it's time for the universe to recycle.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@LarsonDelbert @PhysInHistory I accept that out of body and near death experiences feel quite real. But so do hallucinations, hallucinogenic experiences and hypnogogic dreams. In all of these cases, it is consciousness as the engine driver. And it is a form of electro-chemical reactions between atoms.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@LarsonDelbert @PhysInHistory Human consciousness is a sufficient miracle. Insensate matter becomes thought, memory, emotion, sensitivity, creativity and love. Mere atoms - as you say - are capable of doing all of that. Isn't that even more remarkable than a pre-positioned, pre-programmed soul?

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@LoveInner Enamored as I was with Mäkelä conducting his Sibelius cycle, I'm doubly impressed with his skill in the Shostakovich 4, 5 & 6. Different than the Andris Nelsons series, Mäkelä discovers lyricism, poetry and less darkness. Interesting bookends for an often difficult composer.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@StevenIsserlis His music is brilliant, beautiful and superbly crafted, but the late 19th century complaint against him has never been put to rest: a composer this prolific must be superficial. Similar to that lodged against Donizetti, even Mozart in the early 20th. A failure of music criticism.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@CodingFiend @DannyDrinksWine One of the five greatest films and Kurosawa's masterpiece. An absolutely heartbreaking/hopeful experience.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@PhysInHistory Einstein reacted strongly to Quantum Mechanics, thinking it an incomplete theory. He especially hated the notion of randomness in QM. His fallback position was a kind-of scientific determinism as an antidote to it, equating it with "true" or Classical Physics. He's exaggerating.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@ExploreCosmos_ Why were we given prodigious intellect but without a universal drive to use it?

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@tonyprinciotti A strong argument for why beauty is intrinsically more difficult to achieve artistically, but is more organically whole and more aesthetically pleasing. Subtract one note and Mozart's music is the poorer for it.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@BrunoFabro @PhysInHistory Newton's obsessive secrecy concerning his creation of the Calculus made him utilize difficult and cumbersome Geometry, rather than simpler and more clarifying Calculus, when composing his proofs. The Principia is even more obscure and laborious to read, but it hid the Calculus.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@tonyprinciotti One of that collection of great martinets whose time, unfortunately, has passed. The Cleveland Orchestra had a pristine transparency of sound, a mercurial expressiveness that matched their conductor, and instrumentalists that played as one. It was amazing what fear could do.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@StevenIsserlis I used to have a repetitive dream in which I was serenaded by zither playing newts. As you know, the zither is not for the faint of heart.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@Klassical_Kat It appears to be the monthly purge of non-existent sex-workers, whose fake names were created by an overtired and seriously distracted Zippy the Chimp, whose command of language is Tolkienesque in its utter obscurity. I'm losing followers 10 at a shot, all exotically named women.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@txjwalker1 @PhysInHistory He created his General Theory of Relativity during WWI while all of what you describe was actually happening. So yes, he was able to focus on the science. Of course, he was also a genius and they obey different rules of thought.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@A_Philosopher @PhysInHistory "Why" doesn't necessarily assume either purpose or a motivation. "Why" asks a more direct question: why did natural processes lead to the formation of the universe and why did that event lead to the universe we experience today. An anthropomorphic "why" is not necessary.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@avramidou @PhysInHistory Thank you, Maria. I understand that they are both in superposition. By affect I mean any influence or action on A that collapses superposition instantly affects the state of entangled B. The collapsed superposition of A and B, with prepositioning doesn't violate FTL restrictions.

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@avramidou @PhysInHistory Just a thought: two entangled particles are pre-positioned far apart. Aspect of particle one is affected. Regardless of distance, particle two is affected instantly if truly entangled. Pre-positioning violates no FTL restrictions, no?

[Michael Birman @mikebirman]

@operamagazine @mco_london As one of the original historically informed conductors, joining luminaries like Trevor Pinnock, Andrew Parrott, Cristopher Hogwood, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paul McCreesh, William Christie and others, Gardiner helped resurrect the sound world of early music. This news saddens me.