Paul Halpern

Physicist and Science Writer. Author of 19 books, most recently THE GREAT ATOM DEBATE: ERNST MACH, LUDWIG BOLTZMANN, AND THE BATTLE FOR THE ESSENCE OF REALITY

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Announcing my new book THE GREAT ATOM DEBATE.

Journey back in time and witness an epic struggle between two scientific geniuses over the very nature of reality. History of physics at its most riveting!

Now available for preorder:

https://t.co/uaVlLxyg3W

https://t.co/qNwHAS3XCt

https://t.co/FGcKD7dxfu

https://t.co/mEw4Oq8inw

https://t.co/IqCB0rkH70

https://t.co/UKxSY8SUye

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Announcing my new book THE GREAT ATOM DEBATE.

Journey back in time and witness an epic struggle between two scientific geniuses over the very nature of reality. History of physics at its most riveting!

Now available for preorder:

https://t.co/uaVlLxyg3W

https://t.co/qNwHAS3XCt

https://t.co/FGcKD7dxfu

https://t.co/mEw4Oq8inw

https://t.co/IqCB0rkH70

https://t.co/UKxSY8SUye

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Scientists with their dogs:

Albert Einstein
Erwin Schrödinger*
Richard Feynman
Ivan Pavlov

*Yes, Schrödinger actually had a dog, not a cat. It was a collie named Burschie (Laddie).

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Scientists with their cats:*

Edwin Hubble

Rachel Carson

George Gamow

Joy Adamson

*Schrödinger had a collie, not a cat!

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Scientists with their cats:*

Edwin Hubble

Rachel Carson

George Gamow

Joy Adamson

*Schrödinger had a collie, not a cat!

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Scientists with their dogs:

Albert Einstein
Erwin Schrödinger*
Richard Feynman
Ivan Pavlov

*Yes, Schrödinger actually had a dog, not a cat. It was a collie named Burschie (Laddie).

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Mathematician Kurt Gödel was one of Albert Einstein's best friends. He found a strange solution to Einstein's general theory of relativity that modelled a rotating universe which allows backward time travel. He presented the solution to Einstein on his birthday.

Note that the idea was purely hypothetical, and hasn't been shown to have any connection with physical reality. Still, it has inspired other hypothetical schemes for backward time travel.

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Physicist Ernst Mach's highly unusual self-portrait

Mach sketched himself while lying on his sofa and only looking out of his left-eye. The sketch reflected his life-long interest in symmetry and perception.

#ErnstMach #Science #physics #Mach

[Craig Mahoney @CraigMahoney]

Ooh. This looks intriguing

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

@CraigMahoney Thank you Craig!

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

'A human being is part of the Universe.. limited in time and space.

He experiences himself.. as something separate, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion'

-Albert Einstein

https://t.co/VqvaxNL7UP

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Tributes at Bryn Mawr College to brilliant mathematician Emmy Noether, who spent her final years there. Amongst her many accomplishments, she revolutionized modern physics methods by identifying continuous symmetry groups with conservation laws. The 3rd image is her grave marker

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

'I think and think for months, for years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.'

-Albert Einstein,

From 'The Einstein Theory of Living,' New York Times, March 12, 1944: https://t.co/x2UcbH1nQm

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Rock Songs Based on Science Fiction Themes:

Rocket Man (John/Taupin): Ray Bradbury Story

Starship Trooper (Yes): Robert Heinlein Novel

Watcher of the Skies (Genesis): Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End

Time After Time (Lauper/Hyman): Time travel film with fictional HG Wells

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Titans of quantum electrodynamics, Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman, conversing at a gravitational physics conference held in Jablonna, Poland (near Warsaw) in 1962.

#histSTM #Science #Physics

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Richard Feynman's Restaurant Riddle

Feynman once wondered how many dishes at restaurants one should try before settling on the tastiest (and maximizing the overall quality of one's meals). New mathematical result offers a solution

https://t.co/wJsPoEG1xJ

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Imagine going to a luscious dinner in which famous chefs present their unique handcrafted creations

Then picture those dishes being mixed together into a single glop and being served by a smiling amalgam of all of those chefs

That's what generative AI represents for creativity

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

Tributes at Bryn Mawr College to brilliant mathematician Emmy Noether, who spent her final years there. Amongst her many accomplishments, she revolutionized modern physics methods by identifying continuous symmetry groups with conservation laws. The 3rd image is her grave marker

[Paul Halpern @phalpern]

What brilliant mathematician Emmy Noether was like as a @BrynMawrCollege professor, according to her student Ruth McKee:

'The strange phenomenon was that from our point of view she was one of us, almost as if she too were thinking about the theorems for the first time'

https://t.co/Ksdv59JFIh