Blogger: Clifford Johnson
URL: asymptotia.com
First post: July 2006
Who is the blog written by?
Clifford Johnson is a UK theoretical physicist working at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, US. His research interests include string theory, M-theory and gravity. He started blogging as one of the group of physicists that produces Cosmic Variance (see “Blog life: Cosmic Variance”), but left to found his own blog a year ago. The title of the blog refers in part to making incremental progress towards a better society.
What topics does the blog cover?
Asymptotia is more personal than many physics blogs, reading a bit like extracts from Johnson’s diary and illustrated with his photographs. Indeed, Johnson says that one of the purposes of his blog is to demonstrate to the public that scientists are normal people with wide-ranging interests. Of course, a lot of what he does is science, and that is well covered, but there are also posts on architecture, the environment, food and drink, and what’s going on in LA. As Johnson says in his introduction to the blog: “There’ll be lots of things. Three chief topics among those will be science, arts, academia…and gardening. Oh, that’s four.”
Who is it aimed at?
Johnson is passionate about science-outreach work, and blogging is one element of that. Thus he tries to make his posts about science accessible to non-scientists. He also talks about his offline outreach efforts, including judging science fairs and appearing on TV. Recently he was asked by glossy magazine King to participate in a feature about successful young black men in America, feeling slightly out of place alongside fashion designers, music producers and basketball players.
Why should I read it?
Being a string theorist, Johnson naturally weighs in on the recent debate triggered by Peter Woit’s criticisms of the theory on his blog, Not Even Wrong (see “Blog life: Not Even Wrong”). In a series of posts entitled “More scenes from the storm in a teacup”, Johnson argues that “the whole business of singling out string theory as some sort of great evil is rather silly”. His posts attracted hundreds of comments from people on both sides of the debate, including big names such as Michael Duff and Lee Smolin.
How often is it updated?
Often more than once a day. Indeed, one of the reasons for Johnson leaving Cosmic Variance was that his co-bloggers felt that his frequent posts were drowning their voices out.
Can you give me a sample quote?
“One of the marvellous things about gardening is the variety of pleasant things that develop as a result of your work, again and again, while you are off doing other things (like your day job). It’s a bit like teaching, in a way: you do your best and hope that one day the results blossom in both the near and distant future.”
