Web logs, or "blogs", are frequently updated online diaries that have become an Internet phenomenon. Many professional physicists are now writing about their life and work in this way. In the second of this new monthly column, Physics World looks at a blog written jointly by four US physicists.
Bloggers: Sean Carroll, JoAnne Hewett, Mark Trodden and Risa Wechsler
URL: cosmicvariance.com
First post: July 2005
Who is the blog written by?
Cosmic Variance is the group project of four theorists working in particle physics and cosmology. Sean Carroll is at Caltech, JoAnne Hewett and Risa Wechsler are at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, while Mark Trodden is the token non-Californian, based at Syracuse University, New York. A fifth blogger, University of Southern California string theorist Clifford Johnson, left Cosmic Variance late last year to set up his own blog, Asymptotia.
What topics does it cover?
In its first post, Carroll described Cosmic Variance as “a group blog constructed by some idiosyncratic human beings who also happen to be physicists”. So as well as reflecting the professional interests of the authors – and their surprisingly jet-setting lifestyle – there are posts on everything from religion to poker. There is also plenty of US politics, and campaigning posts about the position of women and minorities in physics. And, as usual in the “blogosphere”, a good chunk of space is given over to mentions of other blogs.
Who is it aimed at?
The level of physics knowledge assumed can vary quite a lot from post to post. In recent months, Carroll has provided an intelligible introduction for non-physicists to the Bullet Cluster results on dark matter (see p26, print version only), and Hewett a guide to the basics of particle detection. But some readers will be left behind by reports on conferences and the authors’ research, such as Trodden’s mention of “the challenges of constructing a consistent infrared modification of gravity yielding late-time cosmic acceleration”.
Can you give me a sample quote?
“Some people seem to think that the ability to do math is the quintessential expression of ‘intelligence’, from which all other reasoning skills flow,” says Carroll. “If that were true, scientists and mathematicians would make the best poets, statesmen, artists and conversationalists. And faculty meetings at top-ranked physics departments would be paradigms of reasonable discussion undistorted by petty jealousies and irrational commitments. Suffice it to say, the evidence is running strongly against. (It’s true that physicists are incredibly fashionable and make the best lovers, but that’s a different matter.)”
How often is it updated?
At least every couple of days, though the brunt of the work is carried by Carroll, who has posted more times than his other three collaborators combined. Still, he can’t complain too much – through the blog he met fellow physics blogger Jennifer Ouellette of Cocktail Party Physics, to whom he is now engaged to be married.
Why should I read it?
Cosmic Variance is undoubtedly the most popular blog written by physicists, and as such it is something of a hub for the physics blogosphere. Each post attracts a host of comments from physicists and non-physicists alike, leading to some lively debates.
