physics

Chernobyl on the Seine

Last Updated on August 28, 2019 / History, Science / 1 minute of reading

In 1933 nuclear physicist Marie Curie had outgrown her lab in the Latin Quarter in central Paris. To give her the space needed for the messy task of extracting radioactive elements such as radium from truckloads of ore, the University of Paris built a research center in Arcueil, a village south of the city. Today it’s grown into a crowded working-class suburb. And the dilapidated lab, set in an overgrown garden near a 17th century …

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Brian Greene on the State of String Theory 2015

Last Updated on December 23, 2014 / Science / 1 minute of reading

Much as the sonorous tones of a cello arise from the vibrations of the instrument’s strings, the collection of nature’s particles would arise from the vibrations of the tiny filaments described by string theory. The long list of disparate particles that had been revealed over a century of experiments would be recast as harmonious “notes” comprising nature’s score. via Why String Theory Still Offers Hope We Can Unify Physics | Smithsonian.