Cosmology with Cruijff
Johan Cruijff, the legendary Dutch football player and coach, knew a thing or two about science!
Gender equality – Key challenges in the classroom
Why is there such gender-inequality in the sciences? And what can we do about it? Here some reflections on science education and pop culture.
A Peering Review of Peer review
What is peer review, and what is the scientific method? Does it work in the way that it is supposed to? Has it always been like that. This post reflects on the process and politics of scientific research.
About “chicks in the sciences” [1]
A feminist account of the world of theoretical physics including my favourite youtube video of all times.
Black Holes: Bald or Hairy?
As a female theoretical physicist, I often wonder: if I were a black hole, what hairdo would I choose? Amusingly enough, some of the brightest minds in my field cannot work it out, and therefore jury is still out: bald, hairy, or with a wig, perhaps?
Life of PI
In this post I reflect on my second fall in Canada and my first few weeks at the amazing class castle of theoretical physics that is Perimeter Institute.
Jet lag
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ve truly been lagging behind. My excuse is that these last months I feel like I’ve always had my one leg in a new country, and my other one on a jet.
Adding dimensions with art and prose (2)
Extra dimensions are pretty popular attributes of theories in particle physics (in fact, yours truly is currently working on such a theory!). But long before they became fashionable in physics, there are records of creative entrepreneurs and imaginative individuals captivated by the idea of a hidden world in another dimension. Some writers and visual artists developed our ideas in ways that were not only fascinating from an artistic perspective, but also very useful for visualisations of modern physics. Most…
Adding dimensions with art and prose (1)
As a physicist who once aspired to study fine arts, crossovers between the abstract world of theoretical physics and the imaginative world of the arts are a particularly exciting topic for me. It seems to be quite easy to find examples of artists and writers inspired by science[1] but (to me) the truly intriguing thing would be a synergy, the co-development of a particular way of seeing the physical world. As cutting edge theoretical theories nowadays are often motivated by…
Cats and (the) QM
I grew up with two cats that were convinced they were smarter than me, and I am not sure they were wrong. They would gaze at me arrogantly from an elevated height, and I was never any competition for the best spot on the couch. Cats have always seemed like intriguing creatures to me, and in my imagination they would have an un-understood intelligence and insights that us humans lack. Noting their omnipresence in theoretical physics, I am not alone…