'Closeness' is well-defined as a quantitative measure of centrality in social network analysis (SNA), but it is not as well defined qualitatively as a description of social relationships. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of 'closeness' as it is defined both implicitly and explicitly in interviews with 100 women and/or LGBTQ+ PhD physicists. The interviews include a social network construction component, and we define a quantitative network parameter that serves as a proxy for closeness, which we examine in relation to attributes of network members. We find that physicists in this sample see trust, relaxed boundaries, reliance, and support as concepts that most directly define closeness in their relationships. Consistent interaction, positive affect, and commonalities are also often present in (and in some cases, defining of) these relationships. From the quantitative analysis, we find that these physicists tend to view family and partners, friends, and professional friends as comprising their closest relationships. These results are consistent with other studies which have sought to define closeness qualitatively, but the prevalence of trust in this dataset in particular
This volume, \textbf{Physicists Are Still Joking}, serves as a definitive almanac of scientific humor spanning sixty years. It traces the evolution of professional folklore across geopolitical divides and technological eras. \textbf{Part I} restores the classic 1966 anthology \textbf{Physicists Joke}, which originally served as a window for Soviet scientists into the best traditions of Western scientific humor; it consists primarily of articles translated from English, here meticulously restored to their original wording. \textbf{Part II} presents the 1992 sequel, \textbf{Physicists Keep Joking}, which captures the shift toward an original, introspective Russian scientific folklore born during the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. \textbf{Part III: Still Joking} explores the modern digital age, compiling contemporary science humor from physics, astronomy, biology, computer science and AI research. While the tools of science have evolved from slide rules to neural networks, the tradition of skeptical, self-referential wit remains a constant. Spanning from the "Golden Age" of vacuum tubes to the era of AI and Large Language Models, this collection documents th
Social network analysis (SNA) has been widely used in physics education research (PER) in recent years, but mostly in a limited range of the available modalities. This paper describes a unique approach to egocentric, mixed-methods SNA applied to qualitative network data obtained from 100 interviews with women and/or queer professional physicists. We focus on our methods for obtaining quantitative network data from these qualitative sources and present novel techniques for analysis of the networks. We also examine the ways in which egocentric and mixed-methods SNA techniques are aligned with critical methods and well-suited to the study of difference, non-normativity, and experiences of marginalization in physics spaces and communities. We explore the limitations and potential applications of these methods and situate this work in the larger context of our study of these interviews. This work bridges a methodological gap between SNA and qualitative work on identity in PER and begins to develop our understanding of the way gender and sexual minority physicists experience support.
In this paper, I aim to clarify the unconscious ideologies and attitudes held by physicists through Prigogine's work. Prigogine was an outstanding chemist and physicist who made significant contributions to the development of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. At the same time, he extended his ideas beyond physics into the humanities, engaging in an interdisciplinary exploration of scientific and philosophical thought. Due to his unique career, Prigogine's reception has been deeply divided. This study highlights his intellectual endeavors to formulate two distinct agnostic attitudes -- one held by dynamicists and the other by Prigogine himself. Building on this formulation, I examine how physics has been spatialized, drawing on the philosophy of Bergson. Finally, I explore an alternative path that Prigogine might have envisioned -- the temporalization of physics -- in a broader context to extend and revitalize his philosophy.
I review, for the benefit of younger physicists, arguments proposed at the beginning of the 21st century, which show that it is misleading to think of the parameters in string theory models of quantum gravity as vacuum expectation values of fields.
I argue that research in physics operates under an implicit community philosophy, and I offer a definition I think physicists would accept, by and large. I compare this definition to what philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science, with physicists, say we are doing.
Population genetics lies at the heart of evolutionary theory. This topic forms part of many biological science curricula but is rarely taught to physics students. Since physicists are becoming increasingly interested in biological evolution, we aim to provide a brief introduction to population genetics, written for physicists. We start with two background chapters: chapter 1 provides a brief historical introduction to the topic, while chapter 2 provides some essential biological background. We begin our main content with chapter 3 which discusses the key concepts behind Darwinian natural selection and Mendelian inheritance. Chapter 4 covers the basics of how variation is maintained in populations, while chapter 5 discusses mutation and selection. In chapter 6 we discuss stochastic effects in population genetics using the Wright-Fisher model as our example, and finally we offer concluding thoughts and references to excellent textbooks in chapter 7.
In this paper, we explore Quantum Game Jam (QGJ) as a method for facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and creating science game prototypes. QGJ was a series of game development events, science game jams, organized five times 2014-2019. In these events game makers and quantum physicists created games about quantum mechanics, games for quantum research and games utilizing quantum computers. QGJ has worked as a platform for multidisciplinary and collaborative exploration and learning: through creating 68 game prototypes throughout the years the participants have networked and learned from each other. In addition to this, at least three prototypes have been taken into further development. In this paper we evaluate how the format of QGJ performed. We discuss both the organizing of the events as well as the utility of the game prototypes. In addition to our observations on the jams, we have evaluated the game submissions of all events (2014-2019) and gathered survey data from the participants of the fifth event (2019).
This paper aims to investigate the extent to which researchers display citation, and wants to examine whether there are researcher differences in citation personal display at the level of university, country, and academic rank. Physicists in 11 well-known universities in USA, Britain, and China were chosen as the object of study. It was manually identified if physicists had mentioned citation counts, citation-based indices, or a link to Google Scholar Citations (GSC) on the personal websites. A chi-square test is constructed to test researcher differences in citation personal display. Results showed that the overall proportion of citation personal display is not high (14.8%), with 129 of 870 physicists displaying citation. And physicists from different well-known universities indeed had a significant difference in citation personal display. Moreover, at the national level, it was noticed that physicists in well-known Chinese universities had the highest level of citation personal display, followed by Britain and the USA. Further, this study also found that researchers who had the academic rank of professor had the highest citation personal display. In addition, the differences in h
In the 60s of the last century the few courses of History of physics in Physics degree were held by scholars who, apart from a few exceptions, did not have a specific research background in the field. Some activities, books, social movements in the civil society allowed in the 70's the entry, among Physics courses, of teachings in History of physics held by scholars specifically trained for that job since their degree. A second change happened in the 90s when many difficulties forced physicists to allocate fewer and fewer resources to the History of their discipline. I'll outline the features of the two periods and the efforts of Historians to find a proper space in Physics departments.
These notes provide an introduction to standard topics on quantum computation and communication for those who already have a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics. The main target audience are professional physicists as well as advanced students of physics; however, engineers and computer scientists may also benefit from them.
As more neurodivergent students enter college, discussion on neurodiversity in higher education is gaining momentum. It is increasingly imperative that we understand how neurodivergent individuals construct their identities within the context of physics programs. Using hte Critical Disability Physics Identity framework, this study offers a nuanced analysis of the lived experiences and identity development of neurodivergent undergraduate physicists through the lens of resource use and political agency. By examining the phenomenon of neurodivergent undergraduate physics identity, we uncover the multifaceted dimensions of their lived experiences, including the marginalization caused by a neurotypical-normative culture, the negotiation of conflicting definitions of being a physicist, and the influence of supportive networks. Our findings shed light on the intersectionality of neurodivergent identity and physics identity, offering valuable insights to educators, researchers, and institutions committed to fostering inclusive learning environments. Ultimately, this research contributes to the ongoing dialogue on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice within physics and higher education
Even though quantum mechanics has existed for almost 100 years, questions concerning the foundation and interpretation of the theory still remain. These issues have gathered more attention in recent years, but does this mean that physicists are more aware of foundational issues concerning quantum mechanics? A survey was sent out to 1234 physicists affiliated to 8 different universities. 149 responded to the questions, which both concerned foundational issues related to quantum mechanics, specifically, as well as questions concerning interpretations of physical theories in general. The answers to the survey revealed that foundational concepts in quantum mechanics are still a topic that only a minority of physicists are familiar with, although a clear majority of physicists find that interpretations of physical theories are important. The various questions, as well as how the respondents answered, are presented. The survey intends to give an overview of what the opinion of the physics community, in general, is concerning issues related to quantum mechanics.
Defining interdisciplinary physics today requires first a reformulation of what is physics today, which in turn calls for clarifying what makes a physicist. This assessment results from my forty year journey arguing and fighting to build sociophysics. My view on interdisciplinary physics has thus evolved jumping repeatedly to opposite directions before settling down to the following claim: today physics is what is done by physicists who handle a problem the "physicist's way". However the training of physicists should stay restricted to inert matter. Yet adding a focus on the universality of the physicist approach as a generic path to investigate a topic. Consequently, interdisciplinary physics should become a cabinet of curiosities including an incubator. The cabinet of curiosities would welcome all one shots papers related to any kind of object provided it is co-authored at least by one physicist. Otherwise the paper should uses explicitly technics from physics. In case a topic gets many papers, it would be moved to the incubator to foster the potential emergence of a new appropriate subfield of physics. A process illustrated by the subsection social physics in Frontiers in physic
This tutorial is based on lecture notes written for a class taught in the Statistics Department at Stanford in the Winter Quarter of 2017. The objective was to provide a working knowledge of some of the techniques developed over the last 40 years by theoretical physicists and mathematicians to study mean field spin glasses and their applications to high-dimenensional statistics and statistical learning.
This study was investigated to understand the in-depth features and processes of physicists' scientific inquiries. At first, research motives were investigated by interviewing six physicists who were prominent worldwide. As a result, three main types - incompleteness, discovery, and conflict - and nine subtypes of research motivation, were identified. Six additional background factors were found which might affect the design and start of research. Based on these findings, implications for teaching scientific inquiries to students were discussed.
The adaptive immune system is a dynamical, self-organized multiscale system that protects vertebrates from both pathogens and internal irregularities, such as tumours. For these reason it fascinates physicists, yet the multitude of different cells, molecules and sub-systems is often also petrifying. Despite this complexity, as experiments on different scales of the adaptive immune system become more quantitative, many physicists have made both theoretical and experimental contributions that help predict the behaviour of ensembles of cells and molecules that participate in an immune response. Here we review some recent contributions with an emphasis on quantitative questions and methodologies. We also provide a more general methods section that presents some of the wide array of theoretical tools used in the field.
We have all read that: (1) organized medicine was laughing at the germ theory and refused to wash its hands in the late 1800's while women died of childbed fever and other patients of wound sepsis (scientists in general, including physicists, were among those who died); and (2) during the 1900's, and still today, organized medicine is laughing at the essential nutrient theory. We now hear the medical quality assurance boards enforce MANY MISTAKEN VIEWS and DO NOT recognize that: "xenobiotics can't be substituted for essential nutrients; ascorbic acid is NOT a vitamin and hence, is needed in multi-gram (not minute amounts) for optimum health; there is great harm in a diet deriving half its calories from refined carbohydrates as is common in the US today; dietary correction is possible at a stage when surgery is contemplated for a cardiac patient; mercury dental fillings and even the high-copper variety most widely used are extremely unsafe;" etc. The purpose of this manuscript is to elicit coordinated collective effort of physicists, other scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists to educate the public and end this tyranny of organized medicine whose methods are reported to c
On June 26th, 2004, Central bank governors and the heads of bank supervisory authorities in the Group of Ten (G10) countries issued a press release and endorsed the publication of "International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: a Revised Framework", the new capital adequacy framework commonly known as Basel II. According to Jean Claude Trichet, Chairman of the G10 group of central bank governors and heads of bank supervisory authorities and President of the European Central Bank: ``Basel II embraces a comprehensive approach to risk management and bank supervision. It will enhance banks' safety and soundness, strengthen the stability of the financial system as a whole, and improve the financial sector's ability to serve as a source for sustainable growth for the broader economy.'' The negotial process is likely to lead to the adoption of the new rules within 2007. In 1996, after the "Amendment to the capital accord to incorporate market risks", a new wave of physicists entered risk management offices of large banks, that had to develop internal models of market risk. Which will be the challenges and opportunities for physicists in the financial sector in the
Learning to think like a physicist (LTP) is often cited as a central goal of graduate physics education, yet what this means in practice and the extent to which physics graduate education prepares students to develop LTP and view LTP as valuable to their research and teaching remain unclear. This interview-based study, conducted with seven physics graduate students at one US public research university, explores how students define thinking like a physicist and how their coursework and research experiences correlate with this development. Students emphasized that physics uniquely requires integrating physical and mathematical concepts in ways that go beyond other science disciplines. Our findings show that physics core courses, particularly electricity and magnetism, frequently emphasize mathematical techniques and content coverage at a rapid pace at the expense of deeper conceptual engagement and development of LTP. In contrast, physics elective courses and research experiences were more synergistic with and effective in fostering conceptual understanding, problem-solving skills, and identity development as physicists. Because graduate students simultaneously take core courses, con