Remembering John Wheeler
Category: Writing and Poetry

John Wheeler, the father of black holes, disciple of Niels Bohr, one-time friend and neighbor of Einstein, and mentor to Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne and so many other great physicists, passed away last month at the age of 96. I greatly admired his creative spirit and perseverance.

I heard him speak several times, and had the opportunity to interview him at his Princeton office a few years ago. The meeting was arranged by Ken Ford, who helped Wheeler write his autobiography. I blogged about the meeting some time ago, but thought I'd take this opportunity to revisit the subject.

Wheeler was extraordinarily charming, and had vivid memories of taking his students over to Einstein's house in the early 1950s, and even seeing Einstein walking with his assistants in the late 1930s. One of his favorite stories was when his cat wandered off to Einstein's house. Einstein called him, and his children went over to get the cat. When the cat came back, Wheeler asked it if it had learned anything about relativity.

Wheeler handed me a Chinese version of his mammoth textbook, Gravitation, and joked that I can read it and try to learn Chinese. Even in his mid-90s he retained a marvellous sense of humor.

We also chatted a bit about the philosopher Spinoza. Wheeler was interested because of Einstein's references to Spinoza's concept of determinism.

I asked Wheeler about his opinion of string theory, and his answer indicated that he felt that much interest in the subject was based on faith rather than empirical evidence.

All told, I felt enormously privileged to have had the opportunity to spend some time with such a towering figure in science.

5:48 PM - 2 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Category: Writing and Poetry

I just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Rather than writing a formal review, I'd like just to relay a few brief impressions.

The novel is about a librarian named Henry who possesses a genetic disorder that propels him randomly backward and forward in time, usually backward. At one point he meets a little girl named Clare back in the 1980s whom he befriends and visits on a regular basis. He knows her, as it turns out, because she, as a woman, is his wife in the present-day (the 1990s and 2000s). The grown-up Clare is well-adapted to his time-travelling quirks, and sometimes even enjoys his absences as long as he isn't gone too long.

I had mixed feelings about the book. What I liked about it was the constant interplay between past, present and (eventually) the future. I felt that the novel really took off toward the end when Henry visits pivotal times in the past and future that clarify aspects of his life and his destiny.

In some ways, however, the book was too long. The bouncing back and forth in time became tedious after a while. Also, I found that many of the various characters' reactions to Henry seemed unrealistic--they seemed to treat his constant coming and going as something just a bit peculiar rather than a cause for serious investigation and rethinking of the nature of time.

Finally, the book implies that the past, present and future are all inevitable--which makes for an interesting philosophical idea, but removes much of the drama. A courtship and wedding aren't particularly exciting if you know that the protagonists will certainly get married.

Despite these reservations, I'm glad I read the novel. It's refreshing to see a contemporary science fiction tale be so widely acclaimed and well-read.

I just read that a movie version of the book is being filmed. Should be interesting, no doubt.

7:16 PM - 20 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Quantum Musicians
Category: Music

A common metaphor in quantum mechanics imagines electrons in atoms as standing waves, like the harmonics of plucked guitar strings. Apparently, that image has resonated with some of the offspring of quantum theorists who have chosen musical careers.

A pioneer of this trend was Olivia Newton-John, the English-born Australian musician who captivated audiences in Grease and Xanadu. Her maternal grandfather was none other than one of the principal founders of quantum mechanics, Goettingen physicist Max Born.

In more recent years, the band Eels has attracted a loyal following. (I especially like their song, "The Trouble with Dreams.") Its founder, (aka the mysterious "Mr. E") is Mark Everett, son of Hugh Everett, developer of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Albert Baez, an X-ray pioneer, passed away last year. You can guess who his famous, once-raven-haired, musical daughter is. Hint: the answer is Blowing in the Wind--it ain't Dylan but his erstwhile girlfriend.

Then there is Brian Cox, of the UK Synthpop Band D:ream. He's starting a reverse trend, and has abandoned his musical career to become a physicist at CERN. That's one whole-step for a musician, one quantum leap for mankind! On that note, I need to make like an atom and split.

5:35 PM - 10 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

The Great Philadelphia and Western Railway
Category: Travel and Places

I often commute to work in a dinky little railcar on one of the suburban Philadelphia rail lines that is so obscure most Philadelphians don't even know about it. The trains run often, they are cheap and it is a very pleasant commute.

Soon after taking that train I heard some old-time residents calling it the P&W. Considering that its official name is just Route 100, I had no idea at first what they were talking about. But then, out of curiosity, I looked up the name and discovered, much to my surprise, that the railway was supposed to go a bit further than it does--actually about 3000 miles further!

A century ago, the Philadelphia and Western Railway was constructed as part of a planned transcontinental rail system. The part that was completed took riders from one small suburb to another (a distance of only about 15 miles), but never quite caught on--perhaps because there was not much in the latter suburb except horse farms.

As an incentive for riders to board, a sprawling amusement park was constructed at one of the stations, called Beechwood Park:



The park lasted only one year (1908) before a riot broke out at a fortune-teller's tent and it shut down completely. Most of it has been demolished, but I recently explored the wooded area, and found a remnant of a gate that once connected the park with the station.

The lesson I've learned is never take something as simple as a commute for granted; there's history in everything!

12:09 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Clockstopping: Bart, Borges and Bloch
Category: Writing and Poetry

In the writing process, not everything that is written goes into print.  Sometimes things are left out to improve the flow of a book.  When writing my Simpsons book I had a lot of extra material for the chapter "Clockstopping" that pertained to literary and other ideas about stopping time.  Here is an example:

Clockstopping:  Bart, Borges and Bloch -  By Paul Halpern.  Copyright 2006. 

To examine [the question of stopping time], let's see how popular culture and science have dealt with the topic.  Savvy viewers have noted that the Simpsons segment parodies earlier depictions, including the classic Twilight Zone episode, "A Kind of a Stopwatch," the film "Clockstoppers," and a number of literary efforts.   In "Clockstoppers," I recall one particularly silly scene in which a gawky character is taught hip-hop dancing through the process of stopping time, having his friends rearrange his limbs, and then starting time again.  Freeze, stretch, spin and repeat until song is over. 

For a more somber freeze-framing pursuit, we turn to "The Secret Miracle," a classic short story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.  In that tale, set during World War II, a Czech playwright named Hladik, about to be shot by the Nazis, prays for more time to complete his magnum opus.  Miraculously his wish is granted and time freezes for an entire year—not just for everyone else, but for him too.  Though he can't move a muscle, his mind is still active, and he uses the time to finish his great play.  Finally, when the last word is written (alas, in his head only), time resumes and he expires.   Stopping time allows Hladik to fulfill his literary dream, just as Bart satisfies his own quest to humiliate the entire town of Springfield.   Which is worthier?  Let cultural historians be the judge.

Divine intervention is one prominent theme in time-stopping stories; diabolical interference is another.  From Faust's epic bargain to Homer selling his soul for a doughnut, there is a rich vein of literature about pacts made with the devil.  In Robert Bloch's eerie story, "The Hell-Bound Train," a never-do-good drifter named Martin encounters a mysterious railroad Conductor, who offers a soul-trading deal that involves the gift of a stopwatch similar to Bart's.   The Conductor gives Martin the timepiece and tells him that he can use it to stop time forever—ideally at any point of his life when he is especially content.  However—here's the catch—if he dies before getting a chance to stop the watch, he's stuck with a one-way ticket on the Hell-bound train.

If it were Martin Prince instead of Martin the drifter, undoubtedly he'd use the watch to stop time when seated in the library happily working on a research project.   He could forever investigate agricultural commerce in ancient Mesopotamia, or something similarly exciting.  But Martin the drifter has no hankering for libraries; he craves an earthier kind of bliss, but exactly what he doesn't know.  He squanders opportunity after opportunity to use the stopwatch, and finally finds himself seated on the express train to the "Depot Way Down Yonder."

The Hell-bound train is full of mean, nasty, awful characters—gamblers, grifters and ruffians of all sorts.  Imagine a carriage crammed with the likes of Snake, Sideshow Bob, Nelson Muntz's father, Barney Gumble, and so forth—all drinking, joking, singing and throwing dice.  But Martin relishes the company of bums and no-goodniks.  He stops the watch right then and there, preventing the train from ever reaching the Depot, allowing him and the other passengers to party forever, and hence foiling the plans of the sinister Conductor.  Whoa. Way to go, dude.  Party on.

So we see that Bart and Milhouse were not the first, and probably not the last, characters to fulfill their fantasies while the rest of the world stands like statues.   Time's grand clock does not always tick at the same rate for all.

7:23 AM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Meet Me in St. Louis (for a physics convention)
Category: Travel and Places

I just got back from a visit to St. Louis to attend the annual April meeting of the American Physical Society. It was technically my second time in the city. My first visit (years ago when I was a student) consisted of a stop at the bus terminal as part of a cross-country trip throughout the US. That was hardly a proper way to see a city. So this visit I was glad I had a few days to wander about.

St. Louis is a very interesting city for its history and architecture. It started off as a French frontier settlement in the province of Louisiana, until Thomas Jefferson enacted the famous purchase of that province. It was the starting point of Lewis and Clark's expedition to the West.

In the 1960s, its most famous architectural monument was constructed-the great Arch, which has to be seen to be believed. The Arch is a delicately shaped, upside-down "U" that stands as high as a tall building. From a distance, it looks perfectly solid, but up close you can see tiny windows at the top. That's because the top is an observatory.

To get up to the observatory is quite a challenge for anyone with fear of enclosed spaces or heights. Visitors are locked into an tiny, windowless capsule, too small to stand up in, which zig-zags up the interior of the structure. I took the challenge, and was rewarded with a spectacular view of the city.

Another highlight of my visit was spending some time in the Art Museum which had a superb collection of German expressionist art, including a gallery of the amazing early 20th century artist Max Beckmann (banned by the Nazis for his so-called "degenerate" art).

On the minus side, one strange thing about the city was its utter lack of pedestrians. It reminded me of films about post-apocalyptic desolation. I took a walk down one of its major streets on a Monday morning during the height of working hours and I hardly saw anyone. The cafes and restaurants were all virtually empty. On the other hand I saw streams of cars pulling into the ugly multi-storey parking garages that filled the central part of the city. A cafe owner told me that almost everyone drives into town and remains close to their office because of the tremendous crime rate. What a shame.

The conference itself was great, and I was pleased to participate in a ceremony honoring the esteemed historian of physics Gerald Holton. During the conference another great physicist's death was announced--John Wheeler, who coined the expression "black holes." He was almost 97 years old. I was saddened by this but thought it was ironic that it was timed with a conference he almost always took part in until a few years ago.

One of the controversial talks at the conference compared Einstein to Werner von Braun for allegedly both making Faustian bargains; that is, deals with the devil. In Einstein's case that allegation related to his warning letter he wrote to Roosevelt. I took exception to the thesis of that talk, because I think it is hard to argue that Einstein had anything to do with the bomb. In fact, after the war he offered a leading voice for peace and disarmament.

All in all, I enjoyed the chance to visit a new city and to get together with an interesting group of scholars.

1:31 AM - 6 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

A Canadian Blogger’s Review of "What’s Science Ever Done for Us?"
Category: Blogging

A Canadian blogger has written a friendly review of my Simpsons book:

Review of "What’s Science Ever Done for Us?"

7:07 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Ministry of Silly Walks
Category: News and Politics

I just read that John Cleese has volunteered to be a speechwriter for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Some years ago, he performed a similar task for the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the UK-- see clip.

I’m wondering if he is vying to become the Minister of Silly Walks in the next American administration. Such a position has been lacking in the U.S. cabinet, so perhaps it is time to establish such a vital post.

6:31 AM - 9 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Philosophical Provocations
Category: Writing and Poetry

Dr. Michael LaBossiere’s new book What Don’t You Know? Philosophical Provocations is being published next month. Having seen an advanced copy, I would highly recommend it as a refreshingly modern guide to philosophical riddles.

Here’s a blurb I wrote for the book:
"LaBossiere brilliantly tackles many of the toughest ethical dilemmas of our times, from gender selection, cloning and sexual inequality to violence in the media and the conduct of warfare. In an age of snap judgments and stereotypes, he approaches his topics in a refreshingly open-minded fashion. His quick wit and firm knowledge of contemporary culture bring philosophy full-force into the 21st century."

6:53 PM - 8 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

From Faust in Copenhagen to Galileo’s Daughter
Category: Writing and Poetry

Last month, we were fortunate enough at my university to have Gino Segre, author of Faust in Copenhagen, visit for a week and discuss his books. I recently learned that Dava Sobel, author of Galileo’s Daughter and Longitude, will be speaking at my university on April 17. Looking forward to that one too. In the interim I’ll be heading off to a physics conference to attend the history of physics session. History is really coming alive this spring!

10:56 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment