It is a bit pompous of me think that I can actually tell you the most important thing you can learn from Physics Forums. After all, each one of us here have different reasons for being on this forum, and so, we will have different things that we consider to be important to us.

Still, I believe I can clearly describe what is the most important thing that an "average" PF member can learn while in this forum. While most people would think that I would say that the subject matter...

Dawn was slow in coming; the stars were still brilliant and the trees were still withdrawn; no bird was calling, not even the small owls that rattled through the night from tree to tree. It was strangely quiet except for the roar of the sea. There was that smell of many flowers, rotting leaves and damp ground; earth was waiting for the dawn and the coming day; there was expectation, patience and a strange stillness. That stillness was love; it was not the love of something or of someone, the image...

It's been a while since my last blog post, so I think it's time to share some things.

A new particle
First of all, I have to mention the discovery of a new particle last year. Last March I mentioned there had been signs of a particle in the region 124-126 GeV. The discovery of a new particle, a boson, was announced in July last year (press conference). The properties...

When you systematically collect empirical data on nature and compare them with testable theoretical predictions, that's science. When you SAY that this is what science is, that's philosophy.

Okay, here's some code (in Processing) that motion-graphs the output from a Perlin noise function. It is cool and not nerdy at all.


// Starting angle
float theta = 0.0;
void setup() {
size(200,200);
smooth();
}
void draw() {
background(255);
// Increment theta (try different values for " angular velocity " here)
theta += 0.05;
noStroke();
fill(0);
background (100);
float x...