Biographies, History, Philosophy of Physics

[sbrothy]

Yes. The Manhattan Project ran from 1942 to 1946. Rutherford died in 1937 and Haber in 1934, so I honestly don't know how I managed to mess up that bad. I think the moral, or rather hypocrisy, of the, now firmly established apocryphal story speaks to me in some way. Rutherford may have refused to shake Haber's hand but if so it cannot have had much, if anything at all, to do with atomic bombs.

I've got to erase it from my brain because it makes little to no sense, and I'm embarrassing myself.

Sorry.

 

[pines-demon]

Yes. The Manhattan Project ran from 1942 to 1946. Rutherford died in 1937 and Haber in 1934, so I honestly don't know how I managed to mess up that bad. I think the moral, or rather hypocrisy, of the, now firmly established apocryphal story speaks to me in some way. Rutherford may have refused to shake Haber's hand but if so it cannot have had much, if anything at all, to do with atomic bombs.

I've got to erase it from my brain because it makes little to no sense, and I'm embarrassing myself.

Sorry.

Don't be so hard on yourself we all do mistakes. I find much worse inaccuracies every day just looking at social media.

 

[robphy]

Some history behind the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.
(I visited PI when it was just the brownstone on King and Dupont (Google Maps) [in the video at &t=2m21s] to visit my advisor who was spending a sabbatical there. I've never been to the current site (Google Maps).)

17m33s
(2026) Perimeter: Building Canada’s theoretical physics institute

58,469 views Premiered Apr 9, 2026
What does it take to build a world-class physics institute from scratch?

Perimeter Institute is a world-leading center for theoretical physics, dedicated to unraveling the deepest mysteries of the universe. Through groundbreaking research, innovative training programs, and inspiring outreach initiatives, we bring together brilliant minds from around the globe to explore space, time, matter, and beyond.

Founded with the vision of fostering collaboration and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, Perimeter is a place where curiosity thrives, and transformative ideas take shape.

Filmed and produced by Digital Sabbath.

 

[sbrothy]

History and Philosophy of Physics:

Reading this thread (Exploring Implicit Assumptions and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics) I kinda wanted to throw Hermann Weyl's classic The Theory of Groups and Quantum Mechanics in there. Specifically these quotes. But as I'm way out of my league, don't really understand the book myself, and mostly have Wikipedia links I have no business inserting myself into that discussion. I'll just leave this "funny" desciption, from Wiki's link to Weyls book, here:

John Archibald Wheeler wrote of learning quantum mechanics from Weyl's book, "His style is that of a smiling figure on horseback, cutting a clean way through, on a beautiful path, with a swift bright sword." Edward Condon called the text "authoritative". Julian Schwinger said of it, "I read and re-read that book, each time progressing a little farther, but I cannot say that I ever – not even to this day – fully mastered it. The book was one of the first works to give a quantitative statement of the uncertainty principle, which Werner Heisenberg had previously introduced in a less precise way. Weyl credited the idea to Wolfgang Pauli. (Robertson, who later translated Weyl's book into English, cited the argument Weyl gave as the basis for his own generalization of the uncertainty principle to arbitrary noncommuting observables.) Moreover, it contains an early description of density matrices and quantum entanglement, and it uses what quantum information theory would later call the Weyl–Heisenberg group to give a finite-dimensional version of the canonical commutation relation.

How Weyl stumbled across electricity while pursuing mathematical justice

Russell on Weyl's unified field theory

H. Weyl's and E. Cartan's proposals for infinitesimal geometry in the early 1920s

 

[sbrothy]

arXiv: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)


The Legacy of Enrico Fermi to Varenna

The Varenna school is a hub where generations of physicists, including numerous Nobel laureates, have shaped the field, often through collaborative exchanges across political and cultural boundaries. We examine the scientific legacy of Enrico Fermi and its influence on modern atomic, molecular, and optical physics. Beginning with Fermi's 1954 lectures at the Varenna school, key developments are traced from high-energy physics to laser spectroscopy, precision metrology, and the control of ultracold atoms. Milestones such as Doppler-free spectroscopy, optical frequency combs, Bose-Einstein condensation, and degenerate Fermi gases are highlighted as turning points leading to quantum simulation and quantum computation. Fermi's early advocacy for building a computer, rather than buying it, can be viewed as a precursor to today's efforts in quantum science and technologies. This historical trajectory and legacy continues to inform current research in quantum matter and information science.

 

[pines-demon]

Oppenheimer unfiltered: rare recordings released to the public​

​

https://physicsworld.com/a/oppenheimer-unfiltered-rare-recordings-released-to-the-public/

A series of audio interviews with Robert Oppenheimer, recorded in the 1960s, is now accessible through the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Made available for non-commercial use in collaboration with the Oppenheimer family, these recordings offer a rare chance to hear the physicist’s voice and experience his unfiltered thoughts.

 

[sbrothy]

This is just for fun. It's obviously bunk, but perhaps it can make someone smile. I first thought it was an April's fool joke, but no.

On Dingle's Rebuttal of the Special Theory of Relativity

In his 1972 book Science at the Crossroads, Helbert Dingle attacked the consistency of special relativity through a fallacious argument championed by the cranck community even to this day. Dingle's affair is a curious chapter in the history of physics and, more generally science. We briefly review Dingle's case from a historical and didactic perspective.

Have fun!

EDIT: On second glance there's nothing crancky about the rebuttal of Dingle's "rebuttal".

 

[pines-demon]

This is just for fun. It's obviously bunk, but perhaps it can make someone smile. I first thought it was an April's fool joke, but no.

On Dingle's Rebuttal of the Special Theory of Relativity



Have fun!

EDIT: On second glance there's nothing crancky about the rebuttal of Dingle's "rebuttal".

Amazing how much backlash special relativity created, even more than quantum mechanics.

 

[robphy]

This is just for fun. It's obviously bunk, but perhaps it can make someone smile. I first thought it was an April's fool joke, but no.

On Dingle's Rebuttal of the Special Theory of Relativity



Have fun!

EDIT: On second glance there's nothing crancky about the rebuttal of Dingle's "rebuttal".

This could be a useful assignment to identify where Dingle went wrong.

 

[robphy]

Amazing how much backlash special relativity created, even more than quantum mechanics.

Possibly interesting reading:
https://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Authors-Against-Einstein/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[pines-demon]

Possibly interesting reading:
https://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Authors-Against-Einstein/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=pfamazon01-20

It would be more interesting to have a book on the history of that book.

 

[sbrothy]

Possibly interesting reading:
https://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Authors-Against-Einstein/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=pfamazon01-20

Wasn't his famous reply something along the lines of: "If I was wrong one would would have been enough!"

Silly thought: if enough of us believe it nature will change it's behavior!

But those books must be so old by now that they must be in the public domain....

EDIT: Well, behind institutional wall. Perhaps some of you have access:

Albert von Brunn: Review of ‘100 Authors against Einstein’ [March 13, 1931].

 

[sbrothy]

I like this latin phrase: "sacrificium intellectus". It's on par with "anus mundi" (coined by a German doctor upon seeing a KZ-extermination camp in operation).

 

[robphy]

Possibly interesting reading:
https://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Authors-Against-Einstein/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=pfamazon01-20

It would be more interesting to have a book on the history of that book.

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/11/100-authors-against-einstein-a-look-in-the-rearview-mirror/

 

[sbrothy]

Yeah, I seem to be wrong about Bruun being in the PD. Which puzzles me considering the age of the book (1931!)

It's been removed from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/einstein-1/Einstein 1
EDIT: No, the above is the original one with the 100 authors.


But there's a rough tanslation here.

It's somewhat of a gray area but really who could get their blood pressure up about a 100 year old book?!

 

[sbrothy]

Physics and National Socialism (an Anthology, Springer) collecting related books (although I don't like the word "nazi" in there, but I guess that was one of the reason's for the first book).

Unfortunately, again it's behind an institutional paywall. But at least one has the titles.

 

[robphy]

Yeah, I seem to be wrong about Bruun being in the PD. Which puzzles me considering the age of the book (1931!)

It's been removed from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/einstein-1/Einstein 1
EDIT: No, the above is the original one with the 100 authors.


But there's a rough tanslation here.

It's somewhat of a gray area but really who could get their blood pressure up about a 100 year old book?!

https://archive.org/search?query="Hundert+Autoren+Gegen+Einstein"

and, possibly useful, see the discussion here:

High School Post in thread 'Looking for an English translation of Levi-Civita's 1926 paper "Sur l'écart géodésique" ("On the geodesic deviation")'

May 1, 2026

Thanks!

It looks good.
I've noticed that the bars in the equations on the third page are off, but since I have the original paper at hand, and want the translation for personal use, that's a minor issue.

Is the quoted paragraph

the full prompt?
i.e. if I feed it as-is to a Gemini Pro account, should I expect similar results?
If not, can you please post the full prompt?

Considering that French and English are close, wouldn't it be better to ask for a sentence-by-sentence translation, rather than a line-by-line?

That is the full prompt to GeminiPro that preceded the output I...

• robphy

• 

 

[sbrothy]

Yeah, but that's the original book. We were searching for reviews or comments on it. Like Albert von Bruun. But I guess a dedicated search will reveal that too.

EDIT: It's a little puzzling that the authors mentioned on the first one sound jewish. I thought the nazi/autodafé-thought behind it was that it was "juden-physik".

EDIT: As @pines-demon metioned it's perhaps a measure of how much backlash it generated.

 

[robphy]

Yeah, but that's the original book. We were searching for reviews or comments on it. Like Albert von Bruun. But I guess a dedicated search will reveal that too.

Um....,

It's been removed from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/einstein-1/Einstein 1
EDIT: No, the above is the original one with the 100 authors.


But there's a rough tanslation here.

In your post, you just posted a broken link to something (I don't know what "It" is),
followed by a translation of the original book--- not "a translation of a review or comments on it".

So, I posted a link to a copy of the original book in its original language.

 

[sbrothy]

Your link: https://archive.org/search?query="Hundert+Autoren+Gegen+Einstein"

is the link to the book "100 authors against Einstein".

@pines-demon posted: "It would be more interesting to have a book on the history of that book."

That's the book I was trying to find. Hence "von Bruun" and the other link.

It does make sense. Trust me.

EDIT: I may have failed, fair enough. You find one then. :)
EDIT2: And yes, I'm aware that "the rough translation" is also the first book." Hence my failure.

 

[robphy]

Possibly interesting reading:
https://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Authors-Against-Einstein/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=pfamazon01-20

It would be more interesting to have a book on the history of that book.

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/11/100-authors-against-einstein-a-look-in-the-rearview-mirror/

• But there's a rough tanslation here.

• https://archive.org/search?query="Hundert+Autoren+Gegen+Einstein"

Possibly useful, especially when further updated later:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criti...relativity#A_Hundred_Authors_Against_Einstein
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kritik_an_der_Relativitätstheorie#Hundert_Autoren_gegen_Einstein

 

[sbrothy]

• 
  

Possibly useful, especially when further updated later:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criti...relativity#A_Hundred_Authors_Against_Einstein

Indeed. Now we just need to find a review of that one which is not behind some paywall. And I find it weird that's it's not easy as we're talking about a possibly 100 year old book (I mean the review).

 

[sbrothy]

arXiv: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph)

Conrad Habicht 1914 Manuscript on Special Relativity and Einstein 1907 Reframing of the 1905 Theory

This note examines an apparently unpublished manuscript on special relativity written by Conrad Habicht in 1914 and made available online by the ETH-Bibliothek Zürich in December 2024. To the best of my knowledge, no study of its content has yet been published. Habicht was one of Einstein's closest companions during the Bern years. Between February 1902 and mid-1904 he shared with Einstein many occasions for discussion and companionship in Bern. After leaving the city, he remained in close contact with Einstein through visits, reciprocal stays, and a substantial correspondence extending from the years immediately following 1905 to the eve of the First World War.
The manuscript offers a clear and pedagogical presentation of special relativity. Its historical interest lies in the structure of the exposition and in the memory of the theory that the text preserves. Habicht does not present special relativity as an isolated creation beginning from Einstein's 1905 paper alone. He devotes considerable space to the pre-Einsteinian problem situation: the classical principle of relativity, the ether, Fizeau's experiment, Michelson--Morley, Lorentz's theory, the contraction hypothesis, local time, and the privileged system of the stationary ether. Lorentz is treated as the central figure who brought the electrodynamics of moving bodies to its most acute form before Einstein's intervention.
This note provides a qualitative description of the manuscript, with particular attention to its structure, its treatment of the relation between classical mechanics and electrodynamics, and the respective roles assigned to Lorentz, Michelson--Morley, Einstein, and Minkowski.

 

[robphy]

Some interesting interviews (AIP Oral History Interviews (OHI)) of some relativity professors:

Malament, David on 2026 February 11 and 12.
https://repository.aip.org/node/151302

Ashtekar, Abhay on 2021 February 3.
https://repository.aip.org/node/129577

Wald, Robert M. on 2020 October 7.
https://repository.aip.org/node/129472

 

[sbrothy]

Some interesting interviews (AIP Oral History Interviews (OHI)) of some relativity professors:

Malament, David on 2026 February 11 and 12.
https://repository.aip.org/node/151302

Ashtekar, Abhay on 2021 February 3.
https://repository.aip.org/node/129577

Wald, Robert M. on 2020 October 7.
https://repository.aip.org/node/129472

Looks like some heavy (though interesting!) reading... gotta take a little while before I can respond with any authority.... Thx!

 

[sbrothy]

arXiv: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph); Classical Physics (physics.class-ph); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc):

I know you're perfectly able to find these papers yourself. I've just noticed that there's been some discussions about decoherence on the forum. The rest just seemed like something I myself will find interesting later if I run out of reading material (not likely ).


Decoherence without the state: A causal quantum Darwinist approach

The consistent histories formalism can be used to describe histories comprised of events across many systems, times, and places, plausibly rich enough to describe our experiences of the classical world; however, many consistent history sets are nonclassical and thus not obviously relevant to our experiences. Meanwhile, the program of environmentally induced decoherence identifies dynamically privileged classical degrees of freedom, but provides no general account of when or how many such degrees of freedom consistently combine to form histories. This work shows that the strengths of these two approaches can be combined by adopting a dynamics-first perspective on decoherence. Inspired by quantum causal models and quantum Darwinism, we define the process of decoherence in terms of the causal influences through unitary dynamics required for the proliferation of information about observables. We characterise decoherence as a property of the unitary dynamics, without presupposing the existence of any quantum state. Instead, we show that the state emerges from dual decoherence, related to decoherence by time-reversal of the unitary dynamics. Indeed, for any set of systems in an arbitrary unitary circuit, decoherence and its dual single out a privileged consistent history set -- and we demonstrate through examples that states emerge from dual decoherence while outcomes emerge from decoherence. Hence the idea that quantum states emerge from the process of decoherence turns out to be the key missing ingredient for unifying environmentally induced decoherence and consistent histories. Taking this idea ontologically seriously leads to a recently proposed causal interpretation of quantum theory or a dynamics-first version of the Everett interpretation. The causal approach also sheds light on the suppression of off-diagonal terms, time asymmetry, and robustness of the pointer basis.

Classical Limit: Dissipation of Spekkens' Generalised Contextuality under Decoherence

Contextuality is considered as one of the most distinctive features of nonclassical systems. Here, we show that a Spekkens contextual system (which previous work has shown is a necessary condition for nonclassicality) formed of an odd-dimensional stabiliser system plus a magic state becomes noncontextual (a sufficient condition for classicality) under the action of a depolarising channel after a certain decoherence threshold. We show also that some quasiprobability representations are more effective than others in witnessing this transition from contextuality to noncontextuality. Given previous work has shown that magic states and Spekkens contextuality are both necessary for universal quantum computation, this result helps us understand the relationship between decoherence, Spekkens' generalised contextuality, and quantum advantage.

Big Mysteries Survey: Physicists' Views on Cosmology, Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Gravity

We present results from the Big Mysteries Survey, a large-scale survey conducted through the American Physical Society's Physics Magazine on foundational and controversial topics in contemporary physics. The survey provides a snapshot of physicists' views on issues in cosmology, black-hole physics, quantum mechanics, quantum gravity, and anthropic coincidences. A central finding is that several positions often described publicly as field-wide ``consensus'' views are, in practice, supported by much narrower majorities or by pluralities rather than majorities.

Causality and Scientific Inquiry: Lessons from Space Physics and Medical Sciences

Over the past two decades, the rapid surge in data-intensive computational techniques for statistical modeling may have had the effect of diminishing the use of applied mathematics in causal scientific inquiry. In this paper, co-authored by an astrophysicist, a mathematician, and philosophers, we assess the hazards of neglecting the branch of mathematics that constructs models to address causal questions in favor of statistical modeling alone. Causality is relevant in all branches of science and is often elucidated through applied mathematics. Here, we illuminate the idea with examples drawn from space physics and medical sciences. We examine causal questions to demonstrate how applied mathematical and statistical methods may differentiate between two fundamental facets of causality, i.e., mechanistic and difference-making. Understanding such foundational differences in causality may, in some cases, help explain discrepant or erroneous research results. Most importantly, understanding the relationship between causality and analytical approaches used in science has the potential to strengthen the rigor and reliability of scientific inquiry through optimal selection of mathematical and/or statistical methods.

On the Anticipation of Lunar Travel in the Early 20th Century: A Pedagogical Exercise

This article examines, from historical and pedagogical perspectives, Alphonse Berget's anticipation of Earth-Moon travel in Le Ciel (Larousse, 1923), decades before the beginning of the space age. The discussion is triggered by Le Ciel, a richly illustrated French popular science work, which has a devoted chapter examining lunar and interplanetary travel within a Newtonian framework. Although Berget's treatment was not developed in isolation and reflects a broader early 20th century context that included pioneers such as French aero-engineer Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the book provides a striking pedagogical synthesis of elementary celestial mechanics and scientific popularization. Unlike earlier fictional treatments such as Jules Verne's De la Terre a la Lune, Berget approached space travel using physical reasoning grounded in Newtonian gravitation. Using qualitative and semi-quantitative arguments based on the inverse-square law, he identified the principal phases of an Earth-Moon trajectory: escape from Earth, inertial translunar motion, transition through competing Earth-Moon gravitational fields, and final lunar capture and deceleration. His estimated Earth-Moon travel time of approximately 49 hours is of the same order of magnitude as Apollo mission transit times (approx. 72 h). We compare these early ideas with modern elementary concepts of astrodynamics, including restricted three-body trajectories, Lagrange-point dynamics, and distant retrograde orbits associated with the Artemis program. We also examine Berget's discussion of interplanetary travel, lunar landscapes, and human factors associated with prolonged voyages, including confinement, food supply, and travel duration. The analysis highlights the pedagogical value of historically grounded scientific reasoning underpinning spaceflight mechanics.