Online advanced physics and cosmology courses

[Tommolo]

Hi! I'm new here! Let me introduce myself!
I am Thomas and I have always been interested in science, cosmology and physics.
Anyway, I have an equally strong passion for arts and humanities, and after all I decided to form myself as a journalist, which is my daily job.

After years and years, I decided to take studies again in physics and astronomy, and I decided to try to understand better how nature works.
I'm just way too curious! Right now I'm doing some courses at the local Astrophysical Institute at Brera Observatory in Milan, where they do a LOT of outreach activities. I am pondering to take universitary studies too...who knows?

Plus, I live in Tenerife, very close to IAC, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, which is an excellence for Europe.

I would like to know if anyone knows courses designed to journalists who wants to get a real knowledge of physics, matematics and cosmology.
Is there something like online or offline?
Thanks!

Another question: I entered here not knowing the rules and I kinda "broked" them publishing the usual old style crackpot theory ahaha! Warning immediately gained, I'm a champion ("Unacceptable reference or topics")! I totally misunderstood the place. Is there a place here where one can feel free to share "wild math thoughts"? I want to be very, very respectful, but I don't know if a place like this exists here...otherwise, no problems! :)
Thanks so much and have a wonderful day! :)
Thomas

 

[berkeman]

Another question: I entered here not knowing the rules and I kinda "broked" them publishing the usual old style crackpot theory ahaha! Warning immediately gained, I'm a champion ("Unacceptable reference or topics")! I totally misunderstood the place. Is there a place here where one can feel free to share "wild math thoughts"? I want to be very, very respectful, but I don't know if a place like this exists here...otherwise, no problems! :)
Thanks so much and have a wonderful day! :)

I will send you some info that I have collected over the years on discussion forums that may allow personal speculation. I will send you a Personal Message (PM) in a couple minutes.

 

[Tommolo]

Thank you so much! :)

 

[PeroK]

I would like to know if anyone knows courses designed to journalists who wants to get a real knowledge of physics, matematics and cosmology.
Is there something like online or offline?
Thanks!

Why would a jounalist learn physics and maths any different from anyone else? You can learn practically anything online these days. Although, textbooks are still useful.

 

[Tommolo]

Yes, but I would like to read a technical article and to understand it so to convey this information (or what's most relevant in it) to a general, non technical public. I saw that for instance there are courses for scientists in order to acquire a proper divulgative approach (what in Europe is called "outreach" or "life-long learning") but there is nothing the other way round: an "inreach", so to speak. This would help us also with the interviewing skills...
Thanks for asking! :)

 

[PeroK]

Yes, but I would like to read a technical article and to understand it so to convey this information (or what's most relevant in it) to a general, non technical public. I saw that for instance there are courses for scientists in order to acquire a proper divulgative approach (what in Europe is called "outreach" or "life-long learning") but there is nothing the other way round: an "inreach", so to speak. This would help us also with the interviewing skills...
Thanks for asking! :)

There's no "royal road" to mathematics, and that applies to journalists too!

 

[Vanadium 50]

So what do we know?

1. You're a journalist
2. You haven't studied what you call "real physics"
3. You can't follow technical papers
4. Yet you have your own ideas about physics that somehow the professionals missed.

Conclusion: You write for Vox!

 

[Vanadium 50]

More seriously, what is keeping you from going down the same path that everyone else does? Start with the foundational classes, online I suppose, and work your way through them, and then the next ones and the next ones and so on?

 

[CrysPhys]

Yes, but I would like to read a technical article and to understand it so to convey this information (or what's most relevant in it) to a general, non technical public. I saw that for instance there are courses for scientists in order to acquire a proper divulgative approach (what in Europe is called "outreach" or "life-long learning") but there is nothing the other way round: an "inreach", so to speak. This would help us also with the interviewing skills...
Thanks for asking! :)

We are talking about a highly asymmetric situation. It is far easier for a person trained in physics to learn to write articles for a non-technical audience than for a trained journalist to learn physics. That's why, e.g., the American Physical Society (APS) offers programs for physicists to gain experience in scientific journalism (see, e.g., https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201601/media.cfm).

I don't know how the education system is structured in your country, but in the US, most students are required to take a full complement of humanities courses (typically involving much writing) through high school and in many universities as well, regardless of major. So a typical physics major will be better grounded in writing than a typical journalism major will be grounded in physics. Of course, to be successful in communicating with non-technical audiences, a physicist has to want to do so, and not all physicists do.

As usual, there are outliers. I know someone who is not a physicist and who has a successful career writing about topics in physics and other sciences. But she has a strong network of physicists and other scientists she can rely on (and she's so dedicated to her craft that she even married a physicist ).

 

[phinds]

Is there a place here where one can feel free to share "wild math thoughts"?

Even if you find such a place, and I'm sure they exist, what on Earth do you think you will gain from it? You'll be in with a bunch of crackpots and the blind leading the blind and getting nowhere in terms of actual learning.

 

[Tommolo]

Yes, that's the right point! I mean...I wasn't looking exactly for a group of crackpots, just a group where I can freely discuss about philosophy of science and interpretation of the results. Hopefully in this world there are degrees and nuances, and luckily I can read some technical work, and I've been lucky to have a general preparation on physics and math until a certain acceptable level and yet I want to understand more, and yet I want to know more. I am far from saying that I can correct or have a deep insight into a topic that generations of physicists have oversighted, that would be crazy. Thanks for advicing me! :)

 

[Tommolo]

More seriously, what is keeping you from going down the same path that everyone else does? Start with the foundational classes, online I suppose, and work your way through them, and then the next ones and the next ones and so on?

Yes, any advice about online classes would be much appreciated! :) I don't want a thing "for journalist", I want to see if there is an "asymptotically universitary online course", so to speak! :)

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would start with the standard 1st year college curriculum - 1st year physics and calculus.

Actually, I'd start with the entire list of courses a physics major takes and work out how long this will take at a reasonable rate. There are more than a few people here who wanted a 4-year degree equivalent in a few months, and they can get discouraged when that doesn't happen.