Submit your interview questions for Dr. James Gates

[Greg Bernhardt]

Met James Gates at the WAPT meeting tonight. He said he'd be interested in doing an Insight Interview. Let's get some good questions rolling!

Here are some links if you are not familiar with his history and work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_James_Gates
https://umdphysics.umd.edu/people/faculty/current/item/167-gatess.html

 

[fresh_42]

Not sure, whether my question to someone who does research in these fields would already been regarded as offensive, but it really bothers me. I hope you will operate as a censor and hopefully phrase it better than I can as a non native speaker.

Given the fact, that physical models are commonly regarded as beautiful and in a sense minimal, how can we explain or classify ever expanding parameters: $\mathbb{Z}_2$ grading, increasing gauge groups, increasing dimensions? Does it possibly mean we haven't found the right language yet, or is real world description actually more complicated than the models we'd prefer?

 

[robphy]

It seems that there is more anti-science in the media, which probably trickles down to our students.
How can we better train our students to be more resistive to this?

 

[atyy]

Where should experimental particle physics go?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Besides his theoretical work, Dr. James Gates is also very interested in science policy and pedagogy questions.

 

[fresh_42]

Besides his theoretical work, Dr. James Gates is also very interested in science policy and pedagogy questions.

That's an interesting, however, huge field. Actually two. But one aspect of natural sciences (or mathematics) concerns me the most:

The gap between school education and what is actually needed, to study, say physics, appears to me to be an especially big one. Or to say it pithy: We've learned to calculate at school. And I know a mathematician who has been proud in saying: I cannot calculate.

Will there be ever any efforts to narrow this gap down, or will those sciences stay the ivory tower many people find them to be? (And I'm not talking about the front row of research. I mean the simple capacity to read an introductory textbook or Pythagoras not being called "higher math".)

 

[Bystander]

very interested in science policy

Having grown up with the "Vannevar Bush/FDR" model for "science policy," can I look for/expect changes for the better or worse moving into mid-21st century?

 

[Drakkith]

Besides his theoretical work, Dr. James Gates is also very interested in science policy and pedagogy questions.

Hope this is an okay question:

The spread of pseudoscience and misinformation in the form of uninformed, and often combative, anti-science public officials is troubling. What are your thoughts on how to deal with this? Can you suggest any methods for dealing with these people and their followers?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks all, looking for a few more!

 

[kodama]

Thanks all, looking for a few more!

What are your views on Loop quantum gravity, and should top Universities like Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford sponsor a loop quantum gravity research group and faculty like Penn state?

 

[Chronos]

What is your view on the absence to date of encouraging LHC results for supersymmetry? Should we reassess any fundamental assumptions and how might this impact future experiments?

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I hope in the future Jim Gates could find time to participate in the forums or in stackexchange;

If I would want to start reading his papers concerning error correcting codes theory and superstring theory, where should I start from?

I assume I need knowledge of error correcting codes (I started a few months ago reading Macwilliams' book), obviously I need knoweldge of Supserstring theory, but what part of it? (I mean there's quite a huge topics in it).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Questions will be sent tomorrow. Last change to get a question answered by a master!

 

[houlahound]

2. As someone working on the frontiers does it impact on you knowing you most likely will never have the most burning questions you have asked answered in your time. How do you stay motivated?

2. Should schools be trying to teach every kid physics or should they instead divert mad resources into the few that might have the potential to contribute.

Mods please delete if not to standard.

 

[JorisL]

Regarding pedagogy;

Do you feel like it is possible to instill a sense of skepticism towards incredible claims for most students? (the most obvious examples are of course so-called free energy devices based on perpetual motion, recently hot is "Tesla's free electricity")

The frontier of physics;

Are there any recent publications got you particularly excited? This can be anything you read

 

[bhobba]

It seems that there is more anti-science in the media, which probably trickles down to our students.
How can we better train our students to be more resistive to this?

I was hooked into math when I was young and into electronics. I read these books om how electronic things work. Then it came to this chapter on feedback. I was really scratching my head. The answer made no sense at all - to me anyway. Then I did something that changed my life. I actually wrote out the equations - it was a simple simultaneous equation. Solved it - vola - it all made sense. I then realized the explanatory power of math was phenomenal and was hooked ever since. At rock bottom the world is mathematical. We learn a few esoteric things like simultaneous equations (or in later year Lagrangian Theory) and see the wonders using it can reveal.

Thanks
Bill

 

[houlahound]

Yeah what did it for me was differential equations modelling predator prey relationships. Tweaking the constants solved so many problem including runaway growth followed by extinction.

Then I learned to analyse critical points without solving the equations, mind blown.

 

[Demystifier]

Would you still recommend a young theoretical physicist to direct his career into a research of supersymmetry, and why?

 

[Stella.Physics]

Where do you get your inspiration from and what keeps you motivated to keep on studying/researching Physics?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Z2Z2\mathbb{Z}_2 grading

How do I translate this into plain text?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The gap between school education and what is actually needed, to study, say physics, appears to me to be an especially big one. Or to say it pithy: We've learned to calculate at school. And I know a mathematician who has been proud in saying: I cannot calculate.

Will there be ever any efforts to narrow this gap down, or will those sciences stay the ivory tower many people find them to be? (And I'm not talking about the front row of research. I mean the simple capacity to read an introductory textbook or Pythagoras not being called "higher math".)

Can you refine/condense this question? :)

 

[fresh_42]

How do I translate this into plain text?

Grading will do. $\mathbb{Z}_2$-grading and "super" is the same, at least as far as I meant it in the context.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Grading will do. $\mathbb{Z}_2$-grading and "super" is the same, at least as far as I meant it in the context.

So I can say super grading? My point is that I can't use latex typesetting in email :)

 

[fresh_42]

Can you refine/condense this question? :)

People think Pythagoras is higher math and SR higher physics. Shouldn't we adjust our curricula at school to close in the gap between them and the needs of universities?

 

[fresh_42]

So I can say super grading? My point is that I can't use latex typesetting in email :)

No, that would be doubled. You can say "Super Lie algebras" or simply "graded Lie algebras".

 

[mfb]

Just write "Z_2 grading"?

 

[robphy]

How do I translate this into plain text?

Z2 or Z_2 would be good enough.