Where do you get your physics news and publications?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around finding reliable sources for physics news and publications. Participants share their current resources and seek recommendations for websites that curate interesting physics and mathematics publications, as well as general pop-science content.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants mention regularly checking websites like PF, physicsworld.com, Scientific American, and NSF for physics news.
  • One participant suggests the Google Groups forum sci.physics, highlighting posts by Sam Wormley as a source for interesting science news, while cautioning about the quality of other contributions.
  • Another participant expresses skepticism about the sci.physics group, noting its unmoderated nature and the presence of low-quality articles.
  • Some participants recommend websites such as ScienceDaily, Phys.org, and Science News for general science news.
  • There are mentions of receiving emails from technical societies and publishers like Elsevier, which may provide insights into recent publications.
  • One participant questions the existence of a website that sorts through publications to highlight the most interesting physics and math articles, suggesting that such a service may not exist.
  • Concerns are raised about the complexity of certain websites, such as Phys.org, and their usability for undergraduate students.
  • Discussion includes the utility of ScienceDirect for accessing journals and the types of publications it offers, including books and encyclopedic sets.
  • Participants express a desire for both news sources and journal article recommendations, particularly for specific fields like biological physics.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the need for better sources of physics news and publications, but there is no consensus on specific websites or services that effectively meet this need. Multiple competing views on the quality and utility of various sources remain unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about the effectiveness of certain websites for finding relevant journal articles, and there are limitations regarding the clarity of how some platforms operate, particularly in terms of their content curation.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for students and professionals in physics and related fields seeking to enhance their knowledge of available resources for news and publications in science.

JonDrew
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My knowledge of good physics news websites is lacking. As of now, I regularly check PF, physicsworld.com, scientific american and NSF but that is it.

What I am looking for is a website which basically sorts through publications for me and shows the most interesting physics/math publications as of late or just other good general pop-science websites.

I just figure there has to be some better websites than the ones I check regularly, thanks in advance.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
JonDrew said:
My knowledge of good physics news websites is lacking. As of now, I regularly check PF, physicsworld.com, scientific american and NSF but that is it.

What I am looking for is a website which basically sorts through publications for me and shows the most interesting physics/math publications as of late or just other good general pop-science websites.

I just figure there has to be some better websites than the ones I check regularly, thanks in advance.

You could go to
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sci.physics

and look for posts by Sam Wormley. He sorts though the science news looking for interesting stuff. Be warned though that everyone else in the group is the scum of the Earth and don't read their sludge.
 
I usually get it from crackpots. But they are outrageous and wrong.

Otherwise I check sciencedaily
 
ImaLooser said:
You could go to
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sci.physics

and look for posts by Sam Wormley. He sorts though the science news looking for interesting stuff. Be warned though that everyone else in the group is the scum of the Earth and don't read their sludge.

I don't understand how the sci.physics group works it seems like there are a lot of bad articles and suggestions there, as you implied.

I am more looking for a website more geared toward recent physics publications, I still haven't found anything like that.
 
JonDrew said:
I don't understand how the sci.physics group works

It is completely unmoderated. As with any unmoderated Usenet newsgroup, there is no central control point. Google Groups is basically just one of many servers that give people access to Usenet.
 
JonDrew said:
My knowledge of good physics news websites is lacking. As of now, I regularly check PF, physicsworld.com, scientific american and NSF but that is it.

What I am looking for is a website which basically sorts through publications for me and shows the most interesting physics/math publications as of late or just other good general pop-science websites.

I just figure there has to be some better websites than the ones I check regularly, thanks in advance.
I get regular emails from technical societies and various news organizations with industry affiliations. I also get emails from the publishers of scientific journals, e.g., Elsevier, Knovel, . . . . I imagine that APS, AIP, and IoP provide such services.

I also have contacts at the DOE labs.
 
Astronuc said:
I get regular emails from technical societies and various news organizations with industry affiliations. I also get emails from the publishers of scientific journals, e.g., Elsevier, Knovel, . . . . I imagine that APS, AIP, and IoP provide such services.

I also have contacts at the DOE labs.
I'm assuming he's not working in the industry, which is why he doesn't know where to find articles.
 
  • #10
Evo said:
I'm assuming he's not working in the industry, which is why he doesn't know where to find articles.
I'm not aware of a "website which basically sorts through publications for [him] and shows the most interesting physics/math publications as of late". I doubt there is a service/website that one can pop into and simply click on a subject of interest and have the website pop-up with key journals or journal articles.

"Just other good general pop-science websites" is a rather different category, and ScienceDaily probably fits there.

If one is serious about math/physics, then one can visit websites of APS, AIP, AMS, etc. I would imagine one has to be a member to get key benefits.

One possibility is to sign up with Elsevier's http://www.sciencedirect.com/, and if one browses certain articles/journals, they eventually make recommendations that might be of interest.

There is also ChemWeb and MatWeb and a few other sites. I signed up on one site and I received rather interesting news items related to research opportunities, as well as interesting developments.

There is also various national and international databases that one can search using keywords, e.g., http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/
 
  • #11
Evo said:

I had never given this website a faire shot actually, perhaps because its homepage appears very clustered and complex. Never the less, I've been looking through it over the past day or two and some of the articles I've read have corresponded very nicely with the material I am learning in a lot of my classes (I am an undergraduate). Thank you very much, so far I really like this website because it seems to strike a nice balance between equations and entertainment.

Bobbywhy said:
I use: http://www.sciencenews.org/

Cheers, Bobbywhy

This website is very nice too, I just read this really interesting article from it.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348748/description/No_vacancy_around_stars

Astronuc said:
If one is serious about math/physics, then one can visit websites of APS, AIP, AMS, etc. I would imagine one has to be a member to get key benefits.

One possibility is to sign up with Elsevier's http://www.sciencedirect.com/, and if one browses certain articles/journals, they eventually make recommendations that might be of interest.

There is also ChemWeb and MatWeb and a few other sites. I signed up on one site and I received rather interesting news items related to research opportunities, as well as interesting developments.

There is also various national and international databases that one can search using keywords, e.g., http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/

I really like http://www.sciencedirect.com/, but do you know what publishers it draws from? I don't quite understand where or how it gets its journals. Plus, it shows book publications and I don't understand why. Is this useful for professors or researchers in those given fields maybe?

I am not sure that I would use matweb for a news source but it seems super useful for looking up material properties and such, which is awesome.
 
Last edited:
  • #12
JonDrew said:
I really like http://www.sciencedirect.com/, but do you know what publishers it draws from? I don't quite understand where or how it gets its journals. Plus, it shows book publications and I don't understand why. Is this useful for professors or researchers in those given fields maybe?
ScienceDirect is a service of the publisher, Elsevier. Those are the journals they publish. I know many authors who publish in several journals, and a former professor of mine is chief editor of one of the journals. Many academics and researchers from around the world publish in those journals and use them. I use quite a lot of articles in my work.

Elsevier also publishes scientific and technical books, and they have some encyclopedic sets devoted to specific areas. Usually, chapters in those books are written by recognized experts in the field.

I am not sure that I would use matweb for a news source but it seems super useful for looking up material properties and such, which is awesome.
Are you looking for news, or scientific journal articles?
 
  • #13
Astronuc said:
Are you looking for news, or scientific journal articles?

I am looking for both journal sources and news sources.

I seemed to be set with recommendations for science news websites although suggestions are still welcome.

Now I'd really like recommendations to find important journal articles pertaining to the fields I am interested in for graduate study e.g. biological physics, any sort of theoretical physics i guess, and some applied/theoretical math. So, just to clarify, I seemed to have gotten enough pop-science recommendations and now could really use some more hard-science websites to get journals from pertaining to the fields I listed above.
 

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