Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Unsolved Physics Problems

 

I would add at least a couple more. 

There are false problems that ask "why doesn't the universe act like I think (for no good reason) that it should?" This includes the hierarchy problem, the strong CP problem, the baryon asymmetry of the universe, and all research invoking the concept of "naturalness."

And, there are contradictory data problems, where one asks why multiple measurements of the same thing (in your current theory) are producing irreconcilable results. These have included the proton radius puzzle, the data based calculation of muon g-2, the measurement of the mean lifetime of unbound neutrons, the reanalysis of CDF data to determine the W boson mass that produced an anomalous result, and the Hubble tension. Usually, in these cases, the answer is that somebody screwed up in one or both of the experiments (at a minimum by overstating the uncertainty in the result), or the theoretical analysis involved, but sometimes, the theory that said the measurements should be the same was wrong.

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Fields Without Papers

High energy biology is the subject of several science fiction treatments that I can recall. 

I'm somewhat surprised by the large number of astro-theology papers, but my own cross-check revealed 1,390 astro-theology hits on Google Scholar. 

The absence of "high-energy theology" hits is also a surprise given that the Big Bang theory was proposed by a Vatican physicist.


From here.

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Disciplinary Prejudices

Your priors on the likelihood an uncertain event depend upon where you are coming from.


Mouseover: 

Premed: "Does this count for a physics credit? Can we shorten the string so I can get it done faster? And can we do one where it hits me in the face? I gotta do a thing for first aid training right after?"

From here

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

P-Hacking In A Nutshell


From here.

In all seriousness, beware of taking any one statistical test too seriously. All of them have vulnerabilities that can make them misleading.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Fissile Rasberries

Physics nerd humor. 


From here (alt-text available at the link).