Scientific American special physics edition

I'm not usually a Scientific American reader. New Scientist is my pop science journal of choice, and I usually only buy one if it's got quantum theory or relativity on the cover. But yesterday my mother, of all people, was Googling my name, of all things, and found out that a month ago I had an answer published in New Scientist's The Last Word. I wrote in to answer a question way back in October and then forgot all about it.

As it's worth 25 pounds to be published in The Last Word, I was naturally excited to discover that my answer made it in; however you only get money if your letter is in the print edition, and I was worried the online edition may be different. I had to verify. My first stop in finding a copy of the print edition was a Wellington specialty magazine shop named Magnetix. Their back issues of New Scientist didn't extend to December 17, but while looking among the science magazines I got distracted by this special edition of Scientific American, and next thing I had bought it.

There are 88 pages of solid physics gold. I'm only up to page 13, but I'm going to read the whole thing if it kills me. It's been way too long since I read physics seriously. Old fascinations truly die hard, by the looks of it. Maybe when I'm a rich and [relatively] famous economist, I will go back to university to study physics. In the meantime, magazines of this sort keep me in touch.

It's about time I read something from the scientific-rational side of things, too. I'm ploughing through a book on creationist science and not quite sure what to make of it. Some of the intellectual contortions these creationists go through to justify their worldview are truly incredible. I've got a lot of respect for them in that. Who else would go to such remarkable effort to keep their faith?

But that's for another blog entry - I should have the book finished within a week if I focus... just for now, back to particle physics.