Thursday, February 18, 2010

Physics Meets Philosophy

French Philosopher Voltaire and scientist and mathematician Èmilie du Châtelet were lovers in Voltaire's later days. A new play is now being performed in Boston about their relationship including her pregnancy, with their ghosts traveling to 21st century USA, and I wrote about it at my new blog: here.

Left to right: Voltaire, his lover Èmilie du Châtelet, and her other lover, Saint-Lambert. Seems like they're having a bit of a disagreement. You think? Why is it that women love it so much when men fight over their affections? And oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.

10 comments:

Jérôme Chauvet said...

What's happening? Are you definitely moving on to another blog? Or are ya just building a blog-maze of yours?

Steven, don't go, please.

Steven Colyer said...

Why am I not surprised a Frenchman was the first to respond to an article about a woman with the absolutely beautiful name of Èmilie du Châtelet ? ... who was also a Mathematical Physicist!

God, your language is so beautiful to the ears. I often wonder if Humanity is deserving of the sound of your language. Se la vie.

I have many personalities, Jérôme, as does everyone. You do not present yourself the same way to your mother as your lover, do you?.

Bananafish, a webpage in search of a better name, is my primary blog. Blinded by the Light will reflect my "fun" side. This blog will reflect my serious side.

And I am stone cold nuts about getting serious. MathPhys looks like a damned leaderless mess of whining accusations, some of them quite warranted, and I intend to do something about it, the Creator willing, assuming there is one..

Jérôme Chauvet said...

I guess the picture you've just removed off of the post was just a trap!

Anyway, I can't believe Bananafish blog is going to get that serious (understand "boring"). You're blog is fun because it talks about serious science with humor, though being still not written in crackpottic style.

What if you split your business into serious + funny blog? Do I have to choose between Steven's boring side, and Steven's crazy side?

Sorry, Steven, that's misunderstanding, mistrusting, misleading, mis-"whatever" [shove in the word you like the most]

You may say "C'est la vie", but I definitely hate the idea of such a shameful split.

Fine if you like my language. I do like yours either.

Emilie de Châtelet is aristocratic, those girls do not lay with whoever comes around, and for whatever reason. Do not dream of them so strong, as they may make a fool out of yourself.

Ah Paaaaaris, sera toujours Paaaris.

Best,

Jérôme Chauvet said...

Sorry, the picture was in fact a Google ad :)

Jérôme Chauvet said...

MathPhys looks like a damned leaderless mess of whining accusations

You're soooo RIGHT!

But what the heck happened to physicists?

Steven Colyer said...

But what the heck happened to physicists?

Where do you want me to start? In a nutshell ...

When Ed Witten left Particle Physics for string theory, the lemmings followed him and turned into Mathematicians.

Jérôme Chauvet said...

But why this constant controversy?

As I repeated it lately on the Backreaction blog, a same phenomenon may have more than one explanation, so why should one choose as long as nobody has THE right one yet in hands?

I fear the absence of phenomenology-aimed theories makes physicists think they must attack or laud ideas as theories may not be selected by experimental tests. Am I wrong saying so?

By the way, I saw the post you are preparing about the acurate measurement of the redshift phenomenon by means of some quantum system. The news is charted in the top 3 of best news on Nature website. It seems like it's an important discovery, isn't it?

Jérôme Chauvet said...

The picture is back!

I knew there was one the first time I came!

Best,

Steven Colyer said...

Actually no, that was from my other blog, Blinded by the Light. I just imported it here. I also added a caption to the picture above.

I'm sorry if this blog is about to get "boring", but there comes a time when "fun and games" must take a breather (other than during sleep) and we must get serious about what to do with our lives.

Nobody pays anyone for having fun, unless you're a professional comedian, have rich but irresponsible parents, or live in a Socialist country. :-)

Jérôme Chauvet said...

I'm sorry if this blog is about to get "boring",

Was just kidding you :)

Best,