Cercignani (2006), Carlo, Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms, Oxford University Press, USA 2006 'Cercignani provides a stimulating biography of a great scientist. Boltzmann's greatness is difficult to state, but the fact that the author is still actively engaged in research into some of the finer, as yet unresolved issues provoked by Boltzmann's work is a measure of just how far ahead of his time Boltzmann was. It is also tragic to read of Boltzmann's persecution by his contemporaries, the energeticists, who regarded atoms as a convenient hypothesis, but not as having a definite existence. Boltzmann felt that atoms were real and this motivated much of his research. How Boltzmann would have laughed if he could have seen present-day scanning tunnelling microscopy images, which resolve the atomic structure at surfaces! If only all scientists would learn from Boltzmann's life story that it is bad for science to persecute someone whose views you do not share but cannot disprove. One surprising fact I learned from this book was how research into thermodynamics and statistical mechanics led to the beginnings of quantum theory (such as Planck's distribution law, and Einstein's theory of specific heat). Lecture notes by Boltzmann also seem to have influenced Einstein's construction of special relativity. Cercignani's familiarity with Boltzmann's work at the research level will probably set this above other biographies of Boltzmann for a very long time to come.' Dr David J Bottomley  
Amazon   back

Everett III (1973), Hugh, and Bryce S Dewitt, Neill Graham (editors), The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 1973 Jacket: 'A novel interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed in brief form by Hugh Everett in 1957, forms the nucleus around which this book has developed. The volume contains Dr Everett's short paper from 1957, "'Relative State' formulation of quantum mechanics" and a far longer exposition of his interpretation entitled "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function" never before published. In addition other papers by Wheeler, DeWitt, Graham, Cooper and van Vechten provide further discussion of the same theme. Together they constitute virtually the entire world output of scholarly commentary on the Everett interpretation.' 
Amazon   back

Nielsen (2016), Michael A., and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2016 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002. 
Amazon   back

Quigg (2013), Chris, Gauge Theories of the Strong, Weak, and Electromagnetic Interactions: Second Edition, Princeton UP 2013 ' This completely revised and updated graduate-level textbook is an ideal introduction to gauge theories and their applications to high-energy particle physics, and takes an in-depth look at two new laws of nature--quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theory. From quantum electrodynamics through unified theories of the interactions among leptons and quarks, Chris Quigg examines the logic and structure behind gauge theories and the experimental underpinnings of today's theories. Quigg emphasizes how we know what we know, and in the era of the Large Hadron Collider, his insightful survey of the standard model and the next great questions for particle physics makes for compelling reading. The brand-new edition shows how the electroweak theory developed in conversation with experiment. Featuring a wide-ranging treatment of electroweak symmetry breaking, the physics of the Higgs boson, and the importance of the 1-TeV scale, the book moves beyond established knowledge and investigates the path toward unified theories of strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions. 
Amazon   back

Wicksteed (1986), P H, and F M Cornford, (translators), Aristotle, Physics books I-IV, Harvard University Press, William Heinemann 1986 ' Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BC, was the son of a physician. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367–347); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil in Asia Minor. After some time at Mitylene, in 343–342 he was appointed by King Philip of Macedon to be tutor of his teen-aged son Alexander. After Philip’s death in 336, Aristotle became head of his own school (of “Peripatetics”), the Lyceum at Athens. Because of anti-Macedonian feeling there after Alexander’s death in 323, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322.' 
Amazon   back

Albert Einstein (1933), Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933: On the Method of Theoretical Physics , ' It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. back

Bill Collins (2026_09_10), Gondwana really was a supercontinent. And it helped kick‑start life on Earth , 'Some 550 million years ago, the Earth looked very different to what it does today. The Southern Hemisphere was dominated by an enormous, single continent known as Gondwana.
This continent was first recognised by Austrian geologist Eduard Seuss in 1885 based on the presence of a unique plant fossil that was first discovered in the Gondwana Province of India. The fossils were then found in Australia, Africa, Antarctica and South America, demonstrating these land masses were once connected.
But whether Gondwana was an actual “supercontinent” has been a subject of intense scientific debate in recent years.
A new paper I coauthored, published today in Science Advances, helps settle the debate. Our team found a previously hidden part of the Gondwanan landmass that’s now buried under mountains, which shows it was much bigger than previously thought.[. . . ]
The initial measurement of Gondwana was based on five core continental fragments: India, South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. Subsequent measurements included landmasses extending from the Appalachian mountains in the United States, through southern Europe, to Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, then connecting to India.
Even so, the additional landmass was insufficient to increase the status of Gondwana. [. . .] To give an example, even though some granites formed in the Himalayas only 20 million years ago, others formed at 50 million years. Still others formed at 120 million years ago. But our analysis showed that all the Himalayan granites were derived from a common continental block.
That block formed approximately 700–550 million years ago and was part of Gondwana.
We have traced the original Gondwanan fragments from India and southeast Asia, through most of China into Kazakhstan. Previously, much of this region was thought to be ancient ocean floor containing volcanic island chains like in the Pacific Ocean today.
It turns out that most of this region, which is now mountainous and covered by younger rocks, was originally part of Gondwana. This finding expands Gondwana’s continental landmass to roughly 80%. In other words, it really was a supercontinent. ' back

Feynman, Leighton & Sands FLP III:04, Chapter 4: Identical Particles, 'In the last chapter we began to consider the special rules for the interference that occurs in processes with two identical particles. By identical particles we mean things like electrons which can in no way be distinguished one from another. If a process involves two particles that are identical, reversing which one arrives at a counter is an alternative which cannot be distinguished and—like all cases of alternatives which cannot be distinguished—interferes with the original, unexchanged case. The amplitude for an event is then the sum of the two interfering amplitudes; but, interestingly enough, the interference is in some cases with the same phase and, in others, with the opposite phase. [. . .]
This brings up an interesting question: Why is it that particles with half-integral spin are Fermi particles whose amplitudes add with the minus sign, whereas particles with integral spin are Bose particles whose amplitudes add with the positive sign? We apologize for the fact that we cannot give you an elementary explanation. An explanation has been worked out by Pauli from complicated arguments of quantum field theory and relativity. He has shown that the two must necessarily go together, but we have not been able to find a way of reproducing his arguments on an elementary level. It appears to be one of the few places in physics where there is a rule which can be stated very simply, but for which no one has found a simple and easy explanation. The explanation is deep down in relativistic quantum mechanics. This probably means that we do not have a complete understanding of the fundamental principle involved. For the moment, you will just have to take it as one of the rules of the world.'' back

From QED to the Higgs Mechanism: A short review, J Zinn-Justin, ' Perturbative Quantum Field Theory: General strategy The construction of a quantum field theory generally involved three steps: (1) Construction of the classical theory. (2) Quantization. (3) Renormalization. Moreover, in gauge theories, due to the necessity of gauge fixing, an addi- tional step is required, proving unitarity. This is specially complicate in the non-Abelian case, owing to the presence of spinless fermions, the Faddeev– Popov ghosts. Moreover, in presence of spontaneous symmetry breaking and in covariant gauges, the decoupling of would-be massless Goldstone bosons has to be demonstrated. Only when this program is completed, can perturbative calculations be performed. back

G 't Hooft (1971), Renormalization of Massless Yang-Mills Fields, 'The problem of renormalization of gauge fields is studied. It is observed that the use of non-gauge invariant regulator fields is not excluded provided that in the limit of high regulator mass gauge invariance can be restored by means of a finite number of counter-terms in the Lagrangian. Massless Yang-Mills fields can be treated in this manner, and appear to be renormalizable in the usual sense.
Consistency of the method is proved for diagrams with non-overlapping divergencies by means of gauge invariant regulators, which however, cannot be interpreted in terms of regulator fields. Assuming consistency the S-matrix is shown to be unitary in any order of the coupling constant. A restriction must be made: no local, parity-changing transformations must be contained in the underlying gauge group. The interactions must conserve parity.' back

G. 't Hooft, In From QED to the Higgs Mechanism: A short review, Two articles then triggered an enormous theoretical activity G. ’t Hooft, Renormalization of massless Yang–Mills fields, Nucl. Phys. B35 (1971) 173-199. G. ’t Hooft, Renormalizable Lagrangians for massive Yang–Mills, Nucl. Phys. B35 (1971) 167-188, where it is argued that some models based on non-Abelian gauge theories, both in the symmetric phase and in the case of spontaneous symmetry breaking, should be renormalizable. back

Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that establish inherent limitations of all but the most trivial axiomatic systems capable of doing arithmetic. The theorems, proven by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the philosophy of mathematics. The two results are widely, but not universally, interpreted as showing that Hilbert's program to find a complete and consistent set of axioms for all mathematics is impossible, giving a negative answer to Hilbert's second problem. The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an "effective procedure" (i.e., any sort of algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the relations of the natural numbers (arithmetic). For any such system, there will always be statements about the natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness theorem, an extension of the first, shows that such a system cannot demonstrate its own consistency.' back

Harold Grad - Wikipedia, Harold Grad - Wikipedia, the fre ncyclopdia, ' In statistical mechanics he had developed in his thesis new methods for the solution of the Boltzmann equation. He derived the Boltzmann equation from Liouville equation using BBGKY hierarchy under certain limits, known as Boltzmann–Grad limit. Harold Grad was the founder of the Magneto-fluid Dynamics Division of the Courant Institute and served as its head until shortly before his death. From 1964 to 1967 and 1974 to 1977 he was a member of the Advisory Committee for Fusion Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.' back

Heinrich Hertz (1893, 1962), Electric Waves, The reader of the present volume will be interested in comparing it with the title of Hertz's Eleventh Paper ; but I cannot refer to this paper without expressing the admiration and delight with which I see the words " rectilinear propagation," " polarisation," " reflection," " refraction," appearing in it as sub-titles.
During the fifty-six years which have passed since Faraday first offended physical mathematicians with his curved lines of force, many workers and many thinkers have helped to build up the nineteenth -century school of plenum, one ether for light, heat, electricity, magnetism ; and the German and English volumes containing Hertz's electrical papers, given to the world in the last decade of the century, will be a per manent monument of the splendid consummation now realised. KELVIN back

Higgs boson - Wikipedia, Higgs boson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a massive scalar boson that couples to (interacts with) particles whose mass arises from their interactions with the Higgs field, has zero spin, even (positive) parity, no electric charge, and no color charge.[13] It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately upon generation.'
The Higgs field is a scalar field with two neutral and two electrically charged components that form a complex doublet of the weak isospin SU(2) symmetry. Its "sombrero potential" leads it to take a nonzero value everywhere (including otherwise empty space), which breaks the weak isospin symmetry of the electroweak interaction and, via the Higgs mechanism, gives a rest mass to all massive elementary particles of the Standard Model, including the Higgs boson itself. The existence of the Higgs field became the last unverified part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and for several decades was considered "the central problem in particle physics". back

Inertial frame of reference - Wikipedia, Inertial frame of reference - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called inertial space, or Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference not undergoing any acceleration. It is a frame in which an isolated physical object—an object with zero net force acting on it—is perceived to move with a constant velocity or, equivalently, it is a frame of reference in which Newton's first law of motion holds. All inertial frames are in a state of constant, rectilinear motion (straight line motion) with respect to one another; in other words, an accelerometer moving with any of them would detect zero acceleration. It has been observed that celestial objects which are far away from other objects and which are in uniform motion with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation maintain such uniform motion.' back

Jennifer Szalai (2026_09_09), Call it Evil: This Philosopher Thinks It’s Time We Call Out Evil in Our World, ' Susan Neiman has noticed a paradox. “As the world drifts toward disaster,” she writes in her new book, “our language has become more cautious.” Yet this tentativeness has been remarkably asymmetrical. President Trump loves to use hyperbole (“nasty,” “sleazebag,” “vermin”), while establishment Democrats have, at least until recently, mostly hewed to the language of decorous risk aversion.
In “Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era,” Neiman argues that widespread misapprehensions about what evil is make people too reluctant to use the word. Despite her willfully provocative title, she categorically states: “This is not a book about Donald Trump.” An American-born moral philosopher now based in Germany, Neiman wrote an incisive history of evil in modern thought in 2002. Her new book is less a philosophical exploration than a polemical guide to the current moment. She believes that people are so attached to understanding evil in terms of individual monstrousness — the gleeful villain, the depraved sadist — that they lose sight of how evil more typically works.' back

Laplace's demon - Wikipedia,, Laplace's demon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In the history of science, Laplace's demon was a notable published articulation of causal determinism on a scientific basis by Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814. According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every particle in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics.
"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past could be present before its eyes".' back

Maria Siow (2026_09_09), Australians question US commitment to Aukus submarine deal in crowdfunded inquiry, 'Dissent voiced in an ongoing inquiry into Australia’s most ambitious nuclear submarine pact has laid bare growing uncertainty over US commitment, amid questions about the clarity of Canberra’s explanation of the Aukus deal to citizens.
Under the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, Canberra will get eight nuclear-powered submarines at an estimated cost of up to A$368 billion (US$266 billion).
Three used Virginia-class nuclear submarines will initially be bought from the US and delivered from between 2032 and 2038. Australia will also work with the UK to build the new Aukus submarines locally, with the first delivery expected in the early 2040s.
At an Aukus public inquiry in Canberra last week, one of Australia’s leading submarine experts, retired Rear Admiral Peter Briggs, called the plan “flawed and undeliverable”.
Australia scrapped an agreement for France to supply Attack-class submarines in favour of the Aukus sale in 2021. Briggs said the French deal was the better option, arguing that US shipyards, already struggling to meet the domestic demands, could not deliver the promised nuclear-powered submarines on time.[. . .]
The 12-week inquiry, which ended on Thursday, was crowdfunded as Canberra refused to hold a formal parliamentary inquiry. It was led by former ministers, parliamentarians, senior officials, public servants and retired military officers.
Demand for the inquiry showed the lack of transparency and public debate surrounding Aukus, according to Manoj Harjani, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“Uncertainty regarding the US’ commitment to Aukus, particularly since Donald Trump took office, has been a thorny issue,” he said. “This will not be the last time you hear about a review of Aukus. It is a substantial commitment in more than monetary terms and deserves the level of scrutiny it is receiving.”
Questions about US commitment to the pact stem mainly from the slow pace of production in US shipyards and American policy reviews questioning if transferring high-end military assets abroad aligns strictly with US interests.' back

Qiu-Hong Hu (2005_12_29), The nature of the electron, ' Through investigating history, evolution of the concept, and development in the theories of electrons, I am convinced that what was missing in our understanding of the electron is a structure, into which all attributes of the electron could be incorporated in a self-consistent way. It is hereby postulated that the topological structure of the electron is a closed two-turn Helix (a so-called Hubius Helix) that is generated by circulatory motion of a mass-less particle at the speed of light. A formulation is presented to describe an isolated electron at rest and at high speed. It is shown that the formulation is capable of incorporating most (if not all) attributes of the electron, including spin, magnetic moment, fine structure constant, anomalous magnetic moment, and charge quantization into one concrete description of the Hubius Helix. The equations for the description emerge accordingly. Implications elicited by the postulate are elaborated. Inadequacy of the formulation is discussed.' back

Quantum harmonic oscillator - Wikipedia, Quantum harmonic oscillator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The quantum harmonic oscillator is the quantum-mechanical analogue of the classical harmonic oscillator. Because an arbitrary potential can usually be approximated as a harmonic potential at the vicinity of a stable equilibrium point, it is one of the most important model systems in quantum mechanics. Furthermore, it is one of the few quantum-mechanical systems for which an exact, analytical solution is known.' back

Selena Miles (2025), Silenced, ' Jennifer Robinson, Amber Heard and Brittany Higgins have all experienced the full force of weaponised defamation laws – but these indomitable activists and survivors of gendered violence won’t keep quiet.
> In 2017, #MeToo replaced the social stigma of discussing gendered violence with public solidarity and support for victim-survivors. The re-silencing was swift, vicious … and legalistic. Alleged perpetrators now used defamation lawsuits as cudgels to punish survivors for speaking out, and to deter journalists from exposing prominent people to public scrutiny. As a barrister who famously stood up for Amber Heard in a long-running, all-too-public defamation case in the UK, Jennifer Robinson has dedicated her career to fighting against these attacks, witnessing firsthand how such actions drag survivors through emotionally, professionally and financially ruinous legal proceedings.
In her incendiary exposé that premiered in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition, Selina Miles (Martha: A Picture Story, MIFF 2019) gives voice to experts like Robinson and Sibongile Ndashe who – in their work as lawyers and activists – doggedly pursue procedural justice, as well as women like Higgins, Heard and Colombian journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro who’ve been the targets of or caught in defamation lawfare pursued by alleged perpetrators. This furious, urgent documentary indicts a misogynist status quo: as Ndashe says, “The law is designed not to believe women".' back

Shlomi Eldar & Ruth Yuval (2026_09_08), https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-09-08/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/netanyahu-got-an-explicit-warning-before-oct-7-he-didnt-brief-security-chiefs/000001a0-7a3b-d7d5-a9fc-7eff3d0f0000, ' These were the final days of September 2023. Terrorist attacks inflamed the West Bank, masses of Gazans regularly protested at the border fence, and the country was reeling from internal conflict over the judicial coup laws. Anyone watching the events with clear eyes could sense that an escalation was lurking around every corner.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed – known as MBZ – was particularly concerned. "He spoke with me about this often in the months leading up to the war," recounts President Isaac Herzog, who maintains friendly relations with bin Zayed. "He constantly conveyed messages that the situation needed to be defused. He even sent a special envoy to Israel who met with the prime minister. The emir seemed to sense that the area was on the verge of explosion."
Bin Zayed would also speak directly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These conversations followed a standard procedure: A representative from the Emirati embassy would come to the prime minister's bureau, bringing a special phone device that ensured the confidentiality of the call.
But this time, the call initiated by bin Zayed was unusual. A week and a half before October 7, 2023 the Emirati ruler called Netanyahu from the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi and spoke with him for 45 minutes.
In that conversation, bin Zayed warned that Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a major operation against Israel. Bin Zayed expressed concern that the event in question would not only lead to bloodshed but also destabilize the entire region and undermine the Abraham Accords.
Three foreign senior sources are familiar with the contents of the conversation, the existence of which is revealed here for the first time. Its disclosure is the result of extensive research based on dozens of sources in Israel and worldwide, including very senior officials, as well as recordings, internal documents and correspondence. The research was conducted for the new book "Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment" 'f back

Thomas Aquinas, De Ente et Essentia, Latin text of one of Thomas Aquinas early works.
Textum a L. Baur Monasterii Westfalorum 1933 editum emendatum a J. Koch ac translatum in taenias magneticas a Roberto Busa SJ. denuo recognovit Enrique Alarcón atque instruxit<
[69871] De ente et essentia, pr.
Quia parvus error in principio magnus est in fine, secundum philosophum in I Caeli et Mundi, ens autem et essentia sunt quae primo intellectu concipiuntur, ut dicit Avicenna in principio suae metaphysicae, ideo ne ex eorum ignorantia errare contingat, ad horum difficultatem aperiendam dicendum est quid nomine essentiae et entis significetur et quomodo in diversis inveniatur et quomodo se habeat ad intentiones logicas, scilicet genus, speciem et differentiam. Quia vero ex compositis simplicium cognitionem accipere debemus et ex posterioribus in priora devenire, ut, a facilioribus incipientes, convenientior fiat disciplina, ideo ex significatione entis ad significationem essentiae procedendum est. back

Turing machine - Wikipedia, Turing machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer. The "machine" was invented in 1936 by Alan Turingwho called it an "a-machine" (automatic machine). The Turing machine is not intended as practical computing technology, but rather as a hypothetical device representing a computing machine. Turing machines help computer scientists understand the limits of mechanical computation.' back

Wendy Tuohy (2026_09_11), Judges with ‘horrendous views on women’ harming families, commissioner says, ' Some Family Court judges still hold horrendous views about women and believe children should be forcibly removed from parents they want to remain with, says the nation’s domestic violence commissioner.
“There are judges who think that at the moment, and they are not accountable to anybody; there is no way to shift that,” Micaela Cronin, the national commissioner for Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission, said.
Speaking to this masthead, Cronin said that, while the reform agenda “is shifting the attitudes and culture of ‘the middle’ of the judges who are making these decisions ... but [regarding] the outliers, it’s not. It’s the outliers who do hold some of the horrendous views about women”. As federal MPs, including Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan and Zali Steggall, call for more scrutiny around how the court system can be weaponised, Cronin said examining how the Family Court handles children’s wishes and the impact of its decisions is one her two top priorities. The other is focusing on how to reduce record rates of sexual assault.
Releasing the commission’s 2026 report to parliament on Wednesday, Cronin described the Family Court system as often “another source of harm” (for women and children). “When people seek protection, accountability and support, the systems around them should help keep them safe. Too often, that is not what is happening,” she said. [. . .]
Janine Rees, co-founder of the victim-survivor advocacy group the Family Court Accountability Network, said women were being driven to despair by protection orders being overridden by Family Court judges and forced contact being imposed, and that the parliamentary committee must recommend Family Court involvement is considered a risk factor in suicide-death reviews.' back