Condensed concepts

In the previous post, I considered five different characteristics that are often associated with emergence and classified them as being asso...

There is more to emergence than novel properties, i.e., where a whole system has a property that the individual components of the system do ...

What do we mean when we say something in science is fundamental? When is an entity or a theory more fundamental or less fundamental than som...

Suppose a motivated and intelligent high school student or first year undergraduate comes to you and says, ``Condensed matter physics sounds...

Is there any difference in the nature of emergence in quantum and classical systems? What is the difference between strong and weak emergen...

It is the conservatives vs. the radicals, the right vs. the left. A colleague recently suggested to me that this is a good metaphor or ana...

There is an interesting article Emergent Physics the Mesoscale: Report from the special Kavli session at the 2012 APS March meeting by Sam ...

Much of condensed matter physics is concerned with finding the relevant order parameter for new phases of matter. Indeed this is a good way ...

Compared to some fields (e.g. biology, high energy physics, philosophy, history, movies, historical theology) I think most Wikipedia article...

On Friday at UQ we had a very stimulating colloquium A new view on quantum gravity and the origin of the Universe  by Bei-Lok Hu (University...

In elemental superconductors Cooper pairs form due to an attractive retarded electron-electron interaction that is mediated by exchange of ...

There is an interesting piece  on the New York Times web site which quotes numerous scientists slamming Bob Laughlin's recent article ab...

A week ago, we had a very interesting Physics department colloquium by  Marcelo Gleiser  about his recent book,   A Tear at the Edge of Crea...

More great quotes from Bob Laughlin , A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down “The great power of science is its abi...

In their wonderful (and provocative) PNAS article, The Theory of Everything, Laughlin and Pines introduced the term protectorate to descri...

In the final chapter of his book, A Different Universe , Bob Laughlin states: while a simple and absolute law, such as hydrodynamics, can ev...

Which is more fundamental? Elementary particles or elastic solids? In his book A Different Universe, Bob Laughlin considers the implications...

George Ellis points out that the question, ``Why does an aircraft fly?’’ has several different answers, ranging from ``because it is on th...

This is the provocative title of a very nice paper by Laughlin and Pines in PNAS back in 2000. They point out that in principle Schrodinge...