Author Archives: Jon Butterworth

Unknown's avatar

About Jon Butterworth

UCL Physics prof, works on LHC, writes (books, Cosmic Shambles and elsewhere). Citizen of England, UK, Europe & Nowhere, apparently.

Fairytale of New Physics

There seems to be a minor rash of polemic at the moment on the theme “aren’t scientists deluded/betraying science/living in fairytale-land”. Read more at the Guardian.

Posted in Particle Physics, Philosophy, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fairytale of New Physics

Consciousness; it’s a science thing

At the Guardian.

Posted in Philosophy, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Consciousness; it’s a science thing

Scientific research and the European Union

What effect does European Union membership have on science and research? And what would it mean if the UK left? Read more at the Guardian. This also features the pear-shaped nuclei which I wrote about in Nature.

Posted in Politics, Science Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Scientific research and the European Union

Is there any such thing as “nothing”?

That’s a question I got on twitter just now after the Feynman gig from @elainepixie. I said (broken down into 140 character chunks): One definition of “nothing” is “vacuum”, by which physicists mean “lowest energy state”. That exists. But in … Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Philosophy, Physics, Science | Tagged | 1 Comment