Unifying the Forces of Nature

It has been the physics community's long-standing dream to unify the natural forces into a single comprehensive theory. Two of the pioneers in unified field theory attempts were physicists Oskar Klein and Albert Einstein. In my new history of physics article, I explore connections between their quests for unification in five dimensions.

Here's a link to my recently published article (subscription required to see the full content; alternatively, paper copies available upon request):

Klein, Einstein and Five-Dimensional Unification

A Guide to Understanding the Bomb

A book review I wrote of Doomsday Men by PD Smith has finally made its way into the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer and also online:

A Guide to Understanding the Bomb

It is a fascinating book about the history and culture of superweapons and I highly recommend it.

Ironic Borgesian Textual Labyrinth with a Spam Minotaur

In several of the short stories of famed Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, he imagined assembling books from random snippets of characters or text--like monkeys pounding away on typewriters haphazardly and seeing what strange passages they've typed. In such works, any semblance of meaning would be hidden amongst page after page of pure nonsense. In "The Library of Babel" Borges imagines an entire universe of such random books, and librarians seeking deeper truth in this labyrinth of meaninglessness.

Yesterday I discovered a new blog "labyrinths-921.blogspot.com" that at first glance seemed to be dedicated to Borges and labyrinths. However, after reading through the blog for a split second, it vanished and automatically shifted to a commercial chat site (the details of which I'll spare the reader). With some effort, I restored the original blog and found it to be a randomly organized collection of text snippets pertaining to the Argentine writer and mazes with absolutely no rhyme or reason. For example, the Saturday, October 27 entry reads:

"No description. Labyrinths It is impossible to imagine the former owner/occupant of this decaying Borgesian labyrinth of books, which still palpably pulsates with ideas and visions that only a lover of Borges can appreciate and understand, not having the . Paris, France: There are extensive networks of catacombs, quarries and other tunnels running under the capital of France. Some of these amazing photographs were taken by urban explorers who lit the scenes with candles, . Labyrinths Borges The inspiring Labyrinth, Memorial Wall and Sculpture Garden are located approximately 13 miles north of Weed, CA on Hwy 97."

That's either remarkably ungrammatical writing, or the random assembly of text by a computer algorithm craftily designed to lure intellectuals into a maze of prose, only to be whisked away by the minotaur of commercialism and spam. Isn't it ironic that a Borgesian blog could be assembled through shear chance?

Shadows of Higher Dimensions

During a visit to Goettingen, Germany several years ago, I visited the mathematics building, built during the height of the department, when brilliant figures like David Hilbert, Hermann Weyl, Emmy Noether and Richard Courant roamed its halls and discussed whether there could be a complete description of mathematics (a hypothesis that would be disproven by Kurt Goedel).  I noticed a marvellous display case in the department's foyer, full of incredible models of polytopes (representations of higher dimensional figures).

I recently developed a presentation about the relationship between these "shadows of higher dimensions" and unified theories of nature:

Imagining the Fifth Dimension

The history of higher dimensions is described in my book:

The Great Beyond

Labyrinths of Tile and Concrete

Our minds can craft beautiful kinds of labyrinths from a variety of distinct materials. While some of these are abstract, such as poetic verse assembled from a blend of images or musical passages derived from a mixture of folk melodies, others are more concrete. "More concrete" was certainly the motto of Henry Chapman Mercer as he constructed his labyrinthine mansion in eastern Pennsylvania almost a century ago.

Born to a wealthy family in 1856, Mercer studied law at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. After briefly practicing law, he decided that he was more interested in ancient artifacts and folk art, and began collecting these. He also became a master craftsman, and opened a tile works specializing in colorful, unusual designs.

In 1908, he decided to build a mansion for himself, Fonthill, which would also house at least part of his collection. To make it fireproof, and less costly, he elected to construct it from concrete. Concrete also had the advantage of malleability, so he could shape any room or hallway as his wished. Indeed, he crafted a house with passages and stairways leading in almost every direction conceivable, with manifold libraries, studies, bedrooms and so forth. Each room is at a different level, connected to at least a half-dozen others. Naturally there's a tall tower, and even separate stairs and doors for his dog Rollo. Strangely Mercer was to live in this massive castle virtually alone (except for Rollo). Apparently the one woman he proposed to thought he was way too odd!

Scattered throughout the house, and embedded directly in the concrete, are ancient tiles from Babylon and China. Other tiles include a variety of styles and periods. Alphabet tiles arranged on the walls and ceilings spell out numerous messages in Latin, German and English, characterizing the rooms and their collections. One bedroom prominently displays a gruesome tile mosaic of the story of Blackbeard's wives and their untimely deaths; which apparently further put off potential suitors.

When Mercer died in 1930, he bequeathed the house to a historical society, but willed that his housekeeper should reside there as caretaker. She lived there until her own death almost half a century later. When I was growing up I heard about this strange house where a housekeeper would let you in and show you around if it suited her that day! When she passed away, official and more conventional tours began of the house. It's a great place to get lost in a creative artist's dreams.

Emmy Noether

One of the great intellectual heroes of the 20th century was German-Jewish mathematician Emmy Noether. She was remarkable in that her accomplishments in the field of abstract algebra emerged despite considerable prejudice against her, first because of being a woman, and second because of her ethnic background. During the 1920s and early 1930s the great mathematician David Hilbert tried to secure her a professorship at the University of Goettingen, but could only obtain for her dozent (lectureship) status because of her gender. When she taught classes, he had to list himself as the official professor. Then in 1933, with the rise of the Nazi regime, an act was passed "The Law of the Restoration of the Civil Service" forbidding those of Jewish background to teach in Germany, unless they had been World War I veterans (a concession made to placate Hindenburg). Noether fled Germany and obtained a position at Bryn Mawr College in the US. She died two years later.

Einstein wrote a beautiful obituary about her in the New York Times:

"In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians, Fräulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began. In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered methods which have proved of enormous importance in the development of the present-day younger generation of mathematicians. Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas." (Albert Einstein, New York Times, May 1, 1935)

Today I visited the site of her grave for the first time. It is in a quiet, monastery-like part of Bryn Mawr campus, known as The Cloisters. At first I didn't see the grave marker, as it is very plain and right in the pavement. Here are photos of The Cloisters and Emmy Noether's grave:

Quantum Horror in the Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

In his day H.P. Lovecraft was known purely as a pulp fantasy and horror writer, and only in recent years has the quality of his writing come to be respected. Though he was largely self-educated, it is remarkable how often this American writer of otherworldly horror instills genuine science into his prose.

Take for example his chilling 1933 tale "The Dreams in the Witch House" about a physics student living in an ancient house that used to be inhabited by a witch familiar with higher dimensions and non-Euclidean geometry.

The story has wonderful lines connected with modern physics:

“Non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of the Gothic tales and the wild-whispers of the chimney corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension.”

"some circumstance had given a mediocre old woman of the seventeenth century an insight into mathematical depths perhaps beyond the utmost modern delvings of Planck, Heisenberg, Einstein, and de Sitter."

I used the first as the opening quote for my book The Great Beyond, a study of the scientific and cultural history of higher dimensions.