Dan's Interesting Stuff Page

Interesting Links

• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman
  - Interview & Physics Stories with Richard Feynman.

• The Last Journey of a Genius - Richard Feynman
  - Documentary & Interview with Richard Feynman about Physics & his Quest to Visit Touva.

• CollidingParticles.com
  - Series of Short Documentaries about Particle Physics and the LHC.

• Fermat's Last Theorem
  - Documentary about the Journey to try and Resolve Fermat's Last Theorem.

• Home
  - Documentary about the Earth and it's Environment, with Amazing Aerial Photo's.

• Einstein and Eddington
  - BBC 2 Film about the Story of the Friendship and Scientific Life of Arthur Eddington and Albert Einstein.

• Stephen Hawking - Episode 1 - Seeing is Believing
  
• Stephen Hawking - Episode 2 - Master of the Universe
  
• Stephen Hawking - Episode 3 - Cosmic Alchemy
  
• Stephen Hawking - Episode 4 - On the Dark Side
  
• Stephen Hawking - Episode 5 - Black Holes & Beyond
  
• Stephen Hawking - Episode 6 - An Answer to Everything
  - 2007 Series of Documentaries by Stephen Hawkings.

• Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - Time Travel
  
• Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - Aliens
  - 2010 Series of Documentaries by Stephen Hawkings (NB These are highly "popular" and more about fun things to imagine).

• The ATLAS Detector
  - Short Film about the Construction and Operation of The ATLAS Detector.

• The Boy With The Incredible Brain
  - Documentary about Daniel Tammet, a Savant with amazing capabilities.

News Coverage

• The Big Bang: What Happened Next
  - Radio 4 Programme about the false start, restart, and future physics at the LHC. [30 Minutes]

Recommended Books

• Chaos - James Gleik.
  - A Look in to sensitive dependence on initial conditions, fractals and all things chaotic, a very good read.

• A Short History of Time - Stephen Hawkings.
  - Good book for semi-beginners, which covers lots of the basics about space, time, and particles.

• The Book of Nothing - John D Barrow.
  - An interesting and deep look in to the idea of what Nothing is (or isn't).

• Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman - Richard P. Feynman.
  - My Favourite Book, listen to fun stories from the master, penned by his closest friend about Dr Feynmans Life and Adventures.

• Warped Passages - Lisa Randall.
  - Mainly for beginners, covering the basics for most of the book, but introducing some new concepts such as extra dimensions towards the end.

My Favourite Comic Strips

- Purity

LHC

Nash

My Life in PhD Comics

- Paths

Working

Screens

Media

Undergrads

Kindergarden

Method

Filename

Holiday

Functions

Webpage

Casimir Statement

“I have heard statements that the role of academic research in innovation is slight. It is about the most blatant piece of nonsense it has been my fortune to stumble upon.

Certainly, one might speculate idly whether transistors might have been discovered by people who had not been trained in and had not contributed to wave mechanics or the quantum theory of solids. It so happened that the inventors of transistors were versed in and contributed to the quantum theory of solids.

One might ask whether basic circuits in computers might have been found by people who wanted to build computers. As it happens, they were discovered in the thirties by physicists dealing with the counting of nuclear particles because they were interested in nuclear physics.

One might ask whether there would be nuclear power because people wanted new power sources or whether the urges to have new power would have led to the discovered of the nucleus. Perhaps - only it didn’t happen that way.

One might ask whether an electronic industry could exist without the previous discovery of electrons by people like Thomson and H A Lorentz. Again it didn’t happen that way.

One might ask even whether induction coils in motor cars might have been made by enterprises which wanted to make motor transport and whether then they would have stumbled on the laws of induction. But the laws of induction had been found by Faraday many decades before that.

Or whether, in an urge to provide better communication, one might have found electromagnetic waves. They weren’t found that way. They were found by Hertz who emphasised the beauty of physics and who based his work on the theoretical considerations of Maxwell. I think there is hardly an example of twentieth century innovation which is not indebted in this way to basic scientific thought.

- Hendrick Casimir (July 15, 1909 - May 4, 2000).

Links

• My Homepage

• Papers & Publications Page

• My Visiting CERN & Living in Geneva Guide

• My Visits, Conferences and Talks Page

• My Data Samples

• My Coding Tips 'N Tricks Page

• My ATLAS TDAQ Guide

• My Plots Page

------------------------------------------------ Questions & Comments? -----------------------------------------------

Please feel free to post Questions & Comments below, which I will endeavor to Answer and add to the page.