VISMAYA: History & Philosophy of Physics

Category: academia

  • 59. Who is a physicist?

    “The physicist is most cogently identified, not by the subject studied, but by the way in which a subject is studied and by the nature of the information being sought.”

    Above is an interesting quote by Sol Gruner, James Langer, Phil Nelson, and Viola Vogel from a 1995 article in Physics Today titled WHAT FUTURE WILL WE CHOOSE FOR PHYSICS?

    Although written more than 25 years ago from the viewpoint of US physics community, many of the issues discussed in this article are pertinent even today. Probably more so in the Indian context.

    Nice read :

    What Future Will We Choose for Physics?
    Sol M. Gruner, James S. Langer, Phil Nelson, and Viola Vogel
    Citation: Physics Today 48, 12, 25 (1995); doi: 10.1063/1.881477
    View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.881477

  • 55. Kindness in science

    There is absolutely no conflict between doing good science and being kind to people with whom you work, and this includes not only colleagues and students, but also administrative staff and everyone in an academic ecosystem. The below linked article makes a good case for this point.

    It also derives some relevant lessons from philosophy which can be applied to academic environment. Worth reading…if you have access

    https://www.cell.com/trends/cell-biology/fulltext/S0962-8924(21)00229-4