Two new videos on Sixty Symbols about Multiverses.
Both involve the "G" word at some point, so the video comments get kind of passionate at times.
Neither video is really about God - but that does not seem to matter.
Just to stir the pot further (inadvertently), Professor Eaves made a off-hand remark about wind turbines.
To be fair, I was expecting worse. And some of the comments on both videos are really smart and interesting.
This is Padre Antonio Piaggio and his collection of volcano diaries at The Royal Society.
In the 1760s, the padre kept a thorough log, including countless hand-drawn pictures, of a very active Mt Vesuvius.
The story is told in our second episode of the Objectivity video series.
The padre had been enlisted by William Hamilton, who was working in Naples at the time and developed an interest in vulcanology.
Sir William Hamilton
The diaries are extraordinary and include all manner of sketches, some of them extremely detailed.
Having someone keep such a close watch on the volcano brings to mind an early version of a webcam.
But alas the work was not put to good use. The ageing Hamilton decided he could not be bothered converting them into a scientific paper and essentially just dumped them on the society.
So, to this day, they sit on a shelf largely unexploited.
They sure are pretty to look at though.
In case you missed it, here is part one of Objectivity, Isaac Newton's Space Wood.
If you're looking for some good podcast listening, I have a couple of recommendations.
(Obviously this assumes you are all up-to-date with our own Hello Internet)
First, I am a bit late to the party, but Serial was fantastic.
It's a 12-part series basically going into great detail about a 15-year-old murder case.
It was well executed and gripping.
Second, and here I'm even later to the party, but for something lighter I recommend chasing up the old episodes of The Incomprable in which they dissect the original Star Wars trilogy.
Good fun if you're a Star Wars tragic like me!
This is one of those blog posts written so I don't have to answer lots of people individually.
It's just a collection of links and other stuff you should check out.
You're probably here after watching this video about the sum of all the integers. It shows how some physicists deal with the problem of the diverging sum 1+2+3+4, etc:
Here is an accompanying video we uploaded at the same time. You may have missed it:
Here is an article written by Tony Padilla after the video was published. I really recommend reading it if this topic interests you. For me, it is the most important link on this page. Tony directly explains what he does in the video.
Here's a video I later made with Ed Frenkel, where he discussed the result:
The New York Times wrote about it. Here is their take.
NEW ADDITION: Physicist Leonard Susskind discusses it here in this Stanford University video around 1:13:50. He also wheels out -1/12 for the sum of the integers - curious how often such a precise and arbitrary number is associated with that sum and all the different ways people get to it.
NEW ADDITION: Tony discusses the matter further in this 2022 podcast.
NEW ADDITION: Ten years later Tony discusses new research and a paper on the topic.
NEW ADDITION: Ten years later another Tony (Tony Feng) also discusses the “proof”.
Here's a Wikipedia article about it (this was already famous, or infamous, well before the Numberphile video).
This video about the Riemann Hypothesis contains a section which also neatly shows where -1/12 fits into all this:
If the notion of 1+1-1+1-1 brought you here, here's something else:
If you are still angry, that's okay.
I warned you this blog probably would not help!
I'll give the last word to Ramanujan - a pretty handy mathematician:
I finally got around to seeing The Imitation Game last night and thought it was pretty good.
Though maybe it could have showcased a little bit more about how Enigma worked?
Never fear, Numberphile has you covered...
It's not just Numberphile, over at Computerphile my colleague Sean has made these videos with David Brailsford.
Deep Sky Videos is a series of films about astronomy.
We cover all sorts of topics, including a fun series inside the world's biggest and best telescopes.
But our raison d'être is making 110 films about every item in the Messier Catalogue - a series of objects in space listed by the French astronomer Charles Messier.
Here's a video I made about Messier, including a visit to his grave in Paris.
Today we posted our 49th Messier video, all about the galaxy he listed at number 82 (or M82). It's also known as the Cigar Galaxy or NGC 3030, where NGC means New General Catalogue.
The latest video features a comparison between the galaxy's lively core and a bag of microwave popcorn. It features Professor Paul Crowther from the University of Sheffield.
There is also some left-over material I posted in a second video which has some cool stuff about hypervelocity stars.
The first video in our new "Objectivity" series has been uploaded.
It focuses on Sir Isaac Newton, famous for many things including his work on gravity.
The famous story - which I always thought was apocryphal - is that the idea popped into Newton's head when when saw an apple fall from a tree.
But Keith Moore, head librarian at the Royal Society, now has me believing the story is true.
Keith showed me writings by William Stukely, a contemporary of Newton and a guy who seemed bit of a "Newton fanboy".
Newton (left) and 'fanboy' Stukely
In the hand-written memoirs - which were never formally published - Stukely recalls having tea with Newton in a London "under the shade of some apple trees".
There Newton recalled how, in earlier years, it was in "the same situation" that he saw an apple "descend perpendicularly", etc, etc
The smoking gun?
Newton does not say where the famous fall happened.
But many have assumed it was from an apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, in Lincolnshire, where Newton was from.
Certainly the apple tree - still at Woolsthorpe - has taken on legendary status.
The tree at Woolsthorpe Manor is at the far right of this old picture
Wood from the tree has been fashioned into various items.
And, as our video explains, a piece from the tree was taken aboard the space shuttle Atlantis for mission STS-132. I guess it was considered a chance to link Newton with space exploration and his role in understanding gravitation.
And stay tuned for more videos on Objectivity. It's a new project and your support is appreciated.
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