The last time I corresponded with the guy, he was working on his graduate stuff. I hope he’s finished or close to finished because science needs people like him. He knows that we don’t have all the answers. He even knows that science can’t answer all the questions. He understands the debt that science owes to its mother, philosophy. He can step in the shoes of almost anyone and see things from points of view other than his own. He writes with a rare clarity of expression for a man of science. I hope that’s what he does with his career — write books that explain some of the most difficult areas of science to a public thirsty for understanding.
I was a pretty big physics geek until I learned most of what I felt I could learn without getting much deeper into the mathematical aspect of it. As such, I’ve always loved Chronos’s posts here. He’s a great asset to the boards.
I don’t have any advanced math education and yet I am fascinated with physics. I always appreciate people who can express the concepts behind the math clearly so a layperson like me can understand.
In all honesty, the genius of that explanation is all due to Feynman; I’m just presenting it. But I must say, I’m flattered. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a thread like this before, much less one where I’m complimented in Klingon. At least, I think that Qapla’ is Klingon. And I think that it’s a compliment.
Why doesn’t anyone e-mail me about these things? It was bad enough when nobody ever told me I was being Pitted (yes, it did happen a couple of times when I was a mod).
I’m still in grad school, incidentally, and will be for the forseeable future, but it’s not a bad life. The pay isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out to be (at least, not for a bachelor), and I’m pretty well insulated from most sources of stress (except for grad school itself, of course).
