Stephen Sekula on chirp.cooleysekula.net

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1. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 17:35:15 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   Hey, while I have got your attention let me aim some light at my co- # author , S. James Gates, Jr. Jim is awesome. He's recent past president of the American Physical Society and an excellent theoretical physicist. He's also been an inspiration to me in the way I engage students in the research enterprise. Learn more: http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24175. http://statu…
2. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 17:30:22 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   So what is "Reality in the Shadows"? It's the story of the cosmos as we understand it now. It's a glimpse at how ideas, technology, and observations merge to make a consistent, useful, and reproducible understanding of reality. It's also honest about the limits of knowledge and what we know we DON'T know right now. But if anything, it's a story of how humans have, time an…
3. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 16:30:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   My part in the story of "Heck" took more than a year. While my fingerprints (mixed with those of my co- # authors ) are all over the final version of the book, my most direct contributions were Chapter 5, "Finding Reality"; Chapters 6 and 15, "What the Heck's the Higgs?" Parts 1 and 2; and chapter 7, "A Sky of Shadows". I recently shared this for # DarkMatterDay , but you…
4. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 16:15:15 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   The publisher, Otto, as well as Frank and Jim were happy enough with my comments that they conspired to invite me to join the # writing party. We did all our communicating by phone. To this day, I have never met my co- # authors in person. Sadly, I will never get to meet Frank, as he passed away a few years ago. We did everything by email + phone. My first task was to tak…
5. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 14:20:13 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   So how did I become involved in "Heck"? Enter two other important characters in the story. When the project stalled after the # Higgs discovery, Frank and Jim decided they wanted a third party to look over the book to see if they should keep going. Frank's grandson was a student at my university, SMU, and knew I was a physicist. He asked if I might want to review the manu…
6. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 14:05:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   If you are curious about the day the # Higgs particle was discovered, I have an audio diary I made as part of a short podcast series I did back in the early teens. This episode takes audio I captured the day the discovery was announced by the # CMS and # ATLAS experiments and mixes them in with my commentary. https:// http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24788 alleys/2012/07…
7. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 08:55:15 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   I am not 100% clear on the details, but the abbreviated version of the next step for "Heck" was something like: Frank took a course from S. James Gates Jr. (Jim Gates), approached him about joining the book project, and Jim (being awesome) agreed. A supersymmetry theorist and a rocket scientist were now embarked on a # writing project. Then the # Higgs particle was discov…
8. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 07:45:22 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   "Reality in the Shadows", or just "Heck" for short, began long before I was a co- # author . It was a passion project of Frank Blitzer, a literal rocket scientist (he worked on the Apollo moon missions, especially the guidance system). He was fascinated by subatomic # ParticlePhysics . So he set about trying to write this book for his kids/grandkids. So he told it, he mad…
9. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Saturday, 04-Nov-2023 06:20:16 EDT Stephen Sekula

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   This weekend is the # FediBookFair ! I am the (co)#author of two non-fiction books (with more on the way … more about that on Sunday): “Reality in the Shadows (or) What the Heck’s the Higgs?” and “The Friendly Physics Guide to Nuclear and Particle Physics in Modern Medicine (Volumes I and II)”. Today, I’ll share some stories about # writing “Reality in the…
10. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Friday, 03-Nov-2023 19:31:36 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    Saw this kinda awesome helicopter thing swooping over the neighborhood this morning. https://chirp.cooleysekula.net/attachment/9af9f9206af2e6fe470620efb1abed81fac39df19d786fca34f14c9e32135e79/view
11. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Friday, 03-Nov-2023 19:30:17 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    When a # cat tucks himself into an enclosure one size too small. https://chirp.cooleysekula.net/attachment/4c54cd48c1e0ce66aff119caa5020b0562b180abf20817f1c44a0b4d7901963c/view
12. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Friday, 03-Nov-2023 08:40:15 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From shadowserver@infosec.exchange on Mastodon: 36 IPs seen last 24 hours testing for Atlassian Confluence CVE-2023-22518 critical RCE. POST requests to '/json/setup-restore.action'
13. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Friday, 03-Nov-2023 07:30:17 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    A reminder that the first # FediBookFair is this weekend. I will likely blast out little bits of backstory on the # writing of my first two non-fiction books, and I am happy to take (and try to discuss) questions on # physics , # particlephysics , and # astrophysics during the weekend! https:// http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24777 ve/111326732129359842 Find my books on…
14. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Thursday, 02-Nov-2023 21:05:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From arstechnica@mastodon.social on Mastodon: Guilty: Sam Bankman-Fried convicted on all counts after monthlong trial Bankman-Fried convicted on seven charges, faces maximum sentence of 110 years. https:// arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20 23/11/guilty-sam-bankman-fried-convicted-on-all-counts-after-monthlong-trial/?utm_brand=arstechnica
15. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Thursday, 02-Nov-2023 20:50:16 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24664 on Mastodon: Here is the one of the first images from Lucy's encounter with asteroid Dinkinesh. Not only is it a beautiful image of this small world never seen before but it reveals that tiny Dinkinesh has a companion moon! The image was taken at 12:55 p.m. EDT (1655 UTC) Nov. 1, 2023, within a minute of closest approach, from …
16. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Thursday, 02-Nov-2023 18:25:13 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24632 on Mastodon: In 1987, the closest supernova in modern times flashed in our skies. Even though it was in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 168,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers detected the light and neutrinos from the supernova 1987A. It would be decades before the first gravitational wave observatory would come online. Astrono…
17. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Thursday, 02-Nov-2023 07:05:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From vicgrinberg@mastodon.social on Mastodon: Caution! X-ray Mirrors have sharp edges. # AboutToday # XraysAreTheBestRays # XMMNewton
18. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Nov-2023 21:25:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    Second evening of curling lessons went better than the first evening, but I have a lot to learn. Coordination is my big problem, and this will come with a lot more practice. I just need that additional practice!
19. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Nov-2023 21:20:14 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    From http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24632 on Mastodon: As far as we know, black holes can only be formed by the death of massive stars, but a persistent theory says that black holes of all masses could have formed directly in the early Universe. These primordial black holes would help explain several mysteries in astronomy: outlier mergers of black holes, dark matter, …
20. Stephen Sekula (steve)'s status on Tuesday, 31-Oct-2023 20:25:16 EDT Stephen Sekula

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    Ooh ooh ooh! One more thing! Join @ SNOLAB ’s Blaire Flynn and # DESY Laboratory’s Joseph Piergrossi for the new podcast, “Particle Mysteries: The Coldest Case”. http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24175. http://status.hackerposse.com/url/24768 -day/podcast Besides the accelerated expansion of the universe and the universe’s actual birth, # DarkMatter is one of th…

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