What’s the point of Physics Letters?
I’m a physicist by training, and for two decades I’ve been writing for scientific journals such as Nature and Nature Physics, and for other outlets such as the New York Times and Bloomberg. Sometimes the editorial interests of these outlets can be a little restricting, so I’m starting this newsletter to have the freedom to explore more widely, but the writing will be similar in style to what I’ve written before.
The ideas of physics may be abstract, and couched in complex mathematics, but their implications are often profound. In writing about them, I’ve found myself over the years touching on topics as varied as climate change, communications among bacteria, the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe, and the natural instability of financial markets. I’ve written about plausible links between the obesity epidemic and chemicals widely found in food additives and plastics, and the dubious theoretical roots in economics of our global fixation on economic growth.
Believe it of nor, ideas coming out of physics offer useful and often surprising insights into these areas, and many others. I care passionately about the environment, science, and good clean thinking about a wide range of issues, and I try to approach every subject I write about with an open mind. This means that I learn more as I go, and often end up writing something quite unlike what I had originally anticipated writing — the better for me and for readers too! My overall aim here is simply to use my 30+ years in science to help everyone be more informed about important issues, with climate and environment taking a priority, given the current circumstances.
I would greatly appreciate comments or suggestions for topics I should explore! Feel free to email me buchanan.mark@gmail.com.
Please also subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. Everything is free for the moment, though I do intend to turn on the paid subscription option at some point for a fraction of articles. Unfortunately, it takes considerable time to research and write intelligently about some topics, and there are always bills to pay, it seems.
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