Q: What made you start Cocktail Party Physics?
A: Honestly? My publisher suggested I do so. But I took to it immediately, even though I assumed the only people reading would be my mom and a few close friends. The fact that it's found an audience is quite gratifying. I've always written long chatty letters and emails to friends and family, and blogging is an extension of that natural tendency; the enabling technology just needed to be invented. My motto is "Born to Blog."
Q: Is some of the push-pull between science and the public from scientists taking themselves too seriously, and the public only seeing them as elitist?
A: There's no easy answer to this question. Both sides are guilty of being a bit intractable at times, and/or unwilling to take many steps forward to close the gaping chasm between the scientific and public spheres. Both sides frequently have false, negative assumptions about each other. Perhaps a cultural exchange program is needed to introduce each to the other's world and eliminate some of those misunderstandings.
Q: Do you find that physicists are different from chemists who are different from biologists?
A: There are some "cultural" differences, to be sure, and a bit of a language barrier to boot, which can make interdisciplinary collaborations challenging at times. But the various subfields are all united by a common framework: the scientific method.
Q: What were the most surprising connections you uncovered while researching your book Black Bodies and Quantum Cats?
A: It wasn't a single connection, but the realization that I, like so many others, had compartmentalized science and locked it away from my other broad cultural interests. Once I started looking for surprising connections, I saw them everywhere.
Q: Did writing The Physics of the Buffyverse make you believe that the paranormal is possible?
A: This is a trick question, right? :) If anything, it solidified my skepticism. Many people have a hard time believing there could be actual science in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but science is all around us, so it creeps in even when it's not intentional. Also, all things are not automatically possible in a fictional world; there are still rules that serve much the same purpose as the laws of physics. For instance, there's literally a thermodynamics of magic in the Buffyverse. The characters can't just snap their fingers and make anything happen. If they could, there would be no built-in conflict to drive the plot. Wishful thinking doesn't change that harsh reality in the Buffyverse, any more than it does in our own world.
Q:What branch of science have you wanted to delve into, but haven't had the chance?
A: It's not so much a branch of science, as a bit of jargon I overheard during lunch with a group of cosmologists a couple of years ago. They kept referring to "ghosts" -- not in a paranormal sense, but to describe a sort of temporary "scaffolding" they sometimes use at the start of a calculation. The "scaffolding" vanishes once the calculation is complete. It's too far over my head for me to understand it sufficiently to write about it, but I'm fascinated that such a fanciful term even exists in physics, and as a writer, the scaffolding metaphor appeals to me. It also reminded me of a quotation by Einstein: "Space and time are not conditions in which we live, but modes in which we think."
