tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post7044861939714147213..comments2024-03-28T04:15:44.459-05:00Comments on nanoscale views: This year's Nobel in physics - Thouless, Kosterlitz, HaldaneDouglas Natelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-11600389883230145022016-10-07T22:51:32.031-05:002016-10-07T22:51:32.031-05:00Doug, thanks for sharing. I have to say I am surpr...Doug, thanks for sharing. I have to say I am surprised by the Chemistry prize this year, but I'm not in the field.<br />It's always fun to speculate and spectate. It'll be another 12 months for the next round!JLnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-16805773967581756822016-10-07T18:59:40.660-05:002016-10-07T18:59:40.660-05:00Very relevant quotes from the great Laplace to yo...Very relevant quotes from the great Laplace to your premise.<br /><br />"The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."<br /><br />Pierre-Simon Laplace<br /><br />"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"<br /><br />Carl Sagan Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-38286745615373638262016-10-07T07:11:33.485-05:002016-10-07T07:11:33.485-05:00To be clear: I think they genuinely thought the s...To be clear: I think they genuinely thought the switching was rotaxane related - the issue was how to think about the control devices. I just didn't like that they weren't mentioned in that talk until asked about.Douglas Natelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-36664690848996467832016-10-06T21:54:21.517-05:002016-10-06T21:54:21.517-05:00^^^ Wow, I had no idea that stuff like this went o...^^^ Wow, I had no idea that stuff like this went on with Stoddart... Sadly, it seems that too often, overselling flashy new stuff at a superficial level is a successful strategy for fame and fortune... Thanks for sharing Doug. BTW, even though this is not your professional area of expertise, I feel that as a mesoscopic condensed matter physicist, you must have some fairly well informed opinions and ideas about this field. I would love to hear your perspective on this year's chemistry prize in more detail, personally - I think it would be a great topic for a future post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-73907816994703582902016-10-06T19:55:06.727-05:002016-10-06T19:55:06.727-05:00JL, I do think there is likely to be an eventual T...JL, I do think there is likely to be an eventual TI prize, but only after the field shakes out a bit and it becomes more clear that it's really going somewhere. regarding the chemistry prize, the topic is interesting, and I gather that the synthesis is very inventive and difficult. That being said, it isn't obvious to me that the work spawned a whole area - seems like most of the real progress on molecular motors and machines has been on the biochemistry front. Still, not my area, so I could be wrong. I admit my impressions of Stoddart are colored by the talk I saw him give at Bell Labs about the Heath/Williams crossbar work, when it was clear that they had no idea what was causing switching (when asked, and only when asked, he admitted that control devices with non-switchable forms of the rotaxanes still showed electrical switching). Douglas Natelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-23097500939166395732016-10-05T22:33:30.803-05:002016-10-05T22:33:30.803-05:00I'm really glad that Nobel prize was awarded t...I'm really glad that Nobel prize was awarded to the trio this year. They certainly are the key contributors to our understanding of condensed matter physics. I think another deserving one is Berry. Do you think there will be a prize for TI? I can already see the controversy, no matter who the winners are (Kane, Mele, Zhang, Molenkamp?)<br />What do you think about the Chemistry prize? It does bring up memories of molecular electronics, a field that many, including us, worked on...JLnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-563700265211398872016-10-04T07:55:30.252-05:002016-10-04T07:55:30.252-05:00Anon@6:55, I don't think this trio is particul...Anon@6:55, I don't think this trio is particularly unexpected. If anything, it's been a long time coming - they were some of the pivotal people in introducing topological ideas into condensed matter physics. In that way it makes sense that these people would get a prize ahead of any eventual topological insulator prize. (The real challenge is how to write about this without oversimplifying or becoming very abstract.) Douglas Natelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-66689195668680251062016-10-04T06:55:57.751-05:002016-10-04T06:55:57.751-05:00Thomson Reuters was predicting Shoucheng Zhang, Ch...Thomson Reuters was predicting Shoucheng Zhang, Charles Kane, et al for topological insulators. Would you say that this trio was unexpected?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-24414287362403431452016-10-03T14:45:39.511-05:002016-10-03T14:45:39.511-05:00I suppose the time-to-Nobel was really short for t...I suppose the time-to-Nobel was really short for the Higgs boson also, but I think it's a bit soon for LIGO. I think extrasolar planets are due, soon: it's a field that's really taken off.thmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-30029476663466006182016-10-03T14:31:11.290-05:002016-10-03T14:31:11.290-05:00Thanks. That's a good and persuasive article....Thanks. That's a good and persuasive article. It's always possible, of course, that the Nobel folks will wait until one of the other gravitational wave experiments makes a detection, with the argument that independent confirmation would strengthen the case. That would delay matters at least a year. Guess we'll know tomorrow....Douglas Natelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13340091255404229559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13869903.post-89977631963356976322016-10-03T12:00:13.932-05:002016-10-03T12:00:13.932-05:00Hm, then maybe they should wait a year and instead...Hm, then maybe they should wait a year and instead include Barry Barish if Dever gets to be uneligible for the Nobel (a remark admittedly in somewhat poor taste).<br />The argument for Barish is here:<br />http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6307/1478.fullAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com