Content I Consume - 11/14/2024
Past weeks editions can be found here
Hello all,
Boston is growing cold and the sun is setting at 4PM. In some ways, this feels more normal than the 70 degree days we’ve had over the past weeks. Life is moving fast with 1 month + 1 day left until I submit my PhD applications. It’s great to see everything come together, but the uncertainty of not knowing where I’ll be for the next 5+ years can be draining.
Today marks the two-year anniversary of my cancer surgery, what I consider as two-years cancer free. I feel so grateful for the friends, new experiences, and the life I am so privileged to live.
While I’m still grappling with the mental challenges of being confronted with my mortality, I’ve come so far in these two years. I couldn’t see myself getting through my diagnosis without the support of my family, friends, and my amazing partner. I am forever grateful.
Physics
Textbook: Scattering Amplitudes by Henriette Elvang and Yu-tin Huang
In high energy physics, scattering amplitudes describe processes of fundamental particles interacting. If you want to understand how likely it is for two photons (light particles) to hit each other and produce a quark and an anti-quark, you would compute the scattering amplitude for this “process.” Where the process would be described as photon + photon to quark + anti-quark.
Study these fundamental interactions through the formalism of scattering amplitudes is a common way to make predictions in theoretical physics about fundamental particle interactions. For example, say I do some mathematics and calculate the scattering amplitude for a+b to c+d (where a,b,c,d are particles). If I go and look at experimental data and see ‘c’ and ‘d’ particles being produced too much or too infrequently, then I know my theory doesn’t align with the experimental results.
This discrepancy can be resolved in a number of ways:
Theory is wrong: Are we making mistakes in the calculations? Are there new particles that we aren’t accounting for?
Experiment is wrong: Are we biasing our dataset? Are we accounting for all experimental uncertainties?
We have a robust and powerful theory of three of the four fundamental interactions in the standard model of particle physics. However, it is quite difficult to actually calculate to high precision what the standard model predicts. This is the challenge of theoretical physicists and scattering amplitudes are one of the tools they employ.
Miscellaneous
Video: Watch these 8 minutes to live longer - Bryan Johnson
Bryan Johnson is multi-millionaire entrepreneur who now focuses his entire life on improving human longevity. I have become a fan of him recently. I think he’s likely controversial and exaggerates some claims (saying he’ll live to 200 years old), but I think he’s doing some exciting things.
To push forward our understanding of longevity he experiments on himself to reduce his rate of aging. I think many of the approaches he implements are extreme, but there is real science guiding these decisions. I think many of us could benefit from shifting our lifestyle slightly towards Bryan’s.
