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Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

nobelprize.org

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Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#101

Post by scoopertrooper »

queuebert wrote: post #99
erikhansenwong wrote: post #97

John Clarke is the father of Liz, one of my close friends from college. Liz and I were physics undergrads at Berkeley and her father was a professor there. Thanks to HN I had the pleasure of being the first one to tell her that her dad had just won the Nobel Prize (I saw the news before she woke up, due to time zone differences). I wish I could post photos here, she sent me a beautiful picture of him filled with joy…

This is a weird story. If I were the dad, I would've preferred to tell my daughter myself. And a Nobel winner being overjoyed to get a free parking pass is borderline dystopian.

He’s also getting about a million dollars from the Nobel committee.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#102

Post by bicepjai »

erikhansenwong wrote: post #97

John Clarke is the father of Liz, one of my close friends from college. Liz and I were physics undergrads at Berkeley and her father was a professor there. Thanks to HN I had the pleasure of being the first one to tell her that her dad had just won the Nobel Prize (I saw the news before she woke up, due to time zone differences). I wish I could post photos here, she sent me a beautiful picture of him filled with joy…

So much human behavior unfolding in this short fun story

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#103

Post by tyre »

queuebert wrote: post #99
erikhansenwong wrote: post #97

John Clarke is the father of Liz, one of my close friends from college. Liz and I were physics undergrads at Berkeley and her father was a professor there. Thanks to HN I had the pleasure of being the first one to tell her that her dad had just won the Nobel Prize (I saw the news before she woke up, due to time zone differences). I wish I could post photos here, she sent me a beautiful picture of him filled with joy…

This is a weird story. If I were the dad, I would've preferred to tell my daughter myself. And a Nobel winner being overjoyed to get a free parking pass is borderline dystopian.

Berkeley gives dedicated parking spots to Nobel laureates. It’s not about having a place to park. It’s about being in the same category as all of those greats.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#104

Post by derangedHorse »

chermi wrote: post #53

Hey guys, I learned electronics from a nobel laureate! Throughout my physics career including PhD, analog electronics was the most difficult but probably also the most rewarding class to me. I fondly remember staying until 2am in broida at ucsb trying to get a filter to work, getting a few hours sleep, then being back in the lab before sunrise. Of course, this was mostly the result of procrastination, but damn were t…

It's best not to assume the motives behind a rejection unless they align with things you already see as shortcomings. Doing so might cause you to over-correct on things that weren't problems. Being incorrect in a discussion or getting an A- in a class doesn't seem like things that would completely turn a professor off from accepting you.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#105

Post by eric15342335 »

derangedHorse wrote: post #104
chermi wrote: post #53

Hey guys, I learned electronics from a nobel laureate! Throughout my physics career including PhD, analog electronics was the most difficult but probably also the most rewarding class to me. I fondly remember staying until 2am in broida at ucsb trying to get a filter to work, getting a few hours sleep, then being back in the lab before sunrise. Of course, this was mostly the result of procrastination, but damn were t…

It's best not to assume the motives behind a rejection unless they align with things you already see as shortcomings. Doing so might cause you to over-correct on things that weren't problems. Being incorrect in a discussion or getting an A- in a class doesn't seem like things that would completely turn a professor off from accepting you.

correlation is not causation

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#106

Post by wavemode »

sbenerofe wrote: post #71
everdrive wrote: post #54

Dumb question: "We know that the ball will bounce back every time it is thrown at a wall. A single particle, however, will sometimes pass straight through an equivalent barrier in its microscopic world and appear on the other side. This quantum mechanical phenomenon is called tunnelling." Is the particle just failing to collide with the wall since objects are mostly empty space? Or is something more spooky or interes…

Not a dumb question at all. The idea that a particle could pass through a wall by luckily avoiding collisions is a classical way of thinking. In that view, a particle is a tiny solid ball and a wall is just a collection of other tiny balls with space between them. Quantum tunneling is based on a completely different concept. In quantum mechanics, the "wall" is not a physical object but a high energy barrier. Classica…

Does a denser wall produce a higher-energy barrier?

And, if so, is there then actually a practical difference between the classical and quantum interpretations? (i.e. could it simply be said that, the denser wall just has more chances to collide with the particle and stop it from passing through, thus explaining why the probability of finding it on the other side is lower?)

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#107

Post by godelski »

chermi wrote: post #86
chermi wrote: post #53

Hey guys, I learned electronics from a nobel laureate! Throughout my physics career including PhD, analog electronics was the most difficult but probably also the most rewarding class to me. I fondly remember staying until 2am in broida at ucsb trying to get a filter to work, getting a few hours sleep, then being back in the lab before sunrise. Of course, this was mostly the result of procrastination, but damn were t…

Oops, meant "understand feedback quite well*", can't edit for some reason?

FYI, I think the time limit for editing is 1hr. It might change if someone replies? I'm not sure that these rules are written down anywhere.

@Dang, if you see this can we add to the FAQ?

There's also a delay setting in your profile that delays the message but has a max of 10 minutes. There's also the noprocrast setting to help reduce procrastination. The default values let you in for 20 minutes at a time and don't allow you back in for 180 minutes.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#108

Post by dang »

chermi wrote: post #86
chermi wrote: post #53

Hey guys, I learned electronics from a nobel laureate! Throughout my physics career including PhD, analog electronics was the most difficult but probably also the most rewarding class to me. I fondly remember staying until 2am in broida at ucsb trying to get a filter to work, getting a few hours sleep, then being back in the lab before sunrise. Of course, this was mostly the result of procrastination, but damn were t…

Oops, meant "understand feedback quite well*", can't edit for some reason?

I did a s/while/well in there. Hope that's ok.

All: you are welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com if you need something like this after the editing window has passed

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

#110

Post by IAmBroom »

everdrive wrote: post #54

Dumb question: "We know that the ball will bounce back every time it is thrown at a wall. A single particle, however, will sometimes pass straight through an equivalent barrier in its microscopic world and appear on the other side. This quantum mechanical phenomenon is called tunnelling." Is the particle just failing to collide with the wall since objects are mostly empty space? Or is something more spooky or interes…

Loads of good responses, but I'll just add:

> Is the particle just failing to collide with the wall since objects are mostly empty space?

To be frank, essentially nothing macroscopic ever reacts to impact because (subatomic) particles physically hit particles. Electrons repel with significant force long before they can "collide". The volume of space represented by "close enough" to the outermost electron shell (since electrons aren't at one single volume at any one moment in time) is somewhat large, even if the volumes of the nucleus + the sum of all electrons in the atom are much less.

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