Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the 60th year of her reign in 2012. I was working as a research assistant at Lancaster University, in northern England. The university threw a tea party, which I attended with a friend. She wrangled me into donning a party hat decorated with the Union Jack. Sixtieth anniversaries, I learned that year, are associated with diamond.
I had trouble finding what 100th anniversaries are associated with—I presume because few queens and couples reach their centennials. But I dug up an answer (all hail the Internet): bone. This post marks my bone anniversary with Quantum Frontiers—my 100th article.
To everyone who’s journeyed with me since article number one, or joined me partway through, or tolerating my writing for the first time now: Thank you. The opportunity to connect with so many people, from undergraduates to art teachers to quantum-information experts to librarians, has been a blessing. I’ve been surprised at, and grateful for, your sharing of what this blog means to you. You’ve reached out during campus visits, at American Physical Society conferences, in emails, and on Twitter. Thank you for enriching my writing life.
The journey began in mid-May 2013, when I signed my soul to Caltech’s PhD program. Fellow blogger John Preskill1 agreed to supervise me for five years. My first blog post said, “For five years, I will haunt this blog. (Spiros [the creator and gatekeeper of Quantum Frontiers] will haunt me if I don’t haunt it.) I’ll try to post one article per month.” I’ve posted one article per month since then.
Since then, much has transpired. Career-wise, I finished a Master’s degree; earned a PhD; completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics; committed to doing physics at the National Institute for Science and Technology; stumbled over several acronyms; and founded a research group. Outside of work, I married off my best friend, fell in love and got married myself, lost two grandmothers, and wrote a book. I found myself in more countries than I can count on one hand, in more US states than countries, and jet-lagged for more hours than I care to recall. Quantum Frontiers has served as a diary and a taskmaster, challenging me to find and crystallize meaning in my experiences.
Although professional and personal affairs have had cameos, learning and research have starred in these 100 articles. My research has evolved over the past eight years, not only as recorded on, but also partially thanks to, this blog. Physicists lionize imagination, but some imaginings have no place even in physics papers. This blog serves as a home for the poetry, the puns, the evocative typos, and the far-fetched connections that Physical Review wouldn’t publish. But nurturing whimsy that Physical Review wouldn’t publish fosters whimsy that Physical Review would. Blogging, I’ve found, promotes creativity that enhances research.
My research dwelled in Abstract-Theory Land in 2013—pure quantum-information-theoretic thermodynamics. Caltech bridged my research to the real physical world: condensed matter; atomic molecular, and optical physics; and chemistry. The transformation continued during my postdoc, producing two experimental papers and initiating three more. I don’t think that the metamorphosis will progress, and I keep a foot in abstract theory. But if I awake one morning from troubled dreams, finding myself changed into an experimentalist or an engineer, you’ll be among the first to know.
I’ve come to know you a little over the past eight years. Many of you like listicles, according to WordPress statistics. You like former Quantum Frontiers blogger Shaun Maguire more than you like me; his most popular article has logged about 142,000 views, whereas mine has logged about 18,000. That’s ok; I’ve never been the popular kid, and I’m a Shaun Maguire fan, too. But, beyond Shaun and listicles, what draws you has surprised Spiros, John, and me. John anticipated that the article “Theoretical physics has not gone to the dogs” would stir up conversation (Do you think it’ll offend anyone? I asked. I hope so, he replied), but other articles have taken off on Twitter unexpectedly. Maybe we’ll understand you better another 100 articles down the line.
My first blog post contained a quote from Goethe’s Faust. The play opens with a poet reminiscing about his earlier years: “Nothing I had; and yet, enough for youth—/ delight in fiction, and the thirst for truth.” I still delight in fiction, as attested to by a 2020 post about the magical realist Gabriel García Marquez. I’d better thirst for truth no less, now that experimental collaborators are grounding me in reality. Partnering truth with fiction, so that each enhances the other, delights me most—and encapsulates what I aim for on Quantum Frontiers. As I wrote in May 2013, invoking the thirst for truth: Drink with me. I’ll drink a cup of tea to another 100 blog posts.
1Who hasn’t blogged much recently. How about it, John?
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Source: https://quantumfrontiers.com/2021/09/12/my-100th-anniversary-with-quantum-frontiers/
