Interview with a Physicist

Okay folks. I have a little 'splainin to do. I was reading a friend's blog (who shall remain nameless) and Mark was in the room. As he usually does when he sees me reading blogs, he started asking questions. "Who's that? Oh, how do you know him? Oh, did he just graduate? Oh, where's he going to school? What's he studying?" etc, etc, etc. I don't know why he's interested, but he always does this. So I tried to answer his questions, but I realized I didn't know what this friend was studying. He asked me if I tell people what HE is doing in school, and I said of course. But when I looked at my blog. . . nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even, "My brilliant husband is getting a PhD in Physics at Cornell." So I'm going to have him tell me what he does, and transcribe it so you will all understand what he does with his time.


Jenny: So Mark, what do you study at Cornell?

Mark: Physics.

J: Oh, really? That's interesting. Any particular area of Physics?

M: I work in a Condensed Matter Theory Group but we have been interested in Biophysics and Systems Biology lately. I'm just finishing a project that uses Differential Geometry to fit models to experimental data.

J: Oh really? That's interesting. Do go on.

M: Hopefully soon I will have written a new algorithm that others can use to more easily fit data to their models.

J: So will this mostly impact physicists? Or will it carry over into other fields of study?

M: Well as I said, this work originated as we studied biological problems. But all areas of science use mathematical modeling and need to fit their models to observations.

J: Can you define Condensed Matter Theory in a few words for any of our readers who may not be up to date on their Physics terminology?

M: Sure, Jenny! The theory part means that we don't do experiments. We spend most of our time thinking about things, writing some of it down, and doing computer simulations. The Condensed Matter area means we are interested in how large amounts of matter interact collectively to produce interesting emergent phenomena. It's sort of the anti-reductionist philosophy, that much of interest in the natural world can't be understood by breaking it down into smaller pieces but can only be understood as large numbers of objects interact with one another.

J: Yes, we just discussed these ideas the other day in a Gospel-related conversation.

M: Well, it was more of a political conversation. I was saying that the reductionist philosophy leads people to want a centrally-planned economy because they don't understand how something like the free market could be self-regulated through emergent laws. Now you should say, "That's taken us far away from your course of study. . ."

J: Hey, I'm doing the interviewing here. I'll ask the questions. So. . . back to what you're studying. Anything else you would like to add that will help the lay-physicist understand your world?

M: Well, Jenny. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a paper and hopefully this fall I will take my A-exam.

J: which means. . .? (Not that I don't know that, of course I know what that means!)

M: Basically I'm one step closer to actually finishing. The A-exam is just one of those hoops you have to jump through.

J: Do you wish more people understood Physics and that you could converse with them in your terminology, or have you accepted the fact that you'll often have to water down your explanations for people like me to get some idea of what your work entails?

M: Did you not understand what I just said?

J: Yes, but it'll go back out the other ear when we change topics of conversation.

M: Well sometimes it's a good excuse to not bring my work home with me. But when people try to press me for an explanation it can sometimes be very exhausting.

J: LOL I'm sorry.

M: That's okay.