Condensed concepts

One of the greatest joys of teaching is having students ask questions that you do not know the answer to. In the last week of the course PHYS2020 Thermodynamics and Condensed Matter Physics for second year undergrads at UQ, I give two lectures about critical points, universality, critical exponents, broken symmetry, order parameters, and Landau theory. Many students find this quite challenging. However, I think it is important that students be exposed to two of the most important ideas of theoretical physics from the twentieth century: broken symmetry and universality. Furthermore, there is no technical reason why second year undergrads cannot learn this material. Since the text, Thermal Physics by Schroeder, does not cover this material we have finally settled on a chapter from a book by Hoch. After my last lecture, a student asked an excellent question along the lines of "Why is it that broken symmetry occurs at lower temperatures? How is this related to entropy and order?

One of the many concerns I have about uni versities, particularly in Australia, is the trend to compartmentalisation, factionalisation, fragmentation, obscure over-specialisation, ... Long ago visions of the UNIversity included unity of knowledge, collegiality, and combining breadth and depth, ... This trend to the multi-versity manifests itself in diverse ways: - the lack of appreciation for the value of a liberal arts education - students who are reluctant to see the relevance of previous subjects and course they have studied to the one they are studying right now, and more broadly the value of other majors (e.g. maths to physics, physics to chemistry, chemistry to biochemistry, history to sociology, philosophy to everything, ....) - departments that ruthlessly compete with one another for student enrolments - a ridiculous diversity of undergraduate majors, minors, and degrees - claims that all points of view are equally valid and should not be critiqued - a lack of interest

I never thought I would write a post linking the two issues in the title. I have been working on my talk on mental health for the School of Maths and Physics colloquium on friday. Here is the current version of my slides . I welcome any comments. In my preparation I have become aware of a few more resources. A recent issue of Nature includes several articles, including: An Editorial, What to do to improve postgraduate mental health . Four researchers write from their own experience, How to handle the dark days of depression . There is also  A collection of resources. On the one hand, it is wonderful that Nature is highlighting the issue. On the other hand, it would be nice if they reflected how Nature Publishing Group might actually be part of the problem, as they mindlessly promote metrics and their journals. It is a case of corporate "well-washing." The link between metrics and mental health is brought out in a report to the Higher Education Funding Council f

Thanks to the ingenuity of synthetic chemists metallic-organic frameworks (MOFs) represent a fascinating class of materials with many potential technological applications. Previously, I have posted about spin-crossover , self-diffusion of small hydrocarbons , and the lack of reproducibility of CO2 absorption measurements in these materials. At the last condensed matter theory group meeting we had an open discussion about this JACS paper. Metallic Conductivity in a Two-Dimensional Cobalt Dithiolene Metal−Organic Framework  Andrew J. Clough, Jonathan M. Skelton, Courtney A. Downes, Ashley A. de la Rosa, Joseph W. Yoo, Aron Walsh, Brent C. Melot, and Smaranda C. Marinescu The basic molecular unit is shown below. These molecules stack on top of one another, producing a layered crystal structure. DFT calculations suggest that the largest molecular overlap (and conductivity) is in the stacking direction. Within the layers the MOF has the structure of a honeycomb lattice. The

I learnt today that David Pines died last week. He was a pioneer in quantum many-body theory, applying it not just to solid state physics but also to nuclear physics and astrophysics (neutron stars).  Furthermore, he was a great advocate of the importance of emergence in science, writing a classic paper, " The Theory of Everything, " together with Bob Laughlin. David also left a legacy of creative new institutions, being a co-founder of the Sante Fe Institute and the  International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter  (I2CAM). Indeed, starting this blog was stimulated by David Pines and I2CAM. In January 2009, I attended the annual meeting of I2CAM in Cambridge and David organised a session on public outreach, including a presentation on blogging. Piers Coleman, a current co-Director of I2CAM, has written a nice obituary which gives more details about David's contributions , both scientific and institutional.

Universities are going off the rails because of the blind use of metrics. Unfortunately, this reflects what is also happening in wider society, due to the rise of neoliberalism. Australia has recently been rocked by scandals involving large banks , leading to the resignation of CEO's, Board chairs, lawyers, ... This stimulated the following column, by Ross Gittins , the Economics Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. It is worth reading in full, but I reproduce a few choice extracts. Banks' misbehaviour shows power of KPIs ... though the financial services industry must surely be the most egregious instance of the misuse of performance indicators and performance pay, let’s not forget “metrics” is one of the great curses of modern times. It’s about computers, of course. They’ve made it much easier and cheaper to measure, record and look up the various dimensions of a big organisation’s performance, as well as generating far more measurable data about many dimensions of that

I find that too often both of the elements below are missing or are superficial in a thesis. Yet doing them is important training for a student and just plain old good science. Suggestions for Future Directions A good research project will raise new questions and challenges. Most projects do not get as far as the advisor and student would have liked. The student should write about: What would do if I had more time? What should the next Ph.D. student do? This can be a separate section or chapter at the end of the thesis. A sober assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken and the methods used. In these current times of hype, the fierce competition for funding and publication in luxury journals mean that many are reluctant to admit any weakness or the value of possible alternatives. During question time for a colloquium, the speaker was asked, "What are the weaknesses of your approach compared to the alternatives?" "I can't think of an