Paul Halpern's Blog (13)

I'm delighted to announce that I have a new children's book available, wonderfully illustrated by Philadelphia cartoonist Vance Lehmkuhl.  

We are donating 10% of the royalties for the book to the hunger charity Philabundance. 

As mentioned in the previous post, the book has been endorsed by singer-songwriter (and Wiffledust performer) Christine…

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I've seen singer-songwriter Christine Lavin several times in concert and have been a long-time fan of her music.   Several years ago I was delighted to meet her, after a very entertaining Wiffledust concert organized by Lisa. 

Chris's generosity is legendary.  She has supported so many musicians and helped them get the word out about their music. 

I was touched when she kindly endorsed my new illustrated children's book:…

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On July 4, two teams of researchers from CERN, Europe's center for particle physics research, made an extraordinary announcement, reporting the discovery of a new particle that appeared to match the profile of the long-sought Higgs boson.  One team, using the CMS detector, announced the discovery of a particle with a mass of 125 GeV (giga-electron volts), and the other, using the ATLAS detector, reported a mass of 126 GeV.  In tandem, they had found impressive evidence for a major…

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I'm excited to announce that I've been invited to blog for NOVA, the excellent PBS series about science.  I've been a fan of PBS, and the station that produces NOVA, since childhood, watching shows such as Masterpiece Theater.  So my blogging invitation is a true honor.

 

 

NOVA Nature of Reality Blog

I had fun at the Philadelphia Science Festival several weeks ago.  I gave a talk about particle physics right in front of the new Sister Cities Cafe on Logan Circle.  The cafe wasn't open yet so the talk was outside.  Here is a photo of the event.  (That's me on the left.  The woman on the right is the moderator, Katie Winkler.  Photo by Arthur Stoppe.)…

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Greetings to all!  I'm pleased to announce that a creative project I've been working on for the past two years has finally reached fruition.  It is a new book called Edge of the Universe: A Voyage to the Cosmic Frontier and Beyond, and explores cutting-edge discoveries about the universe.  Here is the cover photo:…

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We had an exciting visit to Yellowstone in July.  Saw a lot of wild animals including the bison pictured below that walked past our car:

 

 

I've posted an article about my trip on Yahoo:

Feeling Nature's Hot Breath at…

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Historians debate the role of various players in events that happened only hundreds of years ago. Prognosticators are uncertain what twists and turns worldly events might take little more than years, months or even weeks from now. Yet, thanks to the steady, predictable nature of many of the laws of physics, such as Einstein's general theory of relativity, along with space probes and telescopes able to collect ancient light from remote objects, cosmologists feel comfortable discussing events… Continue

I've just written a new essay and submitted it to the FQXi Essay Contest: "Is Reality Digital or Analog?"

If you are interested in science, please have a look!

Here is a link to my essay, entitled:

The Discreet Charm of the Discrete

My most recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Schroedinger's Cat Paradox:

 

A 75 Year Old Feline with More than Nine Lives

The paperback version of my book Collider is now out on booksellers' websites for pre-order. I'm really pleased with the colorful new cover. I wrote a brand new preface for the book, updating readers about what has been happening with the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle-smasher in the world, since 2009.





Collider in paperback…





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Just something silly that popped into my head this morning:

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IN THE DAYS BEFORE THE INTERNET by Paul Halpern…

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I wrote a short fictional piece back in 1999, called "The Cave of Portents" with the intention of including it in my book:



The Pursuit of Destiny: A History of Prediction



It ended up not making into my book, but I thought I would share it for the very first time.



Here is a link to the story:



The Cave of… Continue