Lookin' Good, Physics! - Times Buzzer

Let me start out by saying that I am a very hip and very in-touch young person. I live in the information and and I –

—HOLD ON. Got to answer this TEXT on my iPHONE. —

As I was saying, as a hip and in-touch young person, I am fully aware that information must be conveyed through multimedia if you hope to –

— HOLD ON. Have to watch the latest VIRAL VIDEO on my MACBOOK PRO.–

Where was I? Oh yes; in order to get the attention of insanely hip and unbelievably in-touch young people like myself, you simply must cater to the fact that information is spread through –

— HOLD ON. I must SYNCH my ipod and check out this WIFI.–

Do you see how hip and in touch I am? So as I was saying, you have to market yourself with multimedia if you hope to keep up with my generation. Which is why I’m so excited to see the photos that physicists have been submitting to accompany their talks at the APS March meeting. These are going on TWITTER!

These are genuinely stunning – I’m very impressed with this year’s gallery. The one up top is from Roman Stocker and Mack Durham of (MIT), and comes with this caption: “Strong variations in marine currents form a watery trap for phytoplankton cells on their daily commute to the Ocean’s surface.” The one to my right from Greg Stone, Scott Mullin and Nitash Balsara of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows lithium metal dendrites growing through a polymer electrolyte for battery applications. The one below it from Adam R. Abate and David A. Weitz of Harvard University shows water drops within oil drops within water drops within oil drops within water drops dispersed in an oil carrier fluid.

You can see them all at the APS image gallery (seriously, go look! So many great ones!). Or you could join us in Portland next week and see the whole show.

These photos are so amazing that I think they will look awesome to people of all technological abilities! Even if you are the kind of person whose phone doesn’t even have a color screen let alone a camera or the ability to connect to the Internet that finally died but you still tried to revive it and would not get a new one because you are scared someone will be able to watch you through it, and you could still appreciate these photos! I mean, THANK GOODNESS that is not a description of me, but either way…good photos! They deserve their own APP!

Now, I’m sorry but I have to go! I need to buy sunglasses that connect to facebook and throw my desktop computer off a roof or whatever. Great photos!

Noise fluctuations reveal quantum phases in ultra-cold atom systems. “Image courtesy of Anzi Hu/Joint Quantum Institute”.

Visualization of human mobility networks showing short-range multimodal transportation and airline connections worldwide. Image courtesy of B. Goncalves, et al./Indiana University.