Theoretical Physics

[ygolo]

Is there anyone on the board who is a physicist?
...physics student?
...considering physics as a career?

Anyone have a career in theoretical physics?
...or interested in it as a later career?
...what about as an ameteur?

Ameteur physicists becoming professional through theoretical physics is not without president.

Also, other than the super-young physicists, theorists career tracks are often meandering:
Louis DeBroglie studied history before turning his attention to mathematics and physics then did Nobel Prize winning work on de Broglie's Hypothesis.
Edward Witten also started off studying history, and is now considered the leading String Theorist.
Even Einstein would not have seemed a likely candidate before his amzing 4 papers.

Really, am I the only one who has day-dreamed about this?

[runvardh]

This is a subject that if I do return to school would be high on my list for a major. Problem is, it's one of several I'd concider.

[Didums]

I'm interesting in pursuing a career in theoretical physics, I'm reading The Elegant Universe atm.

[Aerithria]

I'm currently taking physics, and I'm planning for it to become my major, though there's several fields of physics that I'm interested in.

[ygolo]

Is it just me, or is one of the problems with physics that the people who might become physicists are also interested in many things, and that a lot of those things are more lucrative?

(for those who have access to sources on things like this, that's your cue)

[Jack Flak]

I can say with almost absolute certainty I would have been a physicist a few generations ago. There isn't much progress in the field right now though, I think I would be bored.

[Eldanen]

Originally Posted by Jack Flak

I can say with almost absolute certainty I would have been a physicist a few generations ago. There isn't much progress in the field right now though, I think I would be bored.

I haven't seen much progress in any field lately, to be honest. Linux is becoming more popular and I think that's a step toward making people slightly more computer literate, but that's about it. We have the advent of Web 2.0 which has made it easier for user-generated content to abound, but that has also decreased the quality of said information a great deal in many situations. What I've found is that it's often more beneficial to someone if they'll go back and find something that seems to be out-of-date and that noone's reading anymore and finding something good in it. Uncovering abandoned knowledge, see? Not only does this give one a high through the nostalgia factor, but you also feel special, as if you're the only one that knows some bit of obscure lore :P.

[Jack Flak]

Said found material must have been by INTP physicists, because if written by ENTPs everyone would know about it already.

You're my new best friend since you use the word "abound." Conglaturations.

[ygolo]

Originally Posted by Jack Flak

You're my new best friend since you use the word "abound." Conglaturations.

As a verb too. I didn't think it could be done.
---

I was thinking, if they fail to find the Higgs Boson, the Standard Model would need to be revamped.

That would be a fun time to be a physicist.

I wanted to see if they publish a list of open problems in Physics like they do in Mathematics.

EDIT: Here is one such list:
Unsolved problems in physics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Eldanen]

Originally Posted by ygolo

As a verb too. I didn't think it could be done.
---

I was thinking, if they fail to find the Higgs Boson, the Standard Model would need to be revamped.

That would be a fun time to be a physicist.

I wanted to see if they publish a list of open problems in Physics like they do in Mathematics.

EDIT: Here is one such list:
Unsolved problems in physics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurement_problem is quite interesting. I found out about it in a small video on Youtube. In laymen's terms, they were suggesting that an object (at least on a sub-atomic level) doesn't stabilize in some way until you measure it. And they used this to posit some outlandish claims about holograph theory, etc. All in all, I thought it was quite inspiring :P. "Reality is subjective and doesn't exist until someone observes it," etc. They also used the idea of virtual particles.