Is N. David Mermin's Autobiography Relevant for Today's STEM Scholars?

[sbrothy]

[rant clipped]

I digress, meander even...I found this: Autobiographical Notes of a Physicist under physics.hist.ph. A place I suspect not many of you look regularly ;) Which sounds pretty prejudiced I'm aware. :) )

This guy's experiences may well be out of date for the need of todays STEM scholars but my thought is that maybe you need to exchange experiences more often (which I guess is an easy thing to say with the forum being right here and all.)

What I like about it in particular is that it seems quite down-to-earth (apart from the name-dropping).

 

[DaveC426913]

Maybe a few excerpts?

 

[sbrothy]

Maybe a few excerpts?

I'd like to provide some but it's late here and there's a lot in there (a lot of not-so-relevant personal stuff too). It seems to me he's been pretty lucky with how it turned out as some of his teachers were.... "eccentric" I think the word is. Also his timing was pretty good I think, but there's really no way to plan for that is there? A fact which ST just makes harder, no?

 

[DaveC426913]

... and there's a lot in there ...

Sure, which makes it all the more important. The likelihood of any given reader deciding to follow through on this link is vasty improved by giving a hint as to what they might hope to find there.

What you've posted amounts to recommending a 700 page novel you liked - without offering a title, blurb or even a pic of the cover.

 

[Frabjous]

What you've posted amounts to recommending a 700 page novel you liked - without offering a title, blurb or even a pic of the cover.

I would suggest naming the author. N. David Mermin
It’s only 17 pages. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks @sbrothy for pointing it out.

My favorite book on being a physicist is “Magnets“ by Francis Bitter who died in 1967.
When I was a student I liked “Beamtimes and Lifetimes” by Traweek

 

[symbolipoint]

I'd like to provide some but it's late here and there's a lot in there (a lot of not-so-relevant personal stuff too). It seems to me he's been pretty lucky with how it turned out as some of his teachers were.... "eccentric" I think the word is. Also his timing was pretty good I think, but there's really no way to plan for that is there? A fact which ST just makes harder, no?

How would you feel if to know that at some places in the past and possibly yet in the present, Physics and related students of the undergrad. and grad. level informally find them themselves gathered in real lounges and actually discuss their studies, their courses/classes, and their associates and faculty members? These little gatherings become like informal forums, and you can rightly imagine, they do become heated somewhat as you find happening here on Physicsforums website.

 

[sbrothy]

Sure, which makes it all the more important. The likelihood of any given reader deciding to follow through on this link is vasty improved by giving a hint as to what they might hope to find there.

What you've posted amounts to recommending a 700 page novel you liked - without offering a title, blurb or even a pic of the cover.

Sure, I'll use this day to find in this paper what I think could be relevant to todays STEM-scholars. Cut me some slack though, as I'm not one myself. I clipped my rant because it wasn't really well thought out and was more of an acerbic general complaint of what went wrong during my own "autodidact" (oh I really hate that word) "career" and the stuff I had to put up with during it. From the importance of merit, nepotism over the, always there, grown-up bullying (yes, really. Right up into the ranks of military intelligence where one would have thought that chapter closed.) to the extreme importance of a good education.

 

[sbrothy]

How would you feel if to know that at some places in the past and possibly yet in the present, Physics and related students of the undergrad. and grad. level informally find them themselves gathered in real lounges and actually discuss their studies, their courses/classes, and their associates and faculty members? These little gatherings become like informal forums, and you can rightly imagine, they do become heated somewhat as you find happening here on Physicsforums website.

Working as both an internal and external IT-consultant the contracts ususally specifically forbade discussions about pay among employees. You'd imagine how seriously this was taken though. Some ugly truths were laid bare, but it always ended up meaning basically: Get That Education! Now!

I sure regret that I didn't hang on better in there, but again, that's my story, and it's not really relevant.

 

[DaveC426913]

Sure, I'll use this day to find in this paper...
Cut me some slack though, as I'm not one myself.

I wasn't criticizing. I was trying to help you help readers.

And I don't think you need to spend time on it - nobody expects a summary. A quote or two - a dozen words - would give reader the gist of what to expect.

Just IMO.

 

[sbrothy]

I wasn't criticizing. I was trying to help you help readers.

And I don't think you need to spend time on it - nobody expects a summary. A quote or two - a dozen words - would give reader the gist of what to expect.

Just IMO.

I didn't misunderstand at all. I kinda took it as challenge but I'm surfing from one public computer to the next (this time the library). I'll give it a go when I get home. :)

 

[gleem]

This guy's experiences may well be out of date for the need of todays STEM scholars but my thought is that maybe you need to exchange experiences more often (which I guess is an easy thing to say with the forum being right here and all.)

So why do you think his experiences are out of date?

 

[pines-demon]

N. David Mermin seems to have just produced autobiographical notes : https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.04711
It is quite interesting read. I am always surprised on how bright minds get to meet so many bright minds in their life.

 

[Frabjous]

It must be worth reading. You’re the second person to bring it up in a couple of days.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-over-the-past-60-years.1059185/#post-6987573

I am always surprised on how bright minds get to meet so many bright minds in their life.

As physics has specialized, I think there are less interactions.

I remember being surprised by a Mott edited volume of recollections “The Beginnings of Solid State Physics” (also Proc. R. Soc. A V371 N1744) with contributors we would now identify as physicists and mechnical engineers.

 

[pines-demon]

It must be worth reading. You’re the second person to bring it up in a couple of days.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-over-the-past-60-years.1059185/#post-6987573

Should I go close this thread?

 

[Frabjous]

Should I go close this thread?

Your thread has a decent title, so I vote no.

 

[fresh_42]

Should I go close this thread?

I merged the two threads, so nothing is lost, and I used the new title because it is more descriptive.

I value your attempts on PF to establish some more cultural, especially historical threads.

 

[pines-demon]

People were asking for excerpts. I think it is worth reading he had many encounters with famous scientists during his work, some include: Kenneth Wilson, Julian Schwinger, Paul C. Martin, Aage Bohr, Rudolf Peierls, Michael Fisher, Pierre Hohenberg, John Wilkins, Neil Aschroft, Richard Feynman and Freeman Dyson. From the last two he shares a letter from each that they send him.

On the Aschroft&Mermin:

Neil and I became close friends soon after his arrival. In 1966 Ashcroft, Wilkins,and I decided to write a textbook on solid state physics. We called the book Wilkins, Ashcroft, and Mermin: WAM (pronounced “Wham!”).). We started to produce first drafts of chapters in 1967. It soon became clear that John, the most prolific educator of PhDs in the department, was far too strongly engaged in his research to devote a serious effort to writing a textbook. Neil and I suggested he withdraw from the collaboration. I believe John was as relieved as we were. WAM shrank to AM...

... I thank Rudolf Peierls for having “converted[me] to the view that solid state physics is a discipline of beauty, clarity, and coherence”.Then Neil adds that “having learnt the subject from John Ziman and Brian Pippard, [he]has never been in need of conversion.”

...In 1990 I remarked to Hans that Ashcroft & Mermin was 14years old but still in its first edition. He said this showed “the stability of the subject.”

When writing for Physics Today:

Then one day I discovered that Physical Review Letters, the world’s most widely read physics journal, was doing something utterly ridiculous that seemed to have escaped theattention of every physicist I mentioned it to. The absurd policy, and my theory of why nobody had noticed it, made a good story [6].

My most important contribution to science may well have been my May 1991 column,“Publishing in Computopia” [7]. I criticized the prevailing culture of paper “preprints” and advocated a publicly available “electronic bulletin board” on which anyone could post or read a paper. Paul Ginsparg has told me that this inspired him to establish three months later at Los Alamos what evolved over the next decade into arXiv.org at Cornell, today one of the great avenues of international scientific communication.

I had invented an alter ego, Professor Mozart (“W. A.”). I would discuss with him contentious issues, often assigning some of my more outrageous views to W. A., trying unsuccessfully to talk him out of them. Many physicists thought Professor Mozart wasNeil Ashcroft (whose initials, now that I think of it, were N. W. A.).

[6] refers to an editor note where he explains that for 5 years, PRL was writing "Lagrangean" instead of Lagrangian.

Also he reminds people that the Mermin-Wagner theorem, his most famous theorem was originally from Hohenberg. Hohenberg came out with it and Memin & Wagner found a corollary but Hohenberg's paper took 1 year to publish, long after the paper of M&W was published. The two authors attribute the result in their paper to Hohenberg, Ashcroft&Mermin explains this too, but people still call it Mermin–Wagner or say things like Hohenberg came with the theorem independently after them.

 

[sbrothy]

So why do you think his experiences are out of date?

I suspect it was a Freudian slip, as for me the train pretty much left... :(

 

[sbrothy]

I particularly like this one:

[...] “Mermin and Wagner have just proved that there is no spontaneous magnetization in the 2-dimensional Heisenberg model,” Michael proudly informed him, as Herbert and I basked in his admiration. “Of course there isn’t,” Dyson replied. “But they have proved that there isn’t,” Michael insisted. One Dyson eyebrow may have moved up half a millimeter in response. It would be another 35 years before I managed to impress Freeman Dyson. No matter. I had impressed Michael Fisher, and would happily argue with and learn from him for the rest of his life. [...]

 

[sbrothy]

How would you feel if to know that at some places in the past and possibly yet in the present, Physics and related students of the undergrad. and grad. level informally find them themselves gathered in real lounges and actually discuss their studies, their courses/classes, and their associates and faculty members? These little gatherings become like informal forums, and you can rightly imagine, they do become heated somewhat as you find happening here on Physicsforums website.

Sorry, the sarcasm went completely over my head. :)

One reason is perhaps that I would have loved to follow a STEM track at a university. Any university. I told the military no thanks as I was "lucky" enough to pull a "get-out-of-there-free-unless-you-really-want-card" (after completing the IQ test satisfactorily - which I'm not sure means that much.

Ironically, later in life, with 20-20 hindsight, I see how much good the PE would have done me in the long run, and if it weren't for the fact that I live in Denmark - where education is as good as free anyway, I'd have developed a bitterness concerning lost chances.

[Now there may have been some political / idelogical / economical reasons as to why entering the military at that particular time might not have been a good idea. But again: 20-20 hindsigt.]

I have no illusions a to where I'm found on the Bell Curve, but in these days, in the big experiments, I'm sure there would be room for a "physicist" with a degree from a somewhat disreputable university. If nothing else then just to clean the magnets. :)

Heh. So there we are. My ambitions are down to scrubbing magnets!

Oooh thats sad. :P

[Tongue-in-cheek :]

 

[symbolipoint]

You quoted something I wrote in a post but the topics are confused. (post #20 shown in current topic). I wrote what I wrote in some other topic about some commentary of physics people interacting and sharing ideas. Something happened to the topic title and the placement of my post.

 

[sbrothy]

I'm sorry. I may have been a little bit paranoid. Don't take it seriously. It was all written tongue-in cheek.:)

 

[symbolipoint]

I'm sorry. I may have been a little bit paranoid. Don't take it seriously. It was all written tongue-in cheek.:)

Bigger wonder is not the first sentence of your post #20. Big wonder and confusion is how the quote of what I wrote is less related to what you wrote in post #20.

 

[sbrothy]

twas because they merged the thread. bound to create some confusion. its pretty much over anyway. i wouldnt trouble myself too much.

An yeah, I'm a scatterbrain. I take full responsibility. :)

 

[gentzen]

N David Mermin is absolutely fascinating. What can I say?

Brandon May asks: “what else could you ask for”. How about a conversation with David Mermin? He managed the incredible feat to be covered on Luboš Motl’s “the reference frame” in 2009 and 2014, and being judged favorably both times. He also has more conventional achievements, like Hohenberg-Kohn theorem (extension to finite temperature, 1965), Mermin-Wagner theorem (1966), Mermin-Lindhard dielectric function (1970), Mermin-Ho relation (1976), Ashcroft/Mermin Solid State Physics textbook (1976), Director of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell (1984-1990), Shut up and calculate (1989), GHZ experiment (three observers suggestion,1990), Klopsteg Memorial Award (American Association of Physics Teachers, 1994), Ithaca interpretation of quantum mechanics (1996), Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell University (2006-present), Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction textbook (2007), Converted to QBism by Chris Fuchs (2012), American Philosophical Society (Award, 2015), Making better sense of quantum mechanics (arXiv, to appear in Reports on Progress in Physics, 2018).

Even so I knew some of those achievements in isolation, I never realized until last week that all those achievement came from a single person, namely David Mermin. And he has written more books than listed above, books I never heard of before (look for the date yourself, if you are interested): “Boojums all the way through : communicating science in a prosaic age”, “Why Quark Rhymes with Pork, and Other Scientific Diversions”, “It’s about time : understanding Einstein’s relativity”, “Space and time in special relativity”.