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Folks who, like me, are interested but not professional physicists, may find illuminating Sean Carroll's podcast. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/

Folks who, like me, are interested but not professional physicists, may find illuminating Sean Carroll's podcast. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ He is a CalTech faculty physicist with wide interests and perhaps a third of the episodes are about research physics. I remember several that discussed wormholes and associated topics seriously, from the standpoint of world-class researchers. I think anyone interested in HN would be able to follow the conversations closely.

gyldenlund 5y ago
Thanks for this!
crmd 5y ago
I can’t recommend enough Sean’s “Biggest Ideas in the Universe” video series [1] It’s a series of 24 1-2 hour lectures + Q&A/recitations that assumes no prior knowledge of physics and aims to get you roughly to the knowledge level of a modern undergrad BA physics. For someone who loves science documentaries but was frustrated at most being aimed at high school-level and skipping all the math, Sean’s series was a game changer for me. [1] https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxZJcWcrxH3jyjUUrJlnoyzX https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxZJcWcrxH3jyjUU...
- jimbob45 5y ago
  Did you say BA on purpose or did you just generally mean undergrad degree? Yes, stupid question, I know.
- wheels 5y ago
  > It’s a series of 24 1-2 hour lectures [...] level of a modern undergrad BA physics. Wait, what? That's completely bonkers. There's absolutely no way to condense four years of studies into two days of YouTube. I can't believe I'm even having to say this. I'm hoping what you mean is "introduce you to the topics that would be covered in an undergrad physics degree". In 24 hours you could reasonably mention each of the topics covered in a degree and describe what that field is about.
  - throwaway09223 5y ago
    I think if we're generous and we consider only lecture time it's not entirely a crazy proposition. Watch one youtube video a week for half a year, with accompanying study and prep time. 24 lectures can represent six months (or more) of material.
    - wheels 5y ago
      It is an entirely crazy proposition. A single physics course is approximately 50 hours of instruction. You have to take about 20 of those. You can't squeeze that down 30x with no loss of resolution. Again, in your example, you're suggesting you can learn all of the physics one would normally learn in four years of almost-full-time study in six months of part-time study. It's just not happening. Physics is hard.
      - lokedhs 5y ago
        Of the course that's not happening. What it does is to give an understanding of the concepts, but you won't be able to actually do the maths. The the series, he shows some of the maths so as to give you an idea how you get to the conclusions that popular science just explained as fact, but isn't rigorous. Almost all physics material is either simple explanations with analogies and no maths. Or it's the full textbook. The video series is a very rare example of a middle ground where maths is used to explain the concepts to an audience which are not expected to be actual employed physicists.
        throwaway09223 5y ago
        Exactly. There's a big difference between knowledge and aptitude. The former is a lot easier to obtain than the latter.
- thelastinuit 5y ago
  I know kungfu
jperras 5y ago
Sean Carroll is incredible, and his textbook on Spacetime & Geometry was the only reason I understood anything in my graduate-level class on general relativity. There's truly an art to be able to explain incredibly complex topics in an easy(er) to understand way.

gyldenlund 5y ago

Thanks for this!

crmd 5y ago

I can’t recommend enough Sean’s “Biggest Ideas in the Universe” video series [1] It’s a series of 24 1-2 hour lectures + Q&A/recitations that assumes no prior knowledge of physics and aims to get you roughly to the knowledge level of a modern undergrad BA physics. For someone who loves science documentaries but was frustrated at most being aimed at high school-level and skipping all the math, Sean’s series was a game changer for me. [1] https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxZJcWcrxH3jyjUUrJlnoyzX https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxZJcWcrxH3jyjUU...

jimbob45 5y ago
Did you say BA on purpose or did you just generally mean undergrad degree? Yes, stupid question, I know.
wheels 5y ago
> It’s a series of 24 1-2 hour lectures [...] level of a modern undergrad BA physics. Wait, what? That's completely bonkers. There's absolutely no way to condense four years of studies into two days of YouTube. I can't believe I'm even having to say this. I'm hoping what you mean is "introduce you to the topics that would be covered in an undergrad physics degree". In 24 hours you could reasonably mention each of the topics covered in a degree and describe what that field is about.
- throwaway09223 5y ago
  I think if we're generous and we consider only lecture time it's not entirely a crazy proposition. Watch one youtube video a week for half a year, with accompanying study and prep time. 24 lectures can represent six months (or more) of material.
  - wheels 5y ago
    It is an entirely crazy proposition. A single physics course is approximately 50 hours of instruction. You have to take about 20 of those. You can't squeeze that down 30x with no loss of resolution. Again, in your example, you're suggesting you can learn all of the physics one would normally learn in four years of almost-full-time study in six months of part-time study. It's just not happening. Physics is hard.
    - lokedhs 5y ago
      Of the course that's not happening. What it does is to give an understanding of the concepts, but you won't be able to actually do the maths. The the series, he shows some of the maths so as to give you an idea how you get to the conclusions that popular science just explained as fact, but isn't rigorous. Almost all physics material is either simple explanations with analogies and no maths. Or it's the full textbook. The video series is a very rare example of a middle ground where maths is used to explain the concepts to an audience which are not expected to be actual employed physicists.
      - throwaway09223 5y ago
        Exactly. There's a big difference between knowledge and aptitude. The former is a lot easier to obtain than the latter.
thelastinuit 5y ago
I know kungfu

jperras 5y ago

Sean Carroll is incredible, and his textbook on Spacetime & Geometry was the only reason I understood anything in my graduate-level class on general relativity. There's truly an art to be able to explain incredibly complex topics in an easy(er) to understand way.