4 ms·
This tidbit about a prodigious undergraduate struck me. He double majored in math and physics and was about to start his PhD at Harvard. And in a sudden freak a
by markisus 4y ago
This tidbit about a prodigious undergraduate struck me. He double majored in math and physics and was about to start his PhD at Harvard. And in a sudden freak accident he was gone from existence. The universe will always remain unfathomable in some ways.
> In 1996, Qijia Fu of Hamilton College in New York — then just an undergraduate — proposed using germanium-based neutrino experiments to detect a CSL signature of X-ray emission. (Weeks after he submitted his paper, he was struck by lightning on a hiking trip in Utah and killed.)
- addaon 4y agoReminds me of a golden age (?) science fiction short story -- no idea the author or name -- about a spate of suicides and mysterious deaths among physicists who got too close to "the truth," externally caused by an alien force trying to keep humans in their petri dish.
- cbruns 4y agoSounds like Three Body Problem. Not golden age though.
- abecedarius 4y agoIt's an Asimov story whose title I forget. The truth in question was a defense against nuclear bombs.
- HALtheWise 4y agoBreeds There a Man...? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeds_There_a_Man...%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeds_There_a_Man...%3F
- addaon 4y agoThat's it! Thanks! Clearly left a mark on my memory.
- Iwan-Zotow 4y agoA&B Strugatsky wrote something similar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel)
- Iwan-Zotow 4y agoSomething like that was written by Strugatsky Brothers Only it was not aliens but Universe (Sub)conscious - Homeostasis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel)
- whimsicalism 4y agoSeems perfectly fathomable to me.