Unit of Taciturnity
Apr. 2nd, 2011 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysPaul Dirac was a truly great scientist. I've heard it argued that he was the greatest scientist born in the 20th century. It is an argument that I have a lot of sympathy for although a hard call to make when comparing work across different fields (not to mention the Feynman factor).
However it isn't his contribution to our understanding of the quantum world that I'm thinking about right now. He was not a great talker. He preferred to weigh and consider his words to seemingly encapsulate his thoughts in the most concise way possible. His colleagues at Cambridge coined a new unit ("The Dirac") for the smallest imaginable number of words that someone with the power of speech could utter in company and still remain part of the conversation.
That led me to think about where we are now - in the blogosphere. I find myself asking, what is the smallest number of blog posts you can make and still be considered a blogger? I imagine you could ask similar questions about facebook and twitter.
By the way, the Dirac thoughts were prompted by a documentary on the new BBC Knowledge channel on Sky. It has replaced the old Documentary Channel. It has been showing many of the documentaries that I have hitherto had to acquire by *ahem* other means. Perhaps that Sky subscription isn't such a waste of money after all.
However it isn't his contribution to our understanding of the quantum world that I'm thinking about right now. He was not a great talker. He preferred to weigh and consider his words to seemingly encapsulate his thoughts in the most concise way possible. His colleagues at Cambridge coined a new unit ("The Dirac") for the smallest imaginable number of words that someone with the power of speech could utter in company and still remain part of the conversation.
That led me to think about where we are now - in the blogosphere. I find myself asking, what is the smallest number of blog posts you can make and still be considered a blogger? I imagine you could ask similar questions about facebook and twitter.
By the way, the Dirac thoughts were prompted by a documentary on the new BBC Knowledge channel on Sky. It has replaced the old Documentary Channel. It has been showing many of the documentaries that I have hitherto had to acquire by *ahem* other means. Perhaps that Sky subscription isn't such a waste of money after all.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-08 04:56 am (UTC)If biologists were as fond of coining new units as physicists are, there would probably be a similar unit called "The Fleming": one of his colleagues described a day in which the only two words Fleming was heard to utter were "Try" when a particular experiment was proposed, and "Home" when he was asked his opinion at a second meeting of the lab staff at the end of the workday.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-08 05:11 am (UTC)Never felt the same about Fleming after reading The Mould on Dr Flory's Coat.