Hi folks, quick interim post.
A few of you have been asking how I know so much about this stuff and how I write my articles. So, I thought I’d give you a little insight.
Truth is, I don’t know everything, obviously no one does, and although I’m not a professional physicist, I am a very well-read and well-studied amateur.
I got into it via my father, whose interest started with radio propagation when he was in the RAF. He was always fascinated with physics and space travel, planetary science, and in particular, anything to do with the possibilities of FTL communications.
In 1996 I bought my first tiny house in a small market town a few miles south of Norwich, and my dad lived around the corner. At the time I was working shifts in a factory, a week of days a week of nights, then I would get a week off.
During this time and for most of the rest of the nineties, my dad was always over and making use of my computer knowledge and internet and he introduced me to sites, such as Warp Drive When, and Breakthrough Propulsion Physics and other fun stuff. And it wasn’t long before I was hooked, and within a couple of years my knowledge had far surpassed my father’s.
I’m a serial learner, once I get my teeth into a subject I don’t stop. It’s an obsessive trait I’ve had all my life, and only in recent years have I discovered it’s due to OCD/ADHD/Autism. Every one of us is on the spectrum somewhere, for me and my particular place on it, it has turned me into a compulsive seeker of knowledge.
As for the articles themselves, I bang out a rough draft of what I know on the subject matter I have chosen, and then I do my research. I know quite a lot of useless stuff, how it works, when it was first performed etc. Once my draft is complete, I then start the research to make sure I’ve got the science correct, haven’t missed anything, and check timelines and people etc. I have a ton of books on the subjects I write about, and I have also subscribed to several scientific journals over the years and have those, Nature, Science, JBIS and a few others. And of course, I have the internet.
With the Quantum Teleportation article, I remember the experiments and I remember the time, and as I said in my article, I was genuinely so excited at the time I wouldn’t shut up about it. As I said above, once the draft is written, I then google it to make sure I’ve got all the awesome dudes who participated, as readers can be ruthless if I make a mistake, miss someone out, or get something wrong.
I then do a second phase over the whole thing and rewrite it before I re-read it out loud to myself, as this is the best way to pick up errors in the narration, typos, dodgy grammar etc.
Once I’m satisfied with it, I send the final draft to some very old friends from school, get them to read it and to see if it makes sense to them. With their feedback, I tweak the final article and it’s ready to go. This is also why some typos and wrong words still get through occasionally.
And that’s it. Physics is a subject that I love, and I love it so much, I want to share it with everybody else, so they will love it too.
When I resurrected this WordPress site after a four-year hiatus, I wanted to write about general sciency stuff. A bit of physics here, a bit of astronomy there, and a bit of paleoanthropology (my first love, don’t get me started on it, honestly, I won’t shut up for days!) in between.
As physics has consumed most of my adult life though, that is the direction my writings have naturally taken, and going forward, apart from the odd article in the other sections from time to time, physics is where it looks like it’s staying.
One last thing before you go. I love receiving your messages, and I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed at how engaged some of you guys are, flattered at how many new readers are joining, and I’m genuinely thrilled at the messages I have received. Mostly via social media, which is why I added the email address to the home page.
If you want to get in touch to suggest future articles, point out mistakes, or even have a go (I’ve had a couple of those), please do. At present I am able to reply to everyone who gets in touch, unless they’re a complete arsehole.
Thank you for your time. You are AWESOME!
when I think of something snappy 