Saturday, September 8, 2012

Blank On The Map: Things to Read, 8th Sept.

I have been neglecting this series over the summer, so there are rather a lot of things to highlight today.

Science items:
  • The most interesting piece of physics news over the last few months has been that the wealthy Russian investor and physics fan, Yuri Milner, decided to award a 'Fundamental Physics Prize' to 9 theorists he chose himself. The amount of the award is a staggering $3 million each, wired overnight into the physicist's bank accounts — as many people have pointed out, this makes the prize worth far far more than the Nobel Prize. Unsurprisingly, the award of this prize generated a lot of debate.