But I’ll be in London on 15 May if you fancy a coffee …

Alas no. It’s a long way from Cape Town. 😳

It seems that Frayn was influenced by Thomas Powers’ book (below) which presents a singular but unlikely narrative that Heisenberg & Co. deliberately failed to build a bomb (and a nuclear reactor) on moral grounds. I know Phil knows this so this post is for interested onlookers. 😎

Those who can’t get to Hampstead Theatre before 2 May might like to try tracking down this gem: a TV movie based on the play with Daniel Craig as Heisenberg, Stephen Rea as Bohr, and Francesca Annis as Margrethe.

Me too. A good source for anyone interested in this episode is the book below, prompted by the success of Frayn’s play. Bohr drafted several unsent letters primarily in response to the interpretation given by German physicists presented in ‘Brighter Than a Thousand Suns’, by Robert Jungk.

Puckoon

It may have been just a timing issue - I got responses saying that use of Larson’s back catalogue was under review and they couldn’t help until the review was complete. Now I see Larson cartoons posted every day on this platform. Hey ho.

I had a similar problem getting permission to use this Gary Larson cartoon in my recent book on the Hubble constant. In the end, I chose to describe it, which was not quite as effective.

I know that times are dark. But here’s a cheery thought. In days gone by, we would all be obsessed by morbid existential questions. Why am I here? Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? Now, in these modern times our questions are framed by a new obsession. Will my package arrive today?

The key word is ‘permission’.

What a horrifying thought. A version of reality constructed from all your mistakes. 😳

Only 75??

Deeply, deeply disappointing.

In 2011, Microsoft ran a spoof campaign highlighting GMail’s use of private mails to develop targeted advertising. Take a look at this video, 'Gmail man videos' share.google/8XIqUlI0xFAU...

The irascible Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky would call colleagues ‘spherical bastards’, as they were bastards from all angles.

You don’t have any friends. Nobody likes you.

Please share. 💔

Good luck with that. 😂

Even more amusing as I’m currently working on a new book titled ‘The Two Lives of Schrodinger’s Cat’. 🙀

Quantum Reality

See here: www.jimbaggott.com/books/quantu...

This is an absolute disgrace. So the values held by society haven’t changed in 323 years (Isaac Newton was elected president of the Royal Society in 1703)?

Dark Energy may be changing and with it the fate of the Universe A mysterious force called Dark Energy might be changing, in a way that challenges our current understanding of the nature of time and space.

Alternative headline: ‘Astronomers are still arguing about the dark energy equation of state’.

Dark energy just got even weirder and why the Universe may end in a 'Big Crunch' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

James Webb Space Telescope confirms 1st 'runaway' supermassive black hole rocketing through home galaxy at 2.2 million mph: 'It boggles the mind!' "The forces that are needed to dislodge such a massive black hole from its home are enormous."

www.space.com/astronomy/bl...

I raise you a quantum teaspoon and a Bose Einstein teapot and a splash of Higgs condensate. And two sugars.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88 Sir Tom won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love.

*Hapgood* was one of my favourite Stoppard plays. Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88 www.bbc.com/news/article...

I’m afraid so. I blaming the ageing process.

I vaguely recall there were a couple of guys who wrote books about this.

2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) - Wikipedia

Ok. So what’s your version of events? I’m afraid the evidence about the screenplay is widely available and the Wikipedia entry clearly states that the book was published after the film. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A...

… the book based on the screenplay. I recall reading the book at age 11 or 12 in an attempt to understand what I’d watched at the cinema. 😳

I don’t think this is correct. Kubrick and Clarke co-wrote the screenplay, based on several Clarke short stories, but specifically one titled The Sentinel. Clarke worked on the screenplay whilst staying at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC, where I had the pleasure (?) of staying in 1983. Clarke then wrote…