Casual Physics Enjoyer

Physics departments are at risk of shutting down across the world.

I have restrained myself from being political on this blog. That being said, one obvious response is to campaign for more money. We can mail politicians to increase funding for physics. We can also ask for money from philanthropists. All are good things to do.

But let’s assume that these cuts are here to stay, and that funding won’t budge. I am worried that this is a possibility too.

In this case, independent scientists who work alongside a day job could be an imperfect, but valuable solution.

The scientific method doesn’t belong to organisations, and anyone can be empirical. Most of the science before the 1900s was done independently anyways. In that spirit, I am trying to do math, trying to do experiments at home, and publishing those ideas on this blog. I wish that ex-physicists more talented than me would get in the game as well, because I still suck at it!

Experiments are hard because they’re expensive, but trying to make them cheaper and recording the attempt is still progress. It’s also possible to work on theory by contributing to open source projects like PhysLean.

Having people doing physics in their garages is an imperfect solution, but I think it’s net positive versus people doing nothing. There’s a risk that campaigning will lead nowhere, and so citizen science feels like a great hedge for society.

I am disappointed that I had to write this post. But on the bright side, it’s an environment where independent researchers can have their day in the sun, because we are used to having little resources anyway.

It’s worth noting however, that there is a risk that governments could use this as an excuse to cut funding more and over-rely on independents (or corporations). I think this risk is small for now, but could get bigger. This is why not having budget cuts would be the best solution.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Cyrus Hafezparast for bringing this to my attention