The Strangeness Correction About Murray Gell-Mann

This strangeness correction appeared in today’s New York Times: OBITUARIES An obituary on May 25 about the physicist Murray Gell-Mann overstated a law about the conservation of a quantity in physics called strangeness. It is conserved in strong interactions and electromagnetic interactions but not in weak interactions. It is not the case that “like energy, strangeness must […]

A Grizzly-Bear-Suitably Heroic Obituary of a Modern Don Quixote

Troy Hurtubise meets his destiny in a grand obituary, written by Tom Hawthorn, in the (Toronto) Globe and Mail. Here are some highlights: Troy Hurtubise combined the fevered imagination of a mad scientist with the foolhardy bravery of Evel Knievel in his quest to design a suit impervious to bear attack…. The fanatical mission was […]

Obit of Jerry Lettvin (plus Leary/Lettvin video)

Janelle Lawrence’s obituary of Jerry Lettvin appears in today’s Boston Globe. Lawrence captures quite a bit of the Jerry-ness. It begins: MIT professor emeritus Jerome Lettvin [pictured here, around 1960] was best known for his work on the 1959 paper “What the Frog’s Eye Tells the Frog’s Brain.’’ His measurements of “bug detectors’’ in frogs’ […]