Chad Orzel

@orzelc.bsky.social

2544 Followers 447 Following

Physicist, professor, author of books about science for non-scientists. Longer-form stuff at https://chadorzel.substack.com/

Screenshot of a facebook memory, text reading: SteelyKid: Was [hand signal game] a game when you were a kid? Me: No. The Pip: Was Tag a game when you were a kid? Me: Tag?!? You think I'm older than Tag?!?! The Pip: Well, yeah. Me: Nobody is older than Tag. The Pip: The person who invented Tag is. Me: Cavemen invented Tag. Australopithecines probably played Tag. The Pip: I think dinosaurs probably played Tag. [A few conversational turns later] The Pip: Old people all hate technology. SteelyKid: That's a stereotype. It's not true. Me: Yeah, I mean, Mom and I like technology. The Pip: Yeah, but you're not old. Me: YOU JUST SAID I WAS OLDER THAN TAG!!!
A frog more or less sitting on a lily pad
Adult osprey on an elevated nest platform with wings spread over two younger birds
Simple painting showing a God-type figure reaching out Sistine Chapel style toward a figure holding up a computer monitor with a play icon and the word "CONNECT"
A raptor of some species perched on a tree branch
3D printed "ambiguous object" in front of a mirror, which looks pointy in the direct view and rounded in the reflection.
A slightly blurry red fox rounding a corner on a hiking trail and noticing me hastily raising my camera.
A punt of Maine Lunch sitting on a wooden table on the back patio of my local
Screenshot of newspaper headline: ‘Blah, blah, blah’: Stenographer’s made-up words not enough to reverse murder conviction" Subhead: "The state's top court ruled that a hearing to reconstruct missing portions of Steuben County murder and arson trial was enough to preserve his appeal and conviction"
Blue heron in flight over a stretch of the old Erie Canal
Screenshot of a local news story, headline: Menands fire station destroyed in blaze; company will use idled Schuyler Heights resources
The Pip (#6) throwing sidearm in last night's frosh baseball game, shot from the outfield.
A small snake peeking out from behind a rock
Bluebird coming in to land on the trunk of a tree
Johnathan "The Duke" Mardukas and Jack Walsh
Text: "ALBANY — A Colonie man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for a murder-for-hire plot targeting a former romantic rival for death, and attempting to intimidate the man's mother in a custody hearing. The plot involved a man on parole for murder himself, a plan to dispose of the body at a Pennsylvania hog farm and to get it there via a van rented from someone those involved identified as a nun, according to federal prosecutors and court filings. The final part of the plan involved collecting exchanging items in the parking lot of a Latham bowling alley and collecting cash, an E-Z Pass transponder and a bottle of bourbon intended for the farmer all at a location in Schenectady."
A superb owl, from a hike at the Bennett Hill Preserve back in August
In Wolfgang Pauli's handwriting, responding to a dramatic claim by Heisenberg to be near a theory of everything: "This is to show the world that I can paint like Titian," then an empty square, then "Only technical details are missing"
Photo of "The Thinker" with the text: "Thinking about a major? Major in thinking"
Screen cap of the Albany Times Union website with a photo of dogs playing in snow and storm-related headlines
Public art in Oslo with a statue of a man with his arms upraised in front of a big clock
Sleepy dog on a fuzzy blanket
Vizzini, Inigo, and Fezzik from THE PRINCESS BRIDE
A can of Mobius American Porter from Equilibrium next to a mug full of same.
“Complex numbers are just two real numbers with some calculation rules,” said Michael Epping, a physicist at the German Aerospace Center and a co-author on the new German paper. “Why shouldn’t you be able to describe quantum mechanics just using real numbers?”
Screenshot of an ad suggesting that money in a Venmo account be spent buying cryptocurrency
Black-and-brown brindle dog sleeping curled up
A couple of cannon overlooking the Saratoga battlefield park
List of times for the Nobel Prize announcements, with Literature scheduled for 13:00 CET and all the others at 11:45 CET (except Peace, which is at 11 in a different city)
Baseball player in a red batting helmet passing first base making the "safe" signal as a severely motion-blurred first baseman tries to scoop the (late) throw
Text: "That’s part of why YAFFED is supporting legal action against Hochul and the Legislature, Mermelstein Konikoff said. They’re not a party in the lawsuit but it could deter politics from driving future policy."
Headline: Lost hikers on mushrooms rescued by forest rangers in the Catskills Subhead: Hiker's "debilitating high" near Slide Mountain prompts DEC rescue
Empty classroom with an introductory slide from intermediate quantum mechanics projected on the screen.