Lee Phillips
badphysicist.bsky.social
Lee Phillips
@badphysicist.bsky.social
Physicist and writer.
https://lee-phillips.org/
Astrophysicist @AstroKatie says that “Noether’s Theorem is to theoretical #physics what natural selection is to #biology.”

Find out what this theorem is and discover the inspiring and tragic life of the woman behind it: amzn.to/3YZZB4W
Einstein's Tutor: The Story of Emmy Noether and the Invention of Modern Physics
Emmy Noether's mathematical genius enabled Einstein to bring his General Theory of Relativity–the basis of our current theory of gravity–to fruition. On a larger scale, what came to be known as “Noeth...
amzn.to
January 11, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Need your #code to be faster but don’t want to use Fortran or C? Learn #Julia, the modern language for #HPC, with a quality book. Here are some options:

lee-phillips.org/amazonJuliaB...

#julialang - its speed and friendly syntax is taking it beyond #science to #finance and other areas.
Rankings of Julia books on Amazon
lee-phillips.org
January 10, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Charlotte Zwerin’s 1988 documentary, “Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser,” is out on a new Blu-ray¹. I used to own a laserdisc² of this fascinating, revelatory and disturbing film³.

1 amazon.com/Thelonious-S...
2 filmstories.co.uk/features/las...
3 criterion.com/films/33809-...

#music #jazz
Amazon.com: Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser (The Criterion Collection) [Bluray] : Thelonious Monk, Charlotte Zwerin: Movies & TV
Amazon.com: Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser (The Criterion Collection) [Bluray] : Thelonious Monk, Charlotte Zwerin: Movies & TV
amazon.com
January 10, 2026 at 1:41 PM
American Scientist: “Some of the most elegant science communication in the book unfolds as Phillips walks us through what symmetry means in Noether’s theorem.”

americanscientist.org/article/hidd...

Learn about the hidden #history of #physics: amzn.to/3YZZB4W
Hidden Genius
EINSTEIN’S TUTOR: The Story of Emmy Noether and the Invention of Modern Physics. Lee Phillips. 368 pp. PublicAffairs, 2024. $30.00.
americanscientist.org
January 9, 2026 at 11:26 PM
My chat at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, with Dr. Anwar Dunbar: t.co/vrxqsTP44c

We talk about #writing #books, #science #education, #physics, and stuff.
https://bigwordsarepowerful.com/2025/03/my-interview-with-dr-lee-phillips-regarding-his-science-career-science-writing-and-telling-science-stories
t.co
January 9, 2026 at 7:57 PM
But what is it?
lee-phillips.org
January 9, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Great idea. While you’re waiting for Emmy the Vampire Slayer, maybe you’ll have better luck with my book: amzn.to/3YZZB4W

(It’s not that you’re dumb (probably), it’s that these ideas can be hard to explain. But people tell me I did a good job there.)
January 9, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Magnification Shape Styling in Lens Insets in Julia

lee-phillips.org/customlens/

#julialang #physics #mathematics #visualization
Magnification Shape Styling in Lens Insets in Julia
lee-phillips.org
January 9, 2026 at 3:58 PM
My first patch for dwm:

dwm.suckless.org/patches/bsta...

Updates and combines the bottomstack patch and the stackmfact patch.

#linux
dwm - dynamic window manager | suckless.org software that sucks less
dwm.suckless.org
January 9, 2026 at 1:58 AM
tylax: A bi-directional converter between #Typst and #LaTeX:

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652...
Show HN: Tylax – A bidirectional LaTeX to Typst converter in Rust | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Emmy Noether established the foundation of modern physics, yet she is still routinely overlooked:

lee-phillips.org/notweyl
Emmy Noether Can’t Get a Break
lee-phillips.org
January 8, 2026 at 2:28 PM
You can use Typst today even if you need to produce a LaTeX manuscript:

lee-phillips.org/typstfilters/

#typt #latex #physics #mathematics #computerscience #science
Using Typst Today: When You Need LaTeX
lee-phillips.org
January 8, 2026 at 2:51 AM
“New horizons for Julia”:

My article about #Julialang and new directions for the language. I talk about new tooling for installation, compilation to small binaries, and more. Julia is simply the best and most fun language for #science and #engineering.

t.co/azLBxkd49C
https://lwn.net/Articles/1006117/
t.co
January 7, 2026 at 9:55 PM
“Among world’s top researchers 10% publish at unrealistic levels, analysis finds”:

chemistryworld.com/news/among-w...

I know from working in a government lab how pervasive this kind of plagiarism is. I’m glad to see that some are taking a systematic look at the problem.

#science
Among world’s top researchers 10% publish at unrealistic levels, analysis finds
About 20,000 of the most cited researchers have 'implausibly high' publication and new co-author rates
chemistryworld.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Lee Phillips
It moves! We can watch as the Kepler supernova remnant changes over a quarter of century in X-rays from Chandra. #aas247
chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/k...
January 6, 2026 at 9:23 PM
My first patch for dwm:

dwm.suckless.org/patches/bsta...

Updates and combines the bottomstack patch and the stackmfact patch.
dwm - dynamic window manager | suckless.org software that sucks less
dwm.suckless.org
January 6, 2026 at 9:55 PM
“We've quietly been using Julia at our hedge fund for ~4 years. It has saved us a lot of money.”

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4311...

#julialang #science #programming #finance
New horizons for Julia | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
January 6, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Polyglot Jet Finding:

arxiv.org/abs/2309.17309

This paper in experimental high-energy #physics is a good example of why Julia is popular for scientific calculations.

It shows that #Julialang is over 100 times faster than Python and even faster than C++.
Polyglot Jet Finding
The evaluation of new computing languages for a large community, like HEP, involves comparison of many aspects of the languages' behaviour, ecosystem and interactions with other languages. In this pap...
arxiv.org
January 6, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Astrophysicist @AstroKatie says that “Noether’s Theorem is to theoretical #physics what natural selection is to #biology.”

Find out what this theorem is and discover the inspiring and tragic life of the woman behind it: amzn.to/3YZZB4W
Einstein's Tutor: The Story of Emmy Noether and the Invention of Modern Physics
Einstein's Tutor: The Story of Emmy Noether and the Invention of Modern Physics [Phillips, Lee] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Einstein's Tutor: The Story of Emmy Noether and the Invention of Modern Physics
amzn.to
January 6, 2026 at 4:08 AM
arstechnica.com/science/2014/08/the-never-ending-conundrums-of-classical-physics/

Classical physics is an active research area and is still full of interesting and even controversial problems. Does your physics professor understand how airplanes fly? Good chance the answer is “no”.
The never-ending conundrums of classical physics
Even today, scientists still try to solve sprinkler brain teasers from the 19th century.
arstechnica.com
January 5, 2026 at 4:29 PM
“Democrat” is not an adjective

lee-phillips.org/democrat

#politics #language
“Democrat” is not an adjective
lee-phillips.org
January 3, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes’ And Travis Kelce’s Steakhouse:

defector.com/two-nights-p...

I have no plans to visit Kansas City, and even if I did I wouldn’t go to this restaurant, so this review holds no direct relevance for me. However, it's fun to read.

#food
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce's Steakhouse | Defector
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I’m surprised there are so f...
defector.com
January 3, 2026 at 3:21 PM
Document programming in #Typst and #LuaLaTeX: some comparisons:

t.co/wKrWZOS5MW
https://lee-phillips.org/TLexamples/
t.co
January 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM
The massive response to my #Typst article* suggests that Typst is gaining ground much more rapidly than even I expected:

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4539...

#latex #physics #mathematics #typsetting

*https://lwn.net/Articles/1037577/
Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:28 PM