## Profile

Brian Skinner
Works at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Attended University of Minnesota
Lives in Boston, MA
42,790 views

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### Brian Skinner

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Possibly my favorite thing that I've ever written about physics.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/09/24/samuel-becketts-guide-to-particles-and-antiparticles/﻿
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### Brian Skinner

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Here's a strange math problem that I encountered as an undergraduate: What is the solution to the following equation? [Note: The order of exponents here is such that the upper ones are taken first....
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### Brian Skinner

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"We're history's most average monsters."
That's how I feel about myself every day.﻿
it's probably pretty good though
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### Brian Skinner

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No sleep 'till Boston.﻿
As it happens, I was fortunate enough to be able to run in the 2013 Boston Marathon. A lot has been written (and is still being written) about the marathon and its aftermath, and in many ways there...
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### Brian Skinner

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Quantum mechanics prohibits you from pushing two energy levels through each other -- this is called "avoided crossing."
But how "quantum" is this effect, actually?﻿
Coming to terms with quantum mechanics is no easy task.  The quantum world has its own unique atmosphere, its own set of laws and tendencies -- its own tao, if you will -- that seem far removed fro...
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### Brian Skinner

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Betteridge's law of headlines: Any headline that ends with a question mark can be answered with the word "no."﻿

### Brian Skinner

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How big is an electron?

https://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/…/how-big-is-an-ele…/﻿
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Fun fact: if your body were placed in a sufficiently strong magnetic field, it would disintegrate.﻿
There's a great joke in Futurama, the cartoon comedy show, about a horror movie for robots.  In the movie, a planet of robots is terrorized by a giant "non-metallic being" (a monsterified human).  ...
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### Brian Skinner

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It's hard to explain how much I loved this.﻿
Here is the thing that I guess happened: When God was making all the humans, he grabbed a smidge of clay and started making me. While he was snake-rolling the clay between his palms he said to the ...
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I would like to introduce a phrase into the lexicon of science and everyday life, based on the following ridiculous story that was taught to me at the CERN summer school. $latex \hspace{1mm}$ Imagi...
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### Brian Skinner

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I want five hours of my life back.﻿
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### Brian Skinner

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Obama is the deportingest president in US history.﻿
The greatest mass deportation in American historyAS A presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama promised to enact immigration reform during his first year in...
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Work
Employment
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
postdoc, 2015 - present
Places
Currently
Boston, MA
Previously
Chicago, IL - Minneapolis, MN - Blacksburg, VA - Bogota, Colombia - Springfield, VA - Avondale, AZ - Maracay, Venezuela - Caracas, Venezuela - Las Vegas, NV