John C. Baez
@johncarlosbaez.bsky.social
Mathematical physicist
Pinned
John C. Baez
@johncarlosbaez.bsky.social
· Oct 22
Standard Model - Part 1
YouTube video by John Baez
www.youtube.com
It's our best theory of elementary particles and forces. It took centuries of genius to discover that the world is like this, and it's absolutely shocking. But nobody believes it's the last word, so we simply call it The Standard Model.
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
Coming up in less than 45 minutes: a great talk on groupoids in music theory! You can join us online.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
John Carlos Baez (@[email protected])
I've been following Dmitri Tymoczko's work on math and music for a while, and lately we've been talking about groupoids in music theory - and now I'll finally get to meet him and talk to him here in E...
mathstodon.xyz
November 21, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Coming up in less than 45 minutes: a great talk on groupoids in music theory! You can join us online.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
If you wrote the first article in a volume in a Springer Nature journal, congratulations - you won the lottery!
You're getting credit for citations to all the papers in that volume! 🤪
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01675
You're getting credit for citations to all the papers in that volume! 🤪
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01675
November 21, 2025 at 10:07 AM
If you wrote the first article in a volume in a Springer Nature journal, congratulations - you won the lottery!
You're getting credit for citations to all the papers in that volume! 🤪
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01675
You're getting credit for citations to all the papers in that volume! 🤪
arxiv.org/abs/2511.01675
Wow. I knew Lawrence Krauss was a sex pest and a creep. But I didn't know who he ran to for advice when he got caught. Jeffrey Epstein!
All the details are here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNLd...
All the details are here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNLd...
So I'm in the Epstein Files
YouTube video by Rebecca Watson (Skepchick)
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Wow. I knew Lawrence Krauss was a sex pest and a creep. But I didn't know who he ran to for advice when he got caught. Jeffrey Epstein!
All the details are here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNLd...
All the details are here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNLd...
After a huge fire in Oregon, streams were choked with ash — but the water downstream of these beaver dams was crystal clear — and trout were thriving! The dams were acting as a water treatment plant.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/beav...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/beav...
November 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM
After a huge fire in Oregon, streams were choked with ash — but the water downstream of these beaver dams was crystal clear — and trout were thriving! The dams were acting as a water treatment plant.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/beav...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/beav...
A moody evening sky in Edinburgh, viewed from my apartment October 11, 2025.
November 15, 2025 at 10:29 PM
A moody evening sky in Edinburgh, viewed from my apartment October 11, 2025.
Lynx, formerly exterminated in Germany, France and Switzerland, have been brought back to these countries. There's now a campaign to reintroduce them in Scotland! The Greens plan to bring this to a vote.
(1/n)
(1/n)
November 15, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Lynx, formerly exterminated in Germany, France and Switzerland, have been brought back to these countries. There's now a campaign to reintroduce them in Scotland! The Greens plan to bring this to a vote.
(1/n)
(1/n)
All US news media, all the time: men are really in trouble!!! They need more help!!!
40% of young US women: umm, excuse me, can I leave now?
news.gallup.com/poll/697382/...
40% of young US women: umm, excuse me, can I leave now?
news.gallup.com/poll/697382/...
November 14, 2025 at 8:42 AM
All US news media, all the time: men are really in trouble!!! They need more help!!!
40% of young US women: umm, excuse me, can I leave now?
news.gallup.com/poll/697382/...
40% of young US women: umm, excuse me, can I leave now?
news.gallup.com/poll/697382/...
As a happy new resident of Scotland, I just signed a petition to to demand the UK Government tax the super rich to rebuild our NHS, schools, and other public services. Will you sign too?
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...
Tax the super rich to stop cuts to public services
Across the UK, living standards are falling and millions live in poverty, while the cost of living crisis has made affording the basics difficult. Public services we all rely on - our hospitals, schoo...
you.38degrees.org.uk
November 13, 2025 at 9:41 PM
As a happy new resident of Scotland, I just signed a petition to to demand the UK Government tax the super rich to rebuild our NHS, schools, and other public services. Will you sign too?
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...
The most beautiful spaces are the irreducible compact Riemannian symmetric spaces! There are the infinite series: the Lie group SO(n), SU(n), Sp(n) and the 6 series listed below.
And then there are the exceptions....
(1/3)
And then there are the exceptions....
(1/3)
November 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM
The most beautiful spaces are the irreducible compact Riemannian symmetric spaces! There are the infinite series: the Lie group SO(n), SU(n), Sp(n) and the 6 series listed below.
And then there are the exceptions....
(1/3)
And then there are the exceptions....
(1/3)
This is the closest you'll ever see to the color called "olo".
To see "olo" you need a mad scientist to map your retina, individually identify each cone cell as one of 3 kinds - and then use lasers to deliver light exclusively to your "M" cones.
Done recently:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
To see "olo" you need a mad scientist to map your retina, individually identify each cone cell as one of 3 kinds - and then use lasers to deliver light exclusively to your "M" cones.
Done recently:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
John Carlos Baez (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image
This may be the closest you'll ever see to the color with the ridiculous name of "olo".
To see true olo, you need a mad scientist to map your retina, individually identify each ...
mathstodon.xyz
November 12, 2025 at 9:41 PM
This is the closest you'll ever see to the color called "olo".
To see "olo" you need a mad scientist to map your retina, individually identify each cone cell as one of 3 kinds - and then use lasers to deliver light exclusively to your "M" cones.
Done recently:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
To see "olo" you need a mad scientist to map your retina, individually identify each cone cell as one of 3 kinds - and then use lasers to deliver light exclusively to your "M" cones.
Done recently:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
The weak nuclear force is all about qubits: for example, quarks come in 3 generations of "up" or "down" kinds.
The strong force is all about "qutrits".
Electromagnetism is about "quunits".
But what's a qubit really like? I'll explain it here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umq...
The strong force is all about "qutrits".
Electromagnetism is about "quunits".
But what's a qubit really like? I'll explain it here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umq...
Standard Model - Part 3: Qubits
YouTube video by John Baez
www.youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:02 AM
The weak nuclear force is all about qubits: for example, quarks come in 3 generations of "up" or "down" kinds.
The strong force is all about "qutrits".
Electromagnetism is about "quunits".
But what's a qubit really like? I'll explain it here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umq...
The strong force is all about "qutrits".
Electromagnetism is about "quunits".
But what's a qubit really like? I'll explain it here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umq...
The most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate movie of a solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface - in 2020.
Phobos is slowly drifting toward Mars. Tens of millions of years from now it will crash land.
Phobos is slowly drifting toward Mars. Tens of millions of years from now it will crash land.
November 11, 2025 at 9:33 PM
The most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate movie of a solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface - in 2020.
Phobos is slowly drifting toward Mars. Tens of millions of years from now it will crash land.
Phobos is slowly drifting toward Mars. Tens of millions of years from now it will crash land.
When you repeatedly measure the positions of over a billion stars so accurately that you can see a star moving by an amount equal to the size of a pinhead on the Moon, as seen from Earth... you find amazing things!
It's great.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
It's great.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
John Carlos Baez (@[email protected])
Holy crap! The Gaia space telescope is expected to find 120,000 ± 22,000 planets orbiting other stars! Most will be super-Jupiters, because those are the easiest to find. But we'll know much more ...
mathstodon.xyz
November 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
When you repeatedly measure the positions of over a billion stars so accurately that you can see a star moving by an amount equal to the size of a pinhead on the Moon, as seen from Earth... you find amazing things!
It's great.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
It's great.
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission and did the experiments that led Pauli to postulate neutrinos, is one of my heroes. She had to work twice as hard for everything, and did so much.
I tell a bit of her story here:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
I tell a bit of her story here:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
John Carlos Baez (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image
Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission, is one of my heroes. She had to work twice as hard for everything, and did so much.
The Austrian government did not open the universi...
mathstodon.xyz
November 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission and did the experiments that led Pauli to postulate neutrinos, is one of my heroes. She had to work twice as hard for everything, and did so much.
I tell a bit of her story here:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
I tell a bit of her story here:
mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosb...
In quantum mechanics we say how an observable O(t) changes using the Heisenberg equation. But what if you've just got a Jordan algebra? No i, no commutator, just the Jordan product ∘. Then
dO(t)/dt = {A, O(t), B}
where {A,O,B} = (A∘O)∘B - A∘(O∘B). 😮
golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/202...
dO(t)/dt = {A, O(t), B}
where {A,O,B} = (A∘O)∘B - A∘(O∘B). 😮
golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/202...
November 2, 2025 at 4:42 PM
In quantum mechanics we say how an observable O(t) changes using the Heisenberg equation. But what if you've just got a Jordan algebra? No i, no commutator, just the Jordan product ∘. Then
dO(t)/dt = {A, O(t), B}
where {A,O,B} = (A∘O)∘B - A∘(O∘B). 😮
golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/202...
dO(t)/dt = {A, O(t), B}
where {A,O,B} = (A∘O)∘B - A∘(O∘B). 😮
golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/202...
Paulina Borsook got it before the rest of us:
"Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
mathstodon.xyz/@gilduran.co...
"Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
mathstodon.xyz/@gilduran.co...
Mathstodon
mathstodon.xyz
October 30, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Paulina Borsook got it before the rest of us:
"Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
mathstodon.xyz/@gilduran.co...
"Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
mathstodon.xyz/@gilduran.co...
Anthropic owes me - and my coauthors, and publishers - $9000 for books they ripped off. Check out the list and see how much they owe you:
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup
Details on how this works:
authorsguild.org/advocacy/art...
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup
Details on how this works:
authorsguild.org/advocacy/art...
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Anthropic owes me - and my coauthors, and publishers - $9000 for books they ripped off. Check out the list and see how much they owe you:
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup
Details on how this works:
authorsguild.org/advocacy/art...
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup
Details on how this works:
authorsguild.org/advocacy/art...
Write it down in your calendar! The big annual applied category theory conference, ACT2026, is happening in Tallinn, Estonia, 6–10 July, 2026, right after the Adjoint School Research Week, which is 29 June – 3 July.
More info here:
actconf2026.github.io/index.html
More info here:
actconf2026.github.io/index.html
October 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Write it down in your calendar! The big annual applied category theory conference, ACT2026, is happening in Tallinn, Estonia, 6–10 July, 2026, right after the Adjoint School Research Week, which is 29 June – 3 July.
More info here:
actconf2026.github.io/index.html
More info here:
actconf2026.github.io/index.html
A time-reversed black hole would be a 'white hole'. It has an 'anti-horizon' that you can only fall *out* of!
In this video, Philip Gibbs answers some of the most fascinating questions about white holes.
johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/p...
In this video, Philip Gibbs answers some of the most fascinating questions about white holes.
johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/p...
Philip Gibbs – Black Holes and White Holes
A white hole is a purely hypothetical time-reversed black hole. What does general relativity say about them? Would they repel you? Could you fall into a white hole—or only fall out? Could the…
johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM
A time-reversed black hole would be a 'white hole'. It has an 'anti-horizon' that you can only fall *out* of!
In this video, Philip Gibbs answers some of the most fascinating questions about white holes.
johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/p...
In this video, Philip Gibbs answers some of the most fascinating questions about white holes.
johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/p...
Can you help? I'm trying to find this fascinating paper in a rather obscure journal, with no luck so far.
October 26, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Can you help? I'm trying to find this fascinating paper in a rather obscure journal, with no luck so far.
Just so you know: this claimed proof of P≠NP is a bunch of baloney. Written with help of an LLM, it's internally inconsistent and at least one step is clearly wrong.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.17829
arxiv.org/abs/2510.17829
A Homological Proof of $\mathbf{P} \neq \mathbf{NP}$: Computational Topology via Categorical Framework
This paper establishes the separation of complexity classes $\mathbf{P}$ and $\mathbf{NP}$ through a novel homological algebraic approach grounded in category theory. We construct the computational ca...
arxiv.org
October 24, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Just so you know: this claimed proof of P≠NP is a bunch of baloney. Written with help of an LLM, it's internally inconsistent and at least one step is clearly wrong.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.17829
arxiv.org/abs/2510.17829
It's our best theory of elementary particles and forces. It took centuries of genius to discover that the world is like this, and it's absolutely shocking. But nobody believes it's the last word, so we simply call it The Standard Model.
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
Standard Model - Part 1
YouTube video by John Baez
www.youtube.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:46 AM
It's our best theory of elementary particles and forces. It took centuries of genius to discover that the world is like this, and it's absolutely shocking. But nobody believes it's the last word, so we simply call it The Standard Model.
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
I will try to explain it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjx...
October 22, 2025 at 8:28 AM
A novel Jules Verne wrote in 1863 about Paris in 1960, which appeared only in 1994. A world with a computer network, fax machines... a world where commerce and industry reign supreme, and the arts can be damned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckA...
Jules Verne's Lost Novel: A World without the Humanities
YouTube video by Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry
www.youtube.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:39 AM
A novel Jules Verne wrote in 1863 about Paris in 1960, which appeared only in 1994. A world with a computer network, fax machines... a world where commerce and industry reign supreme, and the arts can be damned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckA...
While this has outraged many people, authorities have appealed to the French public to just "accept it".
waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/l...
waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/l...
Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software
FRENCH POLICE have immediately ended all efforts to recover priceless Napoleon-era jewellery from the Louvre taken in a daring heist after it emerged the jewels were merely stolen for the purposes of ...
waterfordwhispersnews.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM
While this has outraged many people, authorities have appealed to the French public to just "accept it".
waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/l...
waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/l...