14 Years BackRe(Action)

[Image: Scott McLeod/Flickr]

14 years ago, I was a postdoc in Santa Barbara, in a tiny corner office where the windows wouldn't open, in a building that slightly swayed each time one of the frequent mini-earthquakes shook up California. I had just published my first blogpost. It happened to be about the possibility that the Large Hadron Collider, which was not yet in operation, would produce tiny black holes and inadvertently kill all of us. The topic would soon rise to attention in the media and thereby mark my entry into the world of science communication. I was well prepared: Black holes at the LHC were the topic of my PhD thesis.

A few months later, I got married.

Later that same year, Lee Smolin's book "The Trouble With Physics" was published, coincidentally at almost the same time I moved to Canada and started my new position at Perimeter Institute. I had read an early version of the manuscript and published one of the first online reviews. Peter Woit's book "Not Even Wrong" appeared at almost the same time and kicked off what later became known as "The String Wars", though I've always found the rather militant term somewhat inappropriate.

Time marched on and I kept writing, through my move to Sweden, my first pregnancy and the following miscarriage, the second pregnancy, the twin's birth, parental leave, my suffering through 5 years of a 3000 km commute while trying to raise two kids, and, in late 2015, my move back to Germany. Then, in 2018, the publication of my first book.

The loyal readers of this blog will have noticed that in the past year I have shifted weight from Blogger to YouTube. The reason is that the way search engine algorithms and the blogosphere have evolved, it has become basically impossible to attract new audiences to a blog. Here on Blogger, I feel rather stuck on the topics I have originally written about, mostly quantum gravity and particle physics, while meanwhile my interests have drifted more towards astrophysics, quantum foundations, and the philosophy of physics. YouTube's algorithm is certainly not perfect, but it serves content to users that may be interested in the topic of a video, regardless of whether they've previously heard of me.

I have to admit that personally I still prefer writing over videos. Not only because it's less time-consuming, but also because I don't particularly like either my voice or my face. But then, the average number of people who watch my videos has quickly surpassed the number of those who typically read my blog, so I guess I am doing okay.

On this occasion I want to thank all of you for spending some time with me, for your feedback and comments and encouragement. I am especially grateful to those of you who have on occasion sent a donation my way. I am not entirely sure where this blog will be going in the future, but stay around and you will find out. I promise it won't be boring.