#ask a physicist

What are you feelings on religion and the afterlife, and are you scared to die?

I remain unconvinced that anything other than rapid decomposition is the fate of my body and mind after death. I've accomplished enough in life so that I do not fear death. In fact, I've left instructions for my Epitaph - a quote from the educator, Horace Mann: "Be Ashamed to Die, Until You Have Scored Some Victory for Humanity". That's the creed I live by. And will die by.

If you could add one course to a student's curriculum, what would it be?

Course title every university should offer: "How to tell when someone else is full of shit"

What one improvement would you make to the way our society as a whole approaches science if it were within your power?

Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security. Science agencies should never have to go hat in hand to congress.

One idea would be for the USA (or any other country for that matter) to earmark 10% of its budget to R&D. Like a good startup company might do. That way everyone knows what to expect annually. And long term research projects will have some hope of funding stability.

Hi Neil, I'm a massive fan! I'm currently a junior in college studying physics and want to pursue a PhD. Do you have any advice for the next generation of scientists like me?

There are street artists. Street musicians. Street actors. But there are no street physicists. A little known secret is that a physicist is one of the most employable people in the marketplace - a physicist is a trained problem solver. How many times have you heard a person in a workplace say, "I wasn't trained for this!" That's an impossible reaction from a physicist, who would say, instead, "Cool. A problem I've never seen before. Let's see how I can figure out how to solve it!". Oh, and, have fun along the way.

Science is so damn sexy.