Sad to hear that Alasdair McIntyre has died. I read `After Virtue' as an undergraduate and it permanently influenced the way I view the world and think about ethics, politics and religion. A truly great book.

New paper today! With Noelia Sanchez-Gonzalez, @ProfEdCopeland and Ed Hardy arxiv.org/abs/2505.14187 We find that a superstring phase -- 75% energy density in fundamental strings -- is an attractor in post-inflationary phase of scalar rolling down exponential potential. 1/3

Perfect equations are like perfect poems: they both exhibit maximal Kolmogorov complexity. This is also why good notation is to mathematics as the canon is to literature.

Had an enjoyable night last night at @cheltpoetfest.bsky.social hosting 2 science & poetry themed events, including being in conversation with @josephpconlon.bsky.social & @robinince.bsky.social. Thank you @annasaund.bsky.social for inviting me & @paulawhitcher.bsky.social for some of the photos.

The new Pope, patristics and the Big Bang. Leo XIV is an Augustinian. Augustine's discussion of time (Book XI of both Confessions & City of God) is brilliant and prophetic (read them!): 'the world was not created in time but with time'. We live in spacetime -- not space and time.

This Friday in Cheltenham -- do come along if you are nearby.

Nominative determinism

Next Friday I am talking at the Oxford literary festival: physics, poetry and the intersection of the two. Tickets available from oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

Here's the list of events! @ruthpadel.bsky.social opens the festival. Among the many highlights are @robinince.bsky.social, Michael Simmons Roberts, Robert Seatter, @josephpconlon.bsky.social, Sean Borodale, Fiona Benson, & the 15th Festival Slam. www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheltenhampo...

Jewel amongst dross. (one for the physicists and mathematicians)

Possibly the only sonnet on Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics

Sonnets on Dirac's book Principles of Quantum Mechanics are not in the swampland. Hear me read one this afternoon.

Thanks to my wonderful grad students (especially Martin) for this cake for my birthday today!

Do you want to listen to ten poems on science? Thu 30th Jan, 2pm UK time. Register for the Brilliant Poetry reading here bit.ly/brilliantpoe...

Physics is eternal. Literature and poetry are near-eternal. Don't obsess about political news. Read good books (such as mine). linktr.ee/josephconlon

Next week on 30th Jan I will be reading (online) as part of the The Brilliant's science in verse competition. Free tickets available here bit.ly/brilliantpoe...

Beautiful on a cold winter morning, as for the last 600 years.

An admissions interview question from this year (I never reuse questions). Consider the sequence x, x^x, x^(x^x), x^(x^(x^x)),..... For which values of x>0 does this sequence converge?

Great fun talking to the one and only @drbriankeating.bsky.social on his Into The Impossible podcast about poetry, my book Origins, string theory and string theory alternatives, science communication and Whitman or Feynman. As my son says, like and subscribe. Link in reply.

Happy to see Origins reviewed in Nature Astronomy

(For the physicists): spotted in the fiction section of the bookshop.

One of those days where the absence of an arXiv listing reminds me of American public holidays exist Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.

Britain 1906: confident, manly, imperial, assured. No idea what was coming.

New online catalogue for the 100,000+ items from 11th century onwards in New College library (replacing a printed list from 1974) archives.new.ox.ac.uk

The History of the Universe youtube channel is one of the absolute best sources of serious scientific documentaries. Happy to have done another script for them, on black holes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgu3...

Yes, there was an hour of light snow in Oxford earlier this week. But seriously…..

I'm a physicist and I don't major in complex emotions, but when I think about my subject my spine tingles. Me reading from my book. Let's see how this compares to the other place. (Split in two as videos have to be less than 60 secs)

Q&A with me from the New College news page, including some thoughts on similarities between poetry and scientific equations The Cosmos in Verse: An Interview with Joseph Conlon new.ox.ac.uk/news/cosmos-...

Great paper on cosmic strings by my former student Filippo Revello together with Gonzalo Villa arxiv.org/abs/2411.04186

Publication day! I well know my good fortune in being able to publish a poetry book through a trade press as good as Oneworld. But I also think this book is like none other 1/4

Heroic couplets. Are there any others so familiar and canonical, so entrenched in the national psyche that we do not even notice them, as the lyrics of 'Abide with Me'?

Delighted to be shortlisted for The Brilliant's science poetry competition, alongside nine other lovely and different poems, for a sonnet on Dirac's famous book Principles of Quantum Mechanics. www.thebrilliantpoetry.com/inspiration-2

A particularly odd crackpot email!

Having been over every line > 50 times and having read every line out loud > 10 times, the final read before the book goes to the printers.

Occasional series of poems related to science, here by the brilliant American sonneteer Edna St Vincent Millay

Happy to be the 42nd interviewee on Hassaan's podcast Chapter 7 makes an appearance :) To note, 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilkF...

Much toil, many publications and long calculations: but the thing I have written with most reach remains Chapter 7 from my 2015 book Why String Theory? on the enduring intellectual value of string theory.