Hello, everyone!

I'm 16, and I'm really interested in physics, especially quantum physics. I'd love to start learning the fundamentals before college.

What mathematics and physics topics should I study first? Also, could you recommend some beginner-friendly books for someone at my level?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, everyone! I had a great conversation with Geraint F. Lewis, a Welsh astrophysicist and Professor at the University of Sydney, about some of the biggest questions in cosmology and physics.

We explore what the Big Bang theory tells us about the beginning of the universe, and how neutrinos could reveal secrets about the cosmos — including why matter exists at all. He mentions the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Francis Halzen for his work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.

Professor Lewis also talks about what sparked the Scientific Revolution, how modern science transformed our understanding of the world, and why Einstein challenged aspects of quantum mechanics.

His latest book, The Shortest History of Reality: From Plato’s Cave to the Mind-Bending Discoveries of Modern Physics — The Human Quest to Explain the World, traces humanity’s changing understanding of reality, from ancient philosophy to the discoveries of modern physics.

If you're interested in these subjects, you can check out our conversation, hope you find it insightful, he's a great communicator of these ideas: https://youtu.be/38rUHEeAVHw

Here it is. Hope you like it :)

https://youtu.be/N86IOd6nYvo

okay so Im a 2nd year cse student and I'm passionate about physics. I initially saw the kavan gravity sim on youtube and wanted to recreate it.I started working on this 2 months back. I had to learn c++,opengl, make this in 2D (freespace and earths gravity) and a little bit of GR. Although low level programming is a pain in the ass, I had alot of fun making this.

working: The engine runs a dual-layer loop: a physics solver updates the 2D positions of the bodies gravitational forces while a vertex generation pass simultaneously warps the underlying 3D wireframe mesh downward along the Y-axis using the gravitational potential. This keeps the planets orbiting smoothly on a flat plane while the grid dynamically bends around them in real-time to simulate relativistic spacetime curvature.

future improvements: I would love to make this more accurate (physics wise) and add textures after i improve my opengl skills.maybe even make the central star a raytracer :)

Do you think fewer people are interested in pursuing physics nowadays because of the rise of AI and technology? It feels like a lot of people are more interested in computer science and AI, partly because of the career opportunities. I'm wondering if this could eventually lead to fewer people going into physics research, or if I'm just getting the wrong impression. What do you guys think?

Hey, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to chat one on one and help me with the dilemma I am having. I’m studying mechanical engineering technology at Algonquin college right now (Ottawa Canada) (first year) and I’m enjoying engineering, but I’ve had this dilemma in my head for the past year or two about if I should do engineering or physics? As of late I’ve been really thinking about it and it’s been nagging at me. When I think of the idea of physics/astronomy/astrophyiscs, it just gives me the excitement I can’t describe. I’ve been really thinking about it and really considering applying to a physics program in Canada (I was looking at queens university). I personally want to work in aerospace but I also want to research in physics.

This may sound weird but a younger friend mentioned that they might study physics next year and the second I heard that I got a feeling of i guess jealousy (not in a bad way, I mean like “man I should be doing that”).

It’s eating away at me because I don’t want to get far into my studies and then end up realizing I should’ve done physics.

I was hoping to chat with people who are in physics undergraduate’s, masters or phd’s. I’d like to learn more about studying itself and if people could help develop ideas so I could figure out a plan on what I should do. This has really been eating away at me and I feel like physics is what I should be doing, but I want to be sure. Can someone please help🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 (or if someone wanted to comment things I should look into (ie: career goals, courses, etc..) or anything that I should consider when making this decision, please let me know).

What are your thoughts on this recent preprint, 2610.16733? They seemed to show how Frontier AI agents tackled unpublished research-level theoretical physics problems, and suggest such problems might no longer be suitable as first projects for PhD students.

I'm especially curious how this will overall affect prospective grad students and early-career researchers in theoretical physics.

Also, recalling Dr. Schwartz (u/VibePhysics) saying in his Anthropic post Vibe Physics:

It is worth it, however, to consider the role of education going forward. In the deep future (~10 years), when AI is truly smarter than all of us and capable of outperforming us in every domain, what will be the role of higher education? I think some things will persist—those things that are essentially human. I can easily imagine theoretical physics becoming like music theory or French literature: an academic discipline appealing to people who just enjoy thinking through a certain lens. It's a bit ironic that the last 30 years have seen the growth of STEM fields, displacing the humanities, and in the end it may be the humanities are all that survive.

Do you agree with him on this specific thoughts? And what concerns or hopes do you have about where our fields in theoretical physics are heading?

Hi everyone! I'm working on a packaging project for my logistics engineering course, and I'm looking for some advice.

I need to make packaging that can protect an egg from drops of different heights, while keeping it lightweight and cheap. Cardboard is one of the materials I'm considering, but I'm still figuring out how to approach the design.

I'd like to learn more about what makes packaging effective at absorbing impacts, what materials or structures are worth looking into, and what mistakes to avoid.

I'm not looking for a ready-made design, just some ideas and general advice to help me figure things out myself. Thanks!