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As many people have heard, 2005 is the “Year of Physics,” celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s three revolutionary papers.

I’ve been really enjoying the Quantum Diaries project, which recruited 28 particle physicists from around the world to write about working as physicists as well as their latest research.

(from site description)

Quantum Diaries aims to put a face — many faces, in fact — on physics in 2005. The diarists represent a vibrant cross-section of working physicists today. They speak eight languages and are from nine countries. Outside of the lab, they are jazz musicians, mothers and fathers, amateur astronomers, photographers and athletes. At work, they are project leaders, graduate students, experimentalists, and theorists.

It’s fun for me to read about topics ranging from what scientists “look like”, balancing research and family, and international collaboration and the joy of science in a social setting.

But for me, the most compelling posts concern connecting science to society, including suggestions for a physics lottery to raise funding and teach particle physics, questions about why do science and science for science’s sake. But by far, my favorite post on the subject came from Stephon Alexander relating his study of physics to a calypso musician in Trinidad who said he was successful because “People enjoyed watching me have a good time on stage.”

(By the way, Alexander is also a jazz musician — best of luck to him in balancing the two.)

I don’t know how much Quantum Diaries gets out into larger web culture , but I think it’s a fantastic project from both sides — it gets scientists to think and write about life as a scientist, and hopefully gives others examples that scientists are real people with real interests outside science. Hope many of the physicists recruited for this keep it up after 2005 is over.