Top all-time · #763
Matt Strassler
Personal blog · profmattstrassler.comsciencemath
Matt Strassler writes Of Particular Significance, a personal blog at profmattstrassler.com about science and math. Since 2011, 86 different Hacker News readers have linked it 161 times, most often “What’s a Proton, Anyway?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 12 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Matt Strassler's particle physics explainers as the accessible, non-pop-sci route into the Higgs, protons, virtual particles and decay. Commenters call them very helpful and better than mass-media coverage.
- Recommended for · 12 comments
- Called very helpful, a very good explanation, a good overview, and 'the best review of modern physics I've seen'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Conversations About Science with Theoretical Physicist Matt Strassler I believe deeply that science is one of the world’s great spectator sports, and should be a source of joy and excitement for every human being. The Book The Blog Explore One of Wall Street Journal's "10 Books to Read Now" in Scien
Most-linked posts?
- What’s a Proton, Anyway?5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2022-02-25
- Virtual Particles: What are they? (2011)5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-02-28
- /2024/10/03/why-is-the-speed-of-light-so-fast-part-2/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-10-04
- /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/how-the-higgs-field-works-with-math/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-11-12
- /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/the-structure-of-matter/protons-and-neutrons/2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-11-04
- Why the Higgs Field Is Nothing Like Molasses, Soup, or a Crowd2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-04-17
- /2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-quarks-a-lesson-from-virtual-particles/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-10-19
- /2011/10/10/virtual-particles-not-particles-at-all/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-09-10
- /articles-and-posts/relativity-space-astronomy-and-cosmology/history-of-the-universe/hot-big-bang/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-27
- Virtual particles aren't particles (2011)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-08-28
What Hacker News says?
A little bit of caution from here: http://profmattstrassler.com/2014/03/17/bicep2-new-evidence-... Very interesting result, potentially game-changing, but it also could be nothing too. Wait for more experiments before we can say for sure.
Comment linking /2014/03/17/bicep2-new-evidence-of-cosmic-inflation/
on “Gravity waves from Big Bang detected”Submitted Why the weak nuclear force is short range as a story · 374 points
HN discussionMatt Strassler: «The details of the reconstructed image depend on exactly what assumptions are made.» https://profmattstrassler.com/2022/05/12/in-our-galaxys-cent... What does this mean? If they assembled an image to fit their assumptions, that would be circular reasoning. I don't understand.
Comment linking /2022/05/12/in-our-galaxys-center-a-tiny-monster/
on “Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy”Submitted Did the Particle Go Through the Two Slits, or Did the Wave Function? as a story · 205 points
HN discussionhttps://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph...
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/mass-energy-matter-etc/the-energy-that-holds-things-together/neutron-stability-in-atomic-nuclei/
on “Large Hadron Collider discovers three new exotic particles”Submitted How far could the sun possibly be? as a story · 162 points
HN discussionAs another not-physicist who is interested in physics, I've found the articles/explainers at Of Particular Significance very helpful. There are a few on particle decay, and I think that these two provide a longer answer to your questions: Most Particles Decay — But Why? https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph... Most Particles Decay — Yet Some Don’t! https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-po…
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/mass-energy-matter-etc/the-energy-that-holds-things-together/neutron-stability-in-atomic-nuclei/
on “Large Hadron Collider discovers three new exotic particles”Submitted Why Is Light So Fast? as a story · 147 points
HN discussionParticles with any (rest) mass can have lots of things that happen inside. https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph...
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/the-structure-of-matter/protons-and-neutrons/
on “ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC”Submitted A Ring of Controversy Around a Black Hole Photo as a story · 107 points
HN discussionhttps://profmattstrassler.com/2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-q... It's explained better here. tl;dr; is that they are virtual particles and don't have the same mass as a "real" charm quark.
Comment linking /2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-quarks-a-lesson-from-virtual-particles/
on “Inside the proton, the ‘most complicated thing you could possibly imagine’”Submitted Virtual Particles: What are they? (2011) as a story · 98 points
HN discussionThis is the direct link https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/largehadron... Also check out the comments and comment answers there. Very interesting too!
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/largehadroncolliderfaq/whats-a-proton-anyway/
on “Inside the Proton”Submitted The best proof that the Earth spins as a story · 91 points
HN discussion“A virtual particle is not a particle at all. It refers precisely to a disturbance in a field that is not a particle.” https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph...
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/virtual-particles-what-are-they/
on “Inside the Proton”Submitted How to figure out the size of the moon yourself as a story · 86 points
HN discussionAnd also https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph... “A virtual particle is not a particle at all. It refers precisely to a disturbance in a field that is not a particle.”
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/virtual-particles-what-are-they/
on “Inside the Proton”Submitted Virtual particles aren't particles (2011) as a story · 73 points
HN discussionThis should be required reading for this article: https://profmattstrassler.com/2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-q... Virtual particles do not necessarily have an invariant mass. That's why you can find examples of typically huge particles inside protons. That's why a beta decay of a neutron can involve the production of a virtual W- boson that has an invariant mass that's 86 times more massive than the neutron.
Comment linking /2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-quarks-a-lesson-from-virtual-particles/
on “Inside the Proton”Submitted Why the Higgs Field Is Nothing Like Molasses, Soup, or a Crowd as a story · 68 points
HN discussionIt says that it's not necessary for this specific question : https://profmattstrassler.com/2025/01/10/no-the-short-range-... > quantum physics plays no role in why the weak nuclear force is weak and short-range. (It plays a big role in why the strong nuclear force is strong and short-range, but that’s a tale for another day.)
Comment linking /2025/01/10/no-the-short-range-of-the-weak-nuclear-force-isnt-due-to-quantum-physics/
on “Why the weak nuclear force is short range”Submitted So What Is It? The bump on the two-photon plots as a story · 52 points
HN discussionThis particular article has a prelude on the same website https://profmattstrassler.com/2025/01/10/no-the-short-range-...
Comment linking /2025/01/10/no-the-short-range-of-the-weak-nuclear-force-isnt-due-to-quantum-physics/
on “Why the weak nuclear force is short range”Submitted In Memory of Joe Polchinski, the Brane Master as a story · 36 points
HN discussionFortuitously the author of the posted article also has a series on the Higgs mechanism (with the math, but still including some simplifications): https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph...
Comment linking /articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/how-the-higgs-field-works-with-math/
on “Why the weak nuclear force is short range”Submitted New Higgs Rumors Have Arrived as a story · 21 points
HN discussionThere's an association here to another topic which came up recently: a review of Matt Strassler's new book, Waves in an Impossible Sea [1]. Professor Strassler says a big motivation for writing this book was what he calls 'phibs': 'explanations' of physics so bowdlerized that they are not just uninformative, but at least misleading and sometimes outright wrong. The particular phib which got him started was a commonl…
Comment linking /2024/04/16/why-the-higgs-field-is-nothing-like-molasses-soup-or-a-crowd/
on “Feynman’s Razor”Submitted A Non-Expert’s Guide to a Black Hole’s Silhouette as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThis article provides some historical context to today's prize. http://profmattstrassler.com/2013/10/08/the-twists-and-turns...
Comment linking /2013/10/08/the-twists-and-turns-of-higgstory/
on “Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs”Submitted Why Is the Speed of Light So Fast? as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
