astronomy

Luboš Motl

Luboš Motl is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Luboš Motl rather than just read about it. In short: Luboš Motl (Czech: [ˈluboʃ ˈmotl̩]; born 5 December 1973) is a Czech blogger. He was an assistant professor in physics at Harvard University from 2004 to 2007.

Key takeaways

Luboš Motl belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Luboš Motl to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Luboš Motl from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Luboš Motl (Czech: [ˈluboʃ ˈmotl̩]; born 5 December 1973) is a Czech blogger. He was an assistant professor in physics at Harvard University from 2004 to 2007. His scientific publications were focused on string theory.

Life and career Motl was born in Plzeň, present-day Czech Republic. He won a Bronze Medal at the 1992 International Mathematical Olympiad. He received his master's degree from the Charles University in Prague, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Rutgers University (2001) and has been a Harvard Junior Fellow (2001–2004) and assistant professor (2004–2007) at Harvard University. In 2007, he left Harvard and returned to the Czech Republic. Although an undergraduate at a Czech university where none of the faculty specialized in string theory, Motl came to the attention of string theorist Thomas Banks in 1996, when Banks read an arXiv posting by Motl on matrix string theory. "I was at first a little annoyed by [Motl's] paper, because it scooped me," said Banks. "This feeling turned to awe when I realized that Lubos was still an undergraduate". He then became a graduate student of Banks, and wrote his PhD thesis on matrix theory. While at Harvard, Motl worked on the pp-wave limit of AdS/CFT correspondence, twistor theory and its application to gauge theory with supersymmetry, black hole thermodynamics and the conjectured relevance of quasinormal modes for loop quantum gravity, deconstruction, and other topics. In 2006, he proposed the weak gravity conjecture with Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alberto Nicolis and Cumrun Vafa. He is the author of L'équation Bogdanov, a 2008 French-language book discussing the scientific ideas and controversy of the Bogdanov brothers. Motl has not been publishing scientific papers since 2015.

The Reference Frame For many years, Motl wrote a science and politics blog called "The Reference Frame: Supersymmetric world from a conservative viewpoint", in which he expresses his scientific and right-wing political opinions, including invectives as well as personal insults. The blog has been described by George Musser as an "over-the-top" defense of string theory, defining one of the extremes of scientific opinions on that topic, with the other extreme being represented by Peter Woit. Following the example of Oriana Fallaci, Motl characterizes himself as a Christian atheist. He also describes himself as a "champion of the consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics", and has strongly criticised Erik Verlinde's entropic gravity theory. In April 2022, Motl retired the blog, citing censorship pressures and general dissatisfaction.

References

External links

The Reference Frame (Archived 2022-03-29 at the Wayback Machine), Luboš Motl's blog

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Luboš Motl

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Luboš Motl claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Luboš Motl before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Luboš Motl ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Luboš Motl

In research: Luboš Motl appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Luboš Motl in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Luboš Motl is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 births, Charles University alumni, Czech critics of Islam, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Luboš Motl outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Luboš Motl in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Luboš Motl means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Luboš Motl out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Luboš Motl in simple terms?

Luboš Motl (Czech: [ˈluboʃ ˈmotl̩]; born 5 December 1973) is a Czech blogger. He was an assistant professor in physics at Harvard University from 2004 to 2007.

Why does Luboš Motl matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Luboš Motl?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Luboš Motl.