Davide Castelvecchi, physical sciences editor at Scientific American and a 2004 SciCom graduate, has started a new blog on mathematics and physics, "Degrees of Freedom." The blog is part of a new blog network launched by Scientific American in July 2011.
Castelvecchi intends to comment on the "math angle" to current events. He also plans interviews with mathematicians and physicists, book reviews, breaking news, cool images, the occasional rant or rave, and original essays spanning particle physics to cosmology. For instance, one of his first posts, "Under a Blood Red Sky," examined a new way to visualize the afterglow of the Big Bang.
"My pledge to the reader is that the blog will live up to its name and move in new directions—exploring areas at the intersection of math and physics in ways that readers may have not seen before," says Castelvecchi. Recreational math, such as puzzles, riddles, and sudokus, will not appear on his blog, he adds, noting his own lack of proficiency at mathematical games.
Castelvecchi covers physical sciences (including chemistry and biophysics) and mathematics for Scientific American. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University and has held positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Paris-Sud 11 University, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata. After he completed the Santa Cruz program, Castelvecchi was a Web editor at the American Institute of Physics and a reporter at Science News magazine. He has freelanced for New Scientist, Sky & Telescope and National Geographic News. He is fluent in both Italian and English.
