Research Blog

Cardinal, Ontario: Where Physics Gets Done
What it's like to do foundational physics research in a town of 1,800 on the St. Lawrence — the real advantages of working outside an institution, the real disadvantages, and why the store exists. Read more...
Why Independent Physics Research Matters
Institutional physics has structural blind spots — publication incentives, grant cycles, career risk for heterodox ideas. A matter-of-fact case for why independent research is a legitimate part of science. Read more...
5 Physics Experiments You Can Do With a $50 Budget
Five real experiments under $50 total: measure g to 1%, see emission lines off a CD, clock the speed of sound with your phone, make ferrofluid, and verify Malus's law with polarizers. Read more...
What Is the Standard Model and Why Should You Care
The Standard Model is our most precisely tested theory — verified to ten decimal places — and obviously incomplete, with no gravity, no dark matter, and 19 free parameters nobody can derive. Read more...
Top 10 Science Gifts for Adults Who Never Outgrew Curiosity
Ten science gifts that adults actually keep on the desk — ferrofluid, a Tesla coil, a real telescope, a microscope, and more — each with why it's cool and exactly who it's for. Read more...
Book Review: The Free Will Solution — Physics Meets Philosophy
A review of The Free Will Solution: the rare book that takes both the physics and the philosophy of free will seriously, arguing that choice emerges from quantum indeterminacy rather than being erased by it. Read more...
What's in the GPP Digital Download Collection
A straight guide to the Golden Physics Project digital downloads: the Free Will Solution, 30 author's-note paper packages, and the complete bundle — what they cover and who they're for. Read more...
Why Every Physics Student Needs a Spectroscope
Quantum mechanics began with spectral lines. A $30 spectroscope gives you direct access to the Bohr model, stellar composition, and redshift — it's foundational, not optional, physics gear. Read more...
The Science Behind Ferrofluid: Magnetic Fields Made Visible
The technical companion to ferrofluid: Maxwell stress, why field lines become physical spikes, the Rosensweig threshold and its characteristic wavelength, and why 10nm particles stay suspended. Read more...
Lab Glassware for Home Scientists: What You Actually Need
A 1000mL flask looks impressive but you'll reach for the 250mL one every time. The honest hierarchy of beakers, cylinders, and flasks — and what borosilicate actually buys you. Read more...
70mm Telescope Buyer's Guide: What You Can Actually See
The honest version: the Moon looks incredible, planets look small but real, galaxies look like smudges. Why aperture is king, what a 70mm refractor resolves, and the best beginner targets. Read more...
Galaxy Star Projector Review: Turning Your Bedroom Into Deep Space
An honest look at the Galaxy Star Projector: it's decorative, not scientific — but the laser-and-LED physics behind why it looks so good is real, and the effect is genuinely lovely. Read more...
Best Beginner Spectroscope Experiments You Can Do at Home
Point a spectroscope at a fluorescent tube, then an incandescent bulb, then an LED — three completely different spectra. Six concrete experiments that turn light into data. Read more...
Ferrofluid: The Strangest Liquid You'll Ever Own
Hold a magnet near ferrofluid and the surface erupts into a field of black spikes. That is the Rosensweig instability, and it is one of the few places you can watch a magnetic field become a physical shape. Here is what ferrofluid is, where it came from, and what to do with it. Read more...
Tesla Coil 101: What It Does, Why It's Mesmerizing, and How to Use One Safely
A Tesla coil is a resonant transformer that turns wall voltage into high-frequency, high-voltage electricity you can literally watch dance in the air. Here is the real physics, what those purple streamers actually are, and how to run one without hurting yourself. Read more...
Painless360's Recommended FPV Gear for Beginners
Painless360 (YouTube @Painless360) makes plain-facts FPV tutorials without clickbait. His 2026 beginner guides consistently recommend the RadioMaster Pocket ELRS as the entry-point radio, simulator practice first, and ExpressLRS for all new builds. Read more...
Andreas Spiess ESP32 Projects: The Complete Parts List
Andreas Spiess ('The Guy with the Swiss Accent') maintains a curated Amazon hardware list and has tested TTGO LoRa32, T-Beam, and multiple ESP32 boards in depth. Here is what he actually recommends for LoRa, Meshtastic, and ESP32 IoT projects. Read more...
Joshua Bardwell's FPV Component Guide: What to Buy for Your First Build
Joshua Bardwell's fpvknowitall.com is the most-cited FPV shopping list in the hobby. Here is a breakdown of his actual recommendations for radios, frames, motors, cameras, and batteries for 5-inch freestyle and sub-250g builds. Read more...
The Best SDR Setup in 2026: What Tech Minds Actually Uses
Tech Minds (YouTube @TechMinds2016) has reviewed and recommended specific SDR hardware including the RTL-SDR Blog V3, HackRF One with PortaPack H4M, SDRplay RSP1B, and LILYGO T-Beam for Meshtastic. Here is exactly what he uses and why. Read more...
Lab Glassware: Borosilicate vs Soda Glass, and What Each Piece Is Actually For
Lab glassware is not kitchen glassware. The distinction matters physically, chemically, and for safety. Understanding the material science and intended function of each piece prevents both equipment damage and experimental error.Borosilicate vs Soda-Lime GlassStandard borosilicate glass (Pyrex, Kimax, Duran) has a coefficient of thermal expansion of approximately 3.3 × 10⁻⁶/°C. Ordinary soda-lime glass (used in windows, jars, and most non-lab glassware) has a coefficient of approximately 9 × 10⁻⁶/°C — nearly three times higher.Thermal shock resistance depends on this number directly. When you heat one part of a glass object... Read more...
NanoVNA: What the Smith Chart Actually Tells You About Impedance
The NanoVNA is a two-port vector network analyzer that measures S-parameters from 50 kHz to 900 MHz (extended to 1.5 GHz on newer versions). It costs under $60. Understanding what it measures requires understanding S-parameters and the Smith chart — both of which have straightforward physical interpretations that are often obscured by how they are introduced.S-Parameters: What They Actually MeanS11 (return loss): The fraction of power reflected back from port 1. An S11 of 0 dB means all power is reflected; -10 dB means 10% of power is reflected (90%... Read more...
Measuring the Invisible: Radiation Detection with Geiger Counters and Cloud Chambers
Ionizing radiation is everywhere. The challenge is not finding it — it is making it visible and quantifiable. Two instruments do this in complementary ways: the Geiger-Müller tube counts ionization events electrically, and the cloud chamber renders individual particle tracks visually.How a Geiger-Müller Tube WorksThe GM tube is a gas-filled cylinder with a central anode wire held at 400–900V relative to the outer cathode. When an ionizing particle enters and ionizes the gas, the resulting free electrons accelerate toward the anode. As they gain energy, they collide with other gas... Read more...
The Physics of FPV: PID Control, Sensor Fusion, and RF Propagation in Racing Drones
A racing drone is a real-time physics experiment running at 8 kilohertz. Every millisecond, the flight controller reads angular velocity from a MEMS gyroscope, computes a correction, and updates all four motor speeds. Understanding what is actually happening in those 125 microseconds clarifies several important physical concepts.PID Control as a Discrete Feedback SystemThe PID controller operates on the error between the commanded angular rate (from the pilot's stick input) and the measured rate (from the gyroscope). The three terms act as follows:Proportional (P): Output is directly proportional to the current... Read more...
Why Every Physicist Needs an SDR Receiver
A software-defined radio (SDR) receiver replaces the analog signal processing stages of a traditional radio with a digitizer and software running on a general-purpose computer. The hardware front-end does one thing: down-convert and digitize a slice of the RF spectrum. Everything else — demodulation, filtering, channel selection, decoding — happens in software.This separation is important. Classical radio design locked the detector behavior into the hardware. An SDR exposes the raw in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) samples of the received spectrum, giving you direct access to the complex baseband signal. For a... Read more...
What Is Quantum Field Theory? A Plain-English Introduction to the Most Precise Theory in Science
Quantum field theory is the most precisely tested theory in the history of science. It predicts the magnetic moment of the electron to 10 decimal places. Here's what it actually says, without the jargon. Read more...
The Yang-Mills Mass Gap: The $1 Million Problem That Connects Quantum Physics to the Real World
Yang-Mills theory underlies the Standard Model of particle physics and explains why protons and neutrons have mass. Proving it rigorously — and proving the mass gap exists — is worth $1 million and remains one of the deepest open problems in mathematical physics. Read more...
The Riemann Hypothesis: Why the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Math Matters for Physics
The Riemann Hypothesis has been unsolved for 165 years and carries a $1 million prize. But it's more than a math puzzle — it has deep connections to quantum chaos, the distribution of energy levels, and the structure of spacetime itself. Read more...
What Is Celestial Holography? The Frontier of Quantum Gravity Research
Celestial holography is one of the most exciting ideas in modern theoretical physics. It proposes that all of physics — including gravity — can be encoded on a 2D boundary at infinity. Here's what that means and why it matters. Read more...
What Is the Free Will Problem in Physics? A Physicist's Perspective
Free will has puzzled philosophers for centuries. Physics has entered the debate — and the implications are profound. A theoretical physicist examines what quantum mechanics, determinism, and information theory really say about human agency. Read more...
Golden Physics Project Store is Now Open — Papers, Science Gadgets & More
The Golden Physics Project store is now open. Research papers, books, science instruments, and consultations — plus 20% off with code LAUNCH20. Read more...
What is Meshtastic? Off-Grid Mesh Communication Explained
Imagine being deep in the backcountry with your hiking group, miles from cell service, and being able to send text messages — complete with GPS positions — to everyone in your party. Or imagine a neighbourhood communication network that keeps working even when the internet goes down during a disaster. That's Meshtastic. What Meshtastic Actually Is Meshtastic is a free, open-source project that transforms inexpensive LoRa radio boards into an encrypted, off-grid text messaging and position-sharing network. There are no subscriptions, no monthly fees, no internet required, and no central... Read more...
ESP32 LoRa Projects: Building a Meshtastic Node from Scratch
The combination of ESP32 and LoRa radio is one of the most powerful and flexible platforms in the maker toolkit. When you add Meshtastic firmware, you get a fully functional encrypted mesh communication node that can relay messages kilometers through open terrain — for about the cost of a pizza. This guide covers the practical details of choosing, flashing, and deploying your ESP32 LoRa Meshtastic node. Choosing Your ESP32 LoRa Board Several manufacturers offer pre-integrated ESP32 + LoRa boards that are officially supported by Meshtastic. Here are the three best... Read more...
RadioMaster Pocket vs Boxer vs TX16S: Which FPV Controller is Right for You?
Your radio controller is the single piece of FPV equipment you'll keep the longest. Frames get crashed and replaced. Electronics get upgraded. But a good radio controller stays with you for years — maybe even a decade. That's why choosing the right one matters so much. RadioMaster dominates the FPV controller market in 2026, and their ELRS lineup covers every level from absolute beginner to experienced competitor. Here's how the three most popular models compare, so you can choose the right one for where you are right now. What is... Read more...
FPV Drone Starter Kit 2026: Everything You Need for Your First Build
Building your first FPV drone is one of the most rewarding projects in the electronics hobby world — but the parts list can feel overwhelming. What frame do you need? Which motors? What ESC? Which controller? This guide breaks down everything you need for a capable 5-inch freestyle build in 2026, with beginner-friendly recommendations at every step. Before spending a single dollar, do yourself a favour and watch some videos from Painless360 and Joshua Bardwell on YouTube. These two creators are the community's most trusted guides for FPV beginners. Painless360's... Read more...
Best LoRa Board for Meshtastic in 2026: T-Beam vs TTGO vs Heltec Compared
Choosing the right LoRa board for Meshtastic can make a real difference in your network's performance, battery life, and usability. In 2026, three boards dominate the Meshtastic community: the LILYGO T-Beam Supreme, the TTGO LoRa32, and the Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3. Each has a distinct niche — here's how to pick the right one for your use case. Quick Comparison Feature T-Beam Supreme TTGO LoRa32 Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 Chip ESP32-S3 ESP32 ESP32-S3 GPS Yes (built-in) No No OLED Display Yes Yes Yes Battery Support 18650 holder JST... Read more...
Meshtastic Setup Guide 2026: T-Beam and TTGO LoRa32 Step by Step
Meshtastic is one of the most exciting open-source projects in the maker world right now — and for good reason. It turns inexpensive LoRa radio boards into a fully encrypted mesh communication network that requires absolutely no internet connection, no cell towers, and no monthly fees. This step-by-step guide walks you through everything you need to get your first Meshtastic node online in 2026. What You'll Need Before we start, gather your hardware. For this guide, we'll use two popular Meshtastic-compatible boards: TTGO LoRa32 915MHz ESP32 — the most affordable... Read more...
What is Software Defined Radio? A Complete Beginner's Guide
You've probably heard the term "software defined radio" thrown around in tech circles, maker communities, or ham radio forums. But what actually is it — and why should you care? This guide explains SDR from the ground up, in plain English, with no prior radio knowledge required. The Old Way: Hardware Radios Traditional radios are built around specialized hardware. Each component — the tuner, the filter, the demodulator — is a physical circuit designed to handle a specific job at specific frequencies. This works great if you know exactly what... Read more...
HackRF One vs RTL-SDR vs SDRplay: Which SDR Should You Buy in 2026?
Software defined radio has never been more accessible — but with so many options on the market, choosing your first (or next) SDR can feel overwhelming. Should you start with a $30 RTL-SDR dongle, step up to the $199 SDRplay RSP1B, or go all-in with the $399 HackRF One? This guide breaks down all three so you can buy with confidence. What Is Software Defined Radio? Traditional radios use dedicated hardware circuits to tune to a specific frequency. A software defined radio (SDR) replaces most of that hardware with a... Read more...