Maintenance of the software that’s used for the hardest physics calculations rests almost entirely with a retiree. The situation reveals the problematic incentive structure of academia. Recently, I ...

First off, I've never met anyone who has mastered C++. I doubt that even Bjarne Stroustrup is a master of C++, and he made it. There are even serious discussions about whether C++ semantics can be ...

Recently, I watched a fellow particle physicist talk about a calculation he had pushed to a new height of precision. His tool? A 1980s-era computer program called FORM. Particle physicists use some of ...