Paul Sutter

What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 4: What Brad Bradington Is Good For

April 19, 2026

Cherenkov radiation isn't just a beautiful phenomenon. It turns up in nuclear reactors, in the upper atmosphere, in gamma ray telescopes on three continents, in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, and in hospital imaging suites. Here's what a light boom is actually good for.

What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 3: Brad Bradington Sprints

April 18, 2026

We have the crowd. We have the star. Now it's time to put them together. Here's exactly what happens — and why — when a charged particle outruns the local speed of light in a material. Also: why it's always blue.

What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 2: The Crowd, the Molasses, and the Speed of Light (Sort Of)

April 17, 2026

Before Brad Bradington can sprint down the red carpet, we need to understand the crowd. Specifically, we need to understand why a crowd of atoms and molecules slows down light — and why that creates a loophole that changes everything.

What Happens When Light Goes Boom? Part 1: The Scientist Who Stared at a Glow

April 16, 2026

In 1934, a Soviet physicist named Pavel Cherenkov shone gamma rays into a bottle of water and noticed a faint blue glow. So had others before him. They all shrugged and moved on. Cherenkov didn't. What he found — by refusing to dismiss something he didn't understand — turned into one of the most useful phenomena in modern physics.

Are Neutrinos Their Own Evil Twins? Part 4: Majorana's Mystery

April 15, 2026

In 1937, Ettore Majorana asked a question nobody else was even thinking about: does a particle have to have a distinct antiparticle? For neutrinos — which carry no charge — the answer might be no. They might be their own antiparticles. Deep underground right now, experiments are watching atoms decay, waiting for the signal that would prove it. So far: nothing. But the case is not closed.

Are Neutrinos Their Own Evil Twins? Part 3: Dirac's Direct Solution

April 14, 2026

Neutrinos have mass — yet they never flip between left- and right-handed states the way every other massive particle does. The most logical fix is Paul Dirac's: invisible right-handed neutrinos that interact with nothing whatsoever. The math works. It even produces a beautiful explanation for why neutrino masses are so absurdly tiny. But it requires believing in particles that are permanently, in-principle undetectable.

Are Neutrinos Their Own Evil Twins? Part 2: The Weak Left-Hander

April 13, 2026

The weak nuclear force is the eccentric cousin of the four forces — the one that only shakes hands with left-handed particles. That bizarre preference turns out to be absolutely critical for stars, nuclear fusion, and the existence of most matter. And neutrinos love it. There's just one problem: neutrinos appear to only exist in one handedness, which makes no sense at all.

Are Neutrinos Their Own Evil Twins? Part 1: So We're Going to Redefine "Particle"

April 12, 2026

A brilliant physicist vanished in 1938, leaving behind one strange, quiet paper. It described something that shouldn't exist: a particle that is its own antiparticle. To understand why that matters, we first need to rethink what a particle even is — and that means getting weird with chirality, the Higgs field, and the neutrino's stubborn refusal to follow the rules.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 4: Hiding in Plain Darkness

March 17, 2026

The WHAT? Yeah, the vortons. It’s not an anime monster-hunting show. It’s not some AI startup company. It’s a…it’s a thing. I think.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 3: The Great Vanishing Act

March 16, 2026

And yeah, we have a problem.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 2: The Persistence of Memory

March 15, 2026

But here’s the thing about these defects. They can’t just go away. They’re stuck.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 1: The Good Old Days

March 14, 2026

Every time you flip a light switch, or check the time, or feel the sodium ions wiggling in your brain — don’t think about that one too much—you’re assuming something fundamental. You’re assuming the universe is a finished product. A completed work. You think the Big Bang happened, the forces of nature settled into their seats, and we’ve been cruising on a smooth, predictable ride ever since.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 4: We Finally Turned On the Porch Lights

March 13, 2026

So that's all nice. But why now? That's the question everyone asks. We went decades — centuries, millennia really — without seeing a single rock that didn't have a "Made in the Solar System" sticker on it. Then, in the span of less than ten years, we get the Big Three: 'Oumuamua, Borisov, and now 3I/ATLAS.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 3: They SHOULD Be Weird

March 12, 2026

So why should we expect interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS and 'Oumuamua and even to some extent Borisov to be different-different?

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 2: Why Comets Are Like Cats

March 11, 2026

Once you start listing the properties of 3I/ATLAS, it becomes clear pretty quickly that this thing is distinctly different from any other comet we've ever seen. Here's just a small taste.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 1: The Strangers Blowing Through Town

March 10, 2026

Imagine you live in a small town. Maybe it’s easy for you to imagine because you actually do. You’ve spent your whole life there. You know all the people, and all the people know you. Years go by. Decades. The same faces at the same corner store, the same routes to the same places, the same sky overhead. It’s comfortable. Predictable. You could walk the whole thing blindfolded and never trip.

Recent Articles