@Miranda, why is so hard to brake off one piece of a chocolate bar? It is question from Physics! :))

“Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness.”

― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Flavio and Syed Shahee, perhaps it's a good thing that I didn't pursue Physics after the first year at varsity :)

For me, physics is like mountain-climbing. The pleasure/lethal option is as with chocolate. However the effect of training is better represented in my picture than in chocolate-eating.

I see it like this: "Physics is like sex - it may give some practical results but that's not why we do it." (Richard Feynman) ;)

Well, @Johannes, Richard's bon mot points to the physical aspect of physics. Ulrich is deeper in the intellectual approach of physics as I understand it. I appreciate your contribution with a ;).

@Ulrich, mountain climbing physics seems to sound a note of Sisyphos' work - more modern, dark matter -> dark energy -> dark space ... dark dimensions ... dark darkness... God knows, or not.

The physics of chocolate is well known. What I mean is the physics of chocolate ice cream, of course. I remember Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker,a German physicist involved in early multidisciplinary research and communication about societal processes talking about the difference between natural scientists and humanists. He said the humanists could not understand the humour with which scientists spoke about their work. They, the humanists, were too serious about their work and results. And, he reflected about the reason why. Your guess now...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_von_Weizs%C3%A4cker

I have not heard, but it seems to me and in the medicine particularly everything is depending on dosage from drug to poison. In philosiphy the quantity is transforming into quality

Many of us on Research Gate are scientists with lots and lots of humour.

At times we put up a question and can't imagine the direction it will take :)

HI friends, I don't actually know who I have quoted. But I guess that person is someone who loves Physics, just like many of us..., and probably not a Swiss. Because the Swiss love chocolate and produce world-class chocolate. We in Malaysia have so many cocoa plants, but haven't yet come to that quality. Our best and most creative is probably Beryl's :)

Hi Miranda et al. I subscribe Bryson's quotation by Syed - that book he mentions is really outstanding. I0d also put up another analogy similar to the one referred by Ulrich but, in my case, deep freediving instead of mountaineering.

Cheers,

JP

@Joao, thanks for your views.

Dear folks, we have such a lot of cocoa. Little children play with them, throw them, kick at them...but we haven't produced world class brands as the Swiss.

But for me and some friends, our research is like chocolate :)

@Miranda, why is so hard to brake off one piece of a chocolate bar? It is question from Physics! :))

Dear Prof Ljubomir, perhaps, our friends like Michael, Martin and Lijo will answer the question easily. For me, I need a knife to cut. Let's just wait...

While some may enjoy too much research as obsession, but the family members find it hard to adjust with the researcher's obsession.

When I was writing my Ph.D thesis, I had kept some 70 books on my dining table as I had to refer to them frequently, during the drafting stage.

I did not know the result of doing so! My wife felt extremely bad about it, even as she was herself a Ph.D. She insisted that I remove them from there. She remarked: "I see them as if they are another woman in your life."

Haven't heard of it Miranda, but I quite disagree with it because my undergraduate course (agri engineering) required me to eat much of it, as if a regular meal. I also was fond of it in high school- both mechanics and statics, and electricity.and magnetism It was a favorite subject for me, and it was not lethal to me- it was actually healthful. Perhaps, Physic's proportions as pleasure and poison, depends on the "chemistry" of a person. Still, everything in excess is deadly, "too much love can kill you", as the line of a song goes. Ed

Very interesting, thanks.

@Prof Debi, obsession with research is seen as having another woman... :))

@Ed, chocolate is healthful (I eat it with apple!) but anything in excess is 'deadly'...

Dear Miranda,

In fact, I am with some sense of pleasure or change in classes, but to a certain limit.

Dear Miranda, you have a name directly connected with chocolate in Greece because of a well known trademark! :)

Anyway, I think the phrase is fair enough and probably that was a reason why I left Physics for many years in order to study and do other thinks. But, maybe this can be applied to other branches like Mathematics, who knows?

@Ljubomir, it's easier to break off 1 row or strip of chocolate. To break off 1 little 'cube' it's difficult, because you have to apply force in 2 directions that are perpendicular. Please correct me if wrong.

@Mahfuz, maybe we can think of some Blue Ocean Strategies involving choc :)

@Demetris, I didn't know that my name is connected with choc in Greece. Here, in Malaysia, my name is 'used' by a soft drink called 'Mirinda'.

But actually it's given by my dad, taken from 'The Tempest' of Shakespeare.

Dear folks, I found one website about 'Physics is like chocolate...'. Here it is:

http://myphysics4u.wordpress.com/about/

Interesting!

I believe this is because many people still live in a kind of shell and do not understand that the world is like that. I always tell my students: "Do not take it personally, it was not me who invented it all!"

When I heard that comparison to chocolate, I commented ironically that physics is actually like wine. "Physicians follow discovering benefits. Meanwhile they at least suggest daily doses."

Alexandre, there must be some reasons why you compare Physics to wine. Please share :)

Dear all, I prefer to understand the psychology of chocolate. The physics goes on between my teeth or in the mouth of my friends..

Dear Prof Hanno, what are the things that you like best about the psychology of choc?

Dear Miranda,

I´m looking forward when biting, all who get the present, are delighted, the bad mood disappears, smile is coming up, children ask "Do you have more?". No psychology at all, or?

;-)

Dear Miranda

"Too much more damaging than the lack." (Cicero)

There is a widespread belief that drinking a large volume of water daily is beneficial for health.

The body therefore has the ability to self-regulate, since the lack or excess water can cause damage to cells and organism in general.

Water intake also has the purpose of diluting the salt that is consumed with food. When you eat excess water, it runs the risk of reducing the rates of sodium in the body, which can cause tremors, mental confusion and memory loss. Brain cells may also resent that too much water. The fluid replacement is undoubtedly a very healthy care, which should not be overlooked. However, as in all situations, excess also carries its risks, even if the excess be a substance like water, always associated with health

If the excess water can harm , what can we say of physics ?

@Nelson,

I´m not sure what you are pointing out. Physics has no metabolism in our body. There are no trace elements which are swapped out by your physics studies.

To much physics can only make you crazy if you forget to have breaks and divert your brain.

It reminds me of the concept of dose and response!

Chocolate is a great pleasure and has a beneficial effect against depression. Some people assume it before sleeping, just after dinner for relax. However, subjects with metabolic probllems such as dyslipidemia cannot assume it expecially when they have signs of atherosclerosis or liver steatosis or gastro-esphageal refux disease or divertculosis. So a potential pleasure may sometimes be changed into a potenitial damage or unpleasant sensations such as acid reflux. The moral of the story is that it is not always nice what we like!

Dear Miranda, of course chocolate. My research field is like dark chocolate with chili, isn't lethal, but incredibly tasty. Why ? I'm still looking for an answer.

Friends, thanks for your contributions. I like all this:

'If the excess water can harm , what can we say of physics ?...

To much physics can only make you crazy ...

Chocolate is a great pleasure and has a beneficial effect against depression

Mathematics and physics are father and mother of all science

My research field is like dark chocolate with chili, isn't lethal, but incredibly tasty...'

Did you go to the link I gave? KPM is the Malay acronym for Ministry of Education...

Too much of even a good thing is bad!

Period!

Well, have it, feel it :-)

Yes friends, too much of good things are also harmful.

For some of us, we don't have the TIME to get too much of RG :)