Blog on Indefinite Pause
POSTED BY Matt Strassler
ON 04/17/2025
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36 Responses
Just heard about this sad situation you’re going through because of the surrealistic government in the USA. Keep hanging on, you are on the right side of History.
Just when i thought i was starting to make my mind around the issue of measurement…. I hope you come back soon and resume where you left it!
All the support from a dedicated follower of your blog from Spain.
Matt,
We live in difficult times and finding right actions or right speech is not easy. Just recall that in the darkest of times, 1944, Anne Frank wrote, “I still believe that people are really good at heart.” The Talmud tells us that “Scholars take precedence over Kings because Kings can be replaced”. It is as simple as that. The role of the scholar is to accumulate wisdom and to pass it on to their students, the next generation. This is what endures. Truth last, falsehood fades, keep your faith!
thank you !
I’m sad to read that, but it is understandable. Beyond Harvard the whole world suffer the vagaries of one individual, and the consequences are dire. “Roughly 25 million people could die in the next 15 years without the United States making its current annual spending on global health.” – Nature
“”Europe is still a peace project. We don’t have bros or oligarchs making the rules. We don’t invade our neighbours, and we don’t punish them,” Ursula von der Leyen said in a wide-ranging interview with the Zeit newspaper.
“The West as we knew it no longer exists,” Ursula von der Leyen has declared amid rapidly deteriorating relations with the United States under Donald Trump’s administration, which has forced Europe to look elsewhere for allies and partners.” – EuroNews
Good luck!
So upset to hear that Matt but thank you so much for all that you have done – it was so fascinating reading your amazing posts and the insights you provided really improved my understanding.
Kind regards,
Julian
This attack on Harvard is infuriating. It is clear that Harvard’s laudable response has created fear in our administration that other institutions will join in resisting our slide into authoritarianism. I can’t believe we are at this point so quickly. The idea that our own government would act to dictate which ideas are acceptable like constraining “activist” faculty and forcing policy and admissions changes reminds me more of the USSR than the USA. As this attack on Harvard is part of a pattern that includes attacks on law and the rule of law, attacks on the first amendment, and finally undoing the rules based order that has supported so much peace and growth after WW2. I believe we are all in serious trouble.
Your blog has been inspiring and your passion for teaching how the universe really works has been a great gift. I am grateful for your effort to share the beauty and strangeness of the quantum world. I am very sorry that things have come to this. Thank you!
Best Wishes to you and your colleagues! We shall overcome. These fascist wanabes will fail to put down the energy of true Americans!
As long as I remember, I started my first understanding of subatomic particles by reading one of your blogs. I was interested in learning more about them, then googled and found your blog post. Since then I’ve been following your post. This morning when I got this bad news in my mailbox, I took a pause and thought, why do politicians always choose to act like this! Feeling very sad. Hoping for a better future. Don’t lose hope. Surely you’ll come back some day and help people like us.
Your posts will be missed. Be safe.
I am very sad for myself that you are pausing your blog. I can’t tell you how much I’ve been getting from it. As a Ph.D. in physics, with a strong interest in QM and QFT, I thought I knew all of this, but you have described QM in ways that have surprised me, and made QM much more intuitive.
It is a necessary sacrifice in this day to support those of us with the courage to take a stand. I wholeheartedly support your decision to pause your blog, even though I was very much anticipating new entries to this blog, and looking forward every day to see your most recent take on the beauty and majesty of QM.
I hope the situation changes to enable you to resume this wonderful resource. I also greatly anticipate the new book/books that will arise from this blog.
Yours Truly,
Randy
What a sad time we are living in. I have been enjoying your articles very much. Your recent posts have especially given me a much deeper understanding of what quantum interference is.
Thank you for not mincing words; I’m grateful to you and will continue asking questions.
I am a dedicated follower of your blogs!
What is happenning in the US is called fascism.
You are more than welcome to bring your intellect to Canada where I you would be very welcome.
N
Here’s a radical idea.
Harvard could spend some of the billions in it’s endowment fund instead of tax dollars to get all these people through their tough stretch
Matt: I am SO sorry about your blog. Would you consider going a broad until the Predator is no longer president? I don’t always have time to digest it, when I am composing. But Physics was always my first love, even though I am better at music.
I totally agree with you and your decision
This is really sad 🙁
I send my best wishes to you and your colleagues. I truly hope to hear from you soon because everything has been resolved.
Thank you for everything. I’m sure it will only be a see you later.
Vincit qui patitur
Well said
That is unfortunate. There seems to be nothing more expensive than ignorance.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your boundless curiosity. I am confident that – at some point in time – you will resume. Carry on Professor.
Matt:
In my 85 years, I never expected political waves to create academic interference. I’ll await your re-appearance from the void. Meanwhile, keep on keeping on.
Anthony Biden Way, M.D., Ph.D.
This is very sad. I’d like to offer my very best wishes to you and all your colleagues. I hope we will see you again soon, in happier times.
I’m curious: how has the situation affected your day-to-day activities?
Good for you Mark, resist! Until these yahoos back off, let’s hope our institutions stay strong from this authoritarian incompetent onslaught on our civic and personal freedoms.
I feel a need to apologize to you Matt, though I never supported the current administration, and despite my introversion, knocked on doors last fall canvassing for its opposition.
So I guess I am apologizing for the failing of America to hold firm against the enemies of knowledge and universal advancement.
Persevere. Be strong.
Thank you, your colleagues, and Harvard University for resisting totalitarianism and standing up for the rule of law.
It’s tragic what’s happening. Hang in there, Doc. “This, too, shall pass.”
I am sorry, sorry for you, sorry for your colleagues, sorry for all the people in this country that will suffer the consequences of this attack on our freedom.
Thank you for making your work more accessible to the average curious person.
On no. Best wishes and hope you will eventually be able to resume.
So sad to see the fascism spreading in USA. 🤬
Sad situation, but ρ = E / J !!! Let’s work on the E ! Yours very sincerely!
I can only offer a quite symbolic and moral support. Don’t give up.
Sad day but evil must be confronted not appeased. Best Wishes.
I lament your impossibility of continuation, I hope you manage to resume it as soon as possible.
This is very sad. You do what you have to in order to be safe.