From CERN to Sorbonne, from Steem to Hive - a short introduction to the Hive community

in OCD4 years ago

I am not a big fan of writing about me line after line. However, I must agree that @anomadsoul is right. The Hive blockchain formally does not know me as it only started a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, I decided to jump in and write this introduction, participating hence to the challenge sponsored by @ocdb and @blocktrades.

In the following, I will first talk a little about myself, CERN and Sorbonne, as well as about what I do day after day, night after night (i.e. physics, physics and physics). The second part of the post is dedicated to the SteemSTEM project that I co-founded more than 3 years ago and that has been recently rebranded as STEMsocial with the move to Hive.

Before going further, let me emphasise that there is some connection between this chain and CERN: Steem was brought, a few years ago, to the Large Hadron Collider, i.e. more than 100 meters underground inside the largest apparatus ever built by humans (see here). We could organise this for Hive for sure (I will even be pleased to do so), but only once the COVID will allow us to travel there (and if there is a demand of course).


15 years of particle physics with @lemouth


So what to say about me? Well, my name is Benjamin, known as Le Mouth in real life for more than a decade, and as @lemouth on the chain for almost 4 years. I am researcher in theoretical particle physics. Focusing on the last 10 years only, I have worked in the theory division at CERN in 2012-2014, before moving to Sorbonne University in Paris in 2015 (after spending half a year in Strasbourg in between). Now one can get the title of the post right :)

My research topic concerns the understanding of any phenomena beyond those predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics, and how to hunt these phenomena down at colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (the LHC) at CERN or through cosmological observations (e.g. through dark matter searches). I also dedicate a significant fraction of my time to develop computer tools for high energy physics. For instance, I am deeply involved in packages that allow one to simulate LHC collisions in the context of any model of physics and to confront the associated predictions to (real or simulated) data.

This blog consequently reflects cutting-edge research activities in particle physics and cosmology. Whilst my time is quite limited, I try to write 2-3 times a month.

First, I write about my own research work. For instance, one of my latest posts discussed state-of-the-art calculations for leptoquark production at the LHC. Please click on the link for more information on those beasts. Second, I also write about interesting and exciting publications, from known and unknown colleagues, on collider physics or dark matter. For instance, in this recent post, I explained how dark matter could be connected to the rise of temperature of our planet.

I would like to emphasise that the topics I choose to discuss are rarely discussed anywhere else online, making this blog fully original in terms of content. Moreover, I discuss science from the point of view of a scientist working in the field. This may contrast with other scientific blogs on other platforms that share the opinion of some journalists reporting what has been learned from other sources.

This is actually what we want to build on Hive within the STEMsocial project, formerly known as SteemSTEM: a science communication medium on Hive!


[image credits: Brücke-Osteuropa (CC0 1.0) ]

Towards science communication on Hive


Science communication is vital, everywhere in the world. This consists in the key focus of the STEMsocial project, that is nothing but the rebranded good old SteemSTEM project.

We began in September 2016 as a small group dedicated to improving the quality of STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) content on Steem. As things unfolded, we moved further and realised that we could do more than simply curating some niche topics. This is the potential that we want to exploit on Hive today.

More into details, those with the greatest knowledge of any STEM subject (researchers actively involved in groundbreaking research as well as passionate hobbyists) lack incentive to communicate their work to mainstream audiences. This leaves the majority of scientific reporting to journalists, so that only the most positive, groundbreaking and bizarre stories get heard. We would like to provide a space where both experts and passionate STEM bloggers can freely distribute their knowledge in a social media environment that actively promotes and rewards honest, reliable and high-quality content.

To reach our goals, we are developing an app (stem.openhive.network), deployed a witness (@stem.witness) and have so far organised two meetups in crazy places (CERN and Virgo labs). In a hopefully close future, we will be able to start targeting the class of people we want to on-board. We will have however to wait for some MVP of our ‘product’ to be deployed.

To know more about STEMsocial, please wait for dedicated posts from the main project account in a couple of days. I would however like to emphasise that we are always open to help and advices, as well as support (under any form; please contact me or @mobbs to freely chat about it).


[image credits:@glass.wolf ]

And now, the future!


Hive is new, Hive is fresh.

I plan to continue my work here, both around my blog (as much as I can, the next post will be about some universal framework to simulate dark matter production at the LHC) and for STEMsocial. I am in particular quite motivated to develop the app further, hopefully a little bit faster as the current pace. I recall that this consists in my hobby and I have very little time for hobbies…

Long life to Hive!

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I have been analyzing the scientific field for so long and what I always abhorred was this travel activity that researchers are subjected to, wherever their specialization leads them and one is forced to give up control. I had made it my mission not to let the topics determine me, but to determine the topics, which will probably lead me abroad in the future anyway 🤣 This makes it all the more important for scientists to have a hive 🐝 to have a digital place where they can be at home, where they can come back again and again, a place that gives them stability. Even though science tries to deliver honest, reliable and quality content, there is still a lot of controversy, how far should string theory be pursued? Sometimes it can be an advantage that philosophy is no longer seen as a scientific discipline 😇

Thanks for this comment! Really.

I have been analyzing the scientific field for so long and what I always abhorred was this travel activity that researchers are subjected to, wherever their specialization leads them and one is forced to give up control.

We indeed have to travel quite a bit although this is currently changing especially for ecological reasons. In my case, I am going less and less to conferences (I hate in particular the big ones) and prefer to focus on smaller workshops where one actually can do some work. In parallel, I prefer to travel to visit a few colleagues somewhere for 10-15 days (if one flies, one should make the stay long) and again, actually do some work. However, the amount of traveling is sometimes insane and could yield health issues (this is currently my case).

I had made it my mission not to let the topics determine me, but to determine the topics, which will probably lead me abroad in the future anyway

This is a great mission! Always work on what you like. Be happy. As we are generally underpaid and the working conditions are sometimes not great, it is better to be allowed to dedicate oneself to what one likes! That is the super-positive aspect of the job.

Going abroad for a postdoc is a must. It is very hard to get any permanent job if you stay in the same country, except maybe if you are from the US. Actually, maybe I have misunderstood your first question. that is not related to yearly trips but more to the postdoc-after-postdoc situation. Please let me know...

This makes it all the more important for scientists to have a hive 🐝 to have a digital place where they can be at home, where they can come back again and again, a place that gives them stability.

This is what we try on STEMsocial for years :) Slowly and slowly we will get there, on our app in particular!

Even though science tries to deliver honest, reliable and quality content, there is still a lot of controversy, how far should string theory be pursued?

I would say as far as possible. What is important is to diversify, to have people working on different aspects, so that we make sure not to miss anything. I personally prefer to focus on more phenomenological aspects than on string theory (I am not a string theorist). Therefore, I find it great that other people continue working on strings. As long as a theory is not ruled out by data, there is no reason to abandon it. Moreover, the techniques developed in one domain can often be exported to another domain and advance knowledge there.

I hope I answered all the questions! Thanks again for the great comment! And feel free to pass by on discord to say hi :)

No misunderstandings 🙃 everything's correctly understood 😉 being defined by the topic was always a horror for me. I completed a BA in musicology and proceeded in History and Philosophy of Science to find out that I'm the one always asking the questions one should not ask, e.g. who's financing what you're researching and why -------> those people are still traveling where Professor God is telling them to. Always convinced of they will become Profgod oneself one day, which probably will never happen. I mean in economy you also have a lot of Mini-dictator-CEOs which have made it to the top but then they realize that there are powerful strategic networkers outside of the tunnel that have far more influence, the same applies within the company if department heads refuse certain decisions coming from the top.

I'm very keen in seeing the rebranding bloom, cause the cross sectional field I'm about to enter is craving for STEM, even if many of those results will fail, they won't get lost (on the blockchain) and we'll be able to learn a lot

I think we should not generalise that much. Of course, this exists. But you also find much better people who accept being challenged (this is research, in my own definition). And as I say to my students: there is no stupid or unacceptable question. Only stupid and unacceptable answers :)

I'm very keen in seeing the rebranding bloom, cause the cross sectional field I'm about to enter is craving for STEM, even if many of those results will fail, they won't get lost (on the blockchain) and we'll be able to learn a lot

Some posts are coming. The first one is already there. The next one will be posted next week. Please stay tuned!

:) Good that you did this post. Now others too can follow I guess. For the next stemsocial meetup I hope I will be able to join. :)

Concerning the meetup, we need first to be COVID-free. This may take some time... And then, hopefully, I will have the energy to put all of this in place :D

I understand :)

Note that I won't share this post on twitter... because I don't have any twitter account (yes, this type of people still exists in 2020 :D).

This post has been voted on by the HiveSTEM curation team and voting trail. It is elligible for support from @curie and @minnowbooster.

If you appreciate the work we are doing, then consider supporting our witness @stem.witness. Additional witness support to the curie witness would be appreciated as well.

For additional information please join us on the SteemSTEM discord and to get to know the rest of the community!

Please consider using the stem.openhive.network app and including @steemstem as a beneficiary of this post. This could yield a stronger support.