Confidence, Doubt and Climate Change

4 October 2013Articlesclimate change, physics, public policyNick Dunbar

24 years ago I was a graduate student studying earth and planetary science at Harvard. My advisor, Professor Mike McElroy, was an expert on atmospheric chemistry and I helped him teach a course to 300 undergrads in what was known as the 'core curriculum'. As a special treat for the students, McElroy invited his friend,…

The Higgs boson and me

18 July 2012CommentNick Dunbar, physicsNick Dunbar

I first encountered the Higgs boson in 1989 on a blackboard in an advanced quantum field theory class for graduate students at Harvard University. It was the point that I realized that the life of a theoretical physicist was not for me. I remember the lecture theatre well. There were three blackboards side by side,…

Nature Bites Back In New, Messy World of Derivatives

4 May 2012Bankscredit valuation adjustment, derivatives, physics, risk modelsNick Dunbar

Twelve years ago, in 'Inventing Money' I explained the principles of option pricing to a general audience. Although the maths looked complicated, the financial market that Fischer Black, Robert Merton and Myron Scholes modeled in the early 1970s was really quite simple. You bought and sold derivatives, such as options or forward contracts, and traded…