Alex Turner

Alex Turner is an engineer who works on data centre infrastructure. He writes about data centres as physical buildings, where the choices are forced by heat and by the grid long before anyone decides them.

Joined: 14/09/2026
Articles: 133

SiPM vs PMT silicon photomultiplier compared to photomultiplier tube illustration

Particle Physics

SiPM vs PMT: Why Silicon Hasn’t Won Everywhere Yet

SiPM vs PMT: silicon wins on efficiency, voltage and magnetic immunity, but tubes still win on collecting area per euro. The numbers and a verdict.

Cutaway illustration of a circular tunnel under a lakeside town with snow-capped Alps behind it, light trails tracing particle beams around the ring

Particle Physics

The Lord of the Rings: CERN’s FCC Enters the Political Fray

CERN's Future Circular Collider is feasible, its study says. The 91 km, CHF 15 billion question now is political: who pays, and is the physics worth it?

Painted illustration of a collider tunnel with red warning lights, its walls overgrown by tangled dark red roots

Particle Physics

The Long Silence: CERN’s Struggle to Avoid Obsolescence

After the Higgs, the LHC found no new physics. CERN faces a silent nature, a Chinese rival, a brain drain and a CHF 15 billion bet on its next collider.

A domed stone column resembling the US Capitol, crumbling on one side in front of a large red sun

Opinions

Is the American Empire’s Dominance About to End?

How past empires actually declined -- Rome, Britain and others compared on the same structural signals, applied to what they'd predict for the US today.

Abstract brush illustration in black, red and white of a man with a hand at his chin, behind lines and ellipses

Quantum Physics

Richard Feynman: The Nobel Physicist Who Made Curiosity a Superpower

Explore the life, science, and legacy of Richard Feynman—the Nobel-winning physicist whose curiosity and clarity reshaped how we understand the universe.

Lifestyle

The Science-Based Calisthenics Progression Plan That Works

A science-based calisthenics progression plan: step-by-step tables from beginner to advanced for pull, push, legs and core, built on exercise science.

The stainless steel Starship SN9 prototype standing on its launch mount at Boca Chica, Texas, under evening sun rays

Science

SpaceX Starship: The Catalyst for a New Space Economy

The Price Revolution of Space X Starship: Discover how $67 per Kilogram Redefines Space Cargo Costs

Bare Tesla Model S and Model X chassis on display, showing the flat battery pack enclosure that forms the car's floor between the wheels

Science

Are Electric Cars Dangerous? The Truth About Tesla Fires

Are electric cars fire-prone? Check the reality behind the rumors and discover the truth about Tesla Fires and explosions

Hubble image of a distant galaxy whose light is bent into a near-complete ring around a foreground galaxy, an Einstein ring

Cosmology & Astrophysics

Space-Time and Relativity: How to Imagine It

Space and time are one four-dimensional object that can bend. Two simple thought experiments, and the GPS in your phone, show how to picture it.

Physicist Avinash Kumar adjusts the laser optics of the Simon Fraser University experiment that demonstrated a Mpemba effect with microscopic particles

Science

Can Hot Water Really Freeze Faster Than Cold? The Mpemba Effect Explained

The Mpemba effect refers to the counterintuitive observation that hot water may freeze faster than cold water under some conditions. Check if this is true.