What is about physics?

_{"Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine,}

_{Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,}

_{Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then}

_{To reach, and feed at once both Body and Mind?"}

_{Paradise Lost - Book IX}

_{John Milton}

The search for the knowledge defines us as human beings. The "Fruit of Knowledge" and "Pandora's box" are two classical examples in western mithology that narrate the dawn of human self-awareness. Science is the modern form of this intrinsic human curiosity.

Among the branches of science, physics has a very special place. Its unique perspective allowed mankind to see its surroundings as never before.

I study a dynamical and beautiful part of physics known as "strong correlated systems". In a strong correlated problem the collective is the essence. The kind of phenomena that I study can only exist when the number of elements in the problem is huge, allowing the collectiveness to emerge. Many times, this emerging gives the system new and unexpected properties. One famous example is superconductivity in condensed matter, however strong correlated problems exist in every branch of physics. More than an odd (and almost all the times tough) problem, strong correlated is a break in our standard way of thinking. It correspond to a counter example to the reductionism paradigm. Hence, exactly as a koan poem in Zen Buddhism, broadening our understanding of nature.

In conclusion, if you ask me why I am a "theoretical condensed matter physicist" working in strong correlated problems, I will reply to you: just because I am a curious human being.

Eduardo Novais.

February 2003,

Boston, MA.