Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who are you? What do you do for a living?
2. Why do you blog? Don’t you have better things to do with your time?
3. What’s with the misspelled title? How was this blog designed? Tell me more.
4. What kinds of things do you write about?
5. What kinds of blogs do you read? How about other stuff?
6. How can I get in touch with you?
7. I really, really, really want to buy you something. What should I get you?
About Me
My name is Sujit Datta. I am a student at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Physics. I am interested in all branches of physics, particularly condensed matter and materials physics, and interdisciplinary physics that combines fields such as biology, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials science and physics (often at the nanoscale). You can explore some of the work that I follow from my links page. My other academic interests include mathematics (particularly the use of mathematics to study physical, biological, financial, and socioeconomic systems), cognitive science, the philosophical/sociological history of ideas, particularly those dealing with mathematics and the sciences, and physics education.
I am currently researching quantum transport in carbon nanotubes, graphene and nanotube-derived structures. In particular, I use MEMS and nanoscopic techniques (such as optical/electron-beam lithography, wet/dry etching, and chemical vapor deposition) for fabrication, and use scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) for electronic characterization. In addition, I am working towards developing new forms of SPM with the goal of elucidating interesting structural, electronic, and quantum properties of such structures. I also combine my experimental research with finite-element simulations, as a means of further understanding and motivating experimental work.
My non-academic interests include heated pseudo-intellectual discussions, traveling, cycling, amateur photography, good books, artsy movies, good music, and poetry/prose (and now, blogging).
Why I Blog
I’ve been dabbling with online creations for as long as I can remember now - I think I was thirteen when I made my first website with the help of HTML for dummies (or some variant thereof), and I created my first blog in high school. It was hosted on geocities (remember that?), and I doubt that anyone actually read it other than myself, one or two close friends, and random web visitors. It was useful for me, though, as an angsty teen trying to figure out life, the universe, and everything. Among other things, it helped me write better, to think things through, and to experiment with different ways of expressing myself. Anyway, it served its purpose, and I eventually dropped it after a year or so. The fascination with different forms of media and expression remained, however, and Web 2.0 just makes it all the more exciting. As they say, the machine is us/ing us.
This isn’t a trip down memory lane. The point is that this blog is just another manifestation of my desire to explore and use different forms of expression as a means of organizing my thoughts. It’s more insular than most other blogs: I blog primarily for myself. Blogging is a way for me to keep track of interesting ideas, concepts or events that I come across more than it is a means for communicating these things to others - although part of the reason for putting all this online is so others can benefit, participate, and collaborate, à la Web 2.0. (I initially was going to set up a wiki for the purpose, but blogging seemed less impersonal.) It’s a win-win situation, and the closest thing I can find is Cosma Shalizi’s Online Notebooks. He says it best:
They’re, well, notebooks — things I find amusing, outrageous, strange or otherwise noteworthy; notes towards works-in-glacial-progress; hemi-demi-semi-rants; things I want to learn more about; lists of references… If you can help with any of these, I’d be grateful; if you can tell me of anything I can profitably prune, I’d be even more grateful.
Simply put, this blog is my online notebook. (And of course, it’s a great way from me to brush up my 
Other Details
The name of this blog - metadatta - is not a typo, but rather, a bad pun on my last name. Lame, I know. It’s not the best, but it’ll have to do for now.
Curious about this blog’s design? It’s a heavily modified version of the ChaoticSoul theme for WordPress. The title image is based off this image, which is a pretty interesting way of representing the Ising probability density that I found at the Wikipedia entry on the subject.
Oh, and should you choose to look for this blog in the library, this is what you’ll find (courtesy the Catalog Card Generator):
Post Categories
Academia / Artificial Intelligence / Astrophysics / Biophysics / Book Review / Carbon Nanotubes / Classes / Computational Neuroscience / Condensed Matter Physics / Design / Education / Electronic Liquid Crystals / Entertainment / Film / Funding / General / History of Science / Humor / Interdisciplinary / Journals / Liquid Crystals / Magnetism / Mathematical Biology / Media / Models / Nanoscale Science / Nanotechnology / Neural Networks / Papers / People / Philadelphia / Photonics / Physics / Prizes and Honors / Quantum Mechanics / Science / Skepticism / Social Science / Sociology / Spintronics / Statistics / STM / Superconductivity / Technology / Websites
Blogroll
3 quarks daily / A Quantum Diaries Survivor / Academic Tech / An American Physics Student in England / Angry Physics / Arcane Gazebo / Asymptotia / atdotde / Backreaction / bbgm / bit-player / Biocurious / Blog Physica / Carbon-Based Curiosities / Chem Bark / Cocktail Party Physics / Coherence* / Confused At A Higher Level / Coffee Talk / Cosmic Variance / Crooked Timber / The Culture of Chemistry / Daily Dose of Imagery / The Daily Photon / dataisnature / Dr. Shellie / Eastern Blot / Ed Boyden / Ergodicity / Everyday Scientist / Female Science Professor / Framing Science / From The Bench / Good Math, Bad Math / Hi, I’m Meg / Horganism / Ideas Man / Imaginary Potential / I Make Projects / Incoherently Scattered Ponderings / Indexed / Information Esthetics / Information Processing / Inkling Magazine / Inky Circus / Interconnected / Jennifer Dodd / Kottke / KuiperCliff / Lab Life / Life on the Lattice / Martyn Amos / McSweeney’s Internet Tendency / Michael Nielsen / Mind the Gap / Mixed States / musecumulus / Nanoarchitecture / Nanoscale Views / n0noscience / Not Even Wrong / Perfectly Reasonable Deviations / Planet Musings / Presentation Zen / Quantized Space / Quantum Chaotic Thoughts / Quantum Coherence / Quantum Moxie / Quantum Quandaries / rose.blog / Schlupp / SciGuy / Setting the World on Fire one Flag at a Time / Shtetl-Optimized / Simplicity / Skeptico / Soft Machines / Spheroid / Strange Paths / Structure + Strangeness / Text Message in a Bottle / The Chem Cycle / The Futile Cycle / The Mad Engineer / The Quantum Pontiff / The Science Creative Quarterly / The Scientific Activist / The Statistical Mechanics Lounge / The Trouble With Spikol / The Truth Makes Me Fret / Three-Toed Sloth / TierneyLab / To Go Beyond Yesterday / Uncertain Principles / xkcd / Yan Feng
