Patchen Barss
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Patchen Barss
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
1.4K followers 820 following 1.1K posts
Journalist and author. Science, mathematics, emerging ideas. “The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius” available here: https://shorturl.at/ixUY9
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patchenbarss.bsky.social
So much happening tonight, the pumpkins have to do double duty.
A small pumpkin painted blue with white spots overlayed with the Blue Jays logo.
October 31, 2025 at 11:19 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
The nice thing about getting older is my kids get older too. My 12-year-old made this card for me.
Pencil and paper drawing of me with the words “Happy B-day Papa” and the number 56.
October 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
I loved this book. It’s all the things people say it is - smart, funny, astute, and essential to the public discourse around genius. Much appreciated!
The poster, Patchen Barss, holding a hardcover copy of The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis
September 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
That’s it. Thank you for making me feel foolish rather than insane.
Screenshot of an iPhone calculator correctly displaying minus five squared equal to 25, thanks to putting the minus five in brackets.
September 7, 2025 at 6:03 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
I think my brain might be broken. Could someone please help me unbreak it? My kid was struggling with a math problem, and it turned out the issue was that his iPhone calculator was telling him minus 5 squared was minus 25.
A screen shot of an iPhone calculator indicating that minus 5 squared is minus 25.
September 7, 2025 at 5:58 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
I did a reading at LaHave River Books last weekend. The organizers presented me with this volume of picture poems by my namesake, Kenneth Patchen. I have a few of his books but have never seen this one before. What a treasure! So weird and awesome.
Black and white cover of “But Even So,” by beat poet Kenneth Patchen.
August 23, 2025 at 3:57 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
A reminder I'll be reading at LaHave River Books this afternoon at 4:00. I hope you can drop by!
A poster promoting a reading by Patchen Barss at LaHave River Books in LaHave Nova Scotia on August 16. The poster includes a colour picture of the bookstore, which has many books, comfy couches, and large doors opening out onto a pier, which extends into the scenic LaHave River. The poster also includes a headshot of author Patchen Barss, and an image of the cover of his book, The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius. The text of the poster reads: LaHave River Books presents Patchen Barss Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based science journalist and author who grew up on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. He has contributed to Nautilus Magazine, Scientific American, the BBC, the Discovery Channel, and The Walrus, as well as the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and Montreal Gazette. Empathetic and honest, The Impossible Man is a gripping, intimate examination of the life of physicist Roger Penrose and the larger question of who gets to be a genius. With a deft, poetic grasp of science, Patchen Barss draws on years of research, interviews, and previously unpublished letters, journals, and other papers, to present a deeply moving, eye-opening portrait of Penrose the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Roger the human being. ----- Named a top 2024 science and technology book by The Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, and The Daily Telegraph. “This biography depicts Sir Roger in multiple dimensions; only a writer as psychologically astute as Barss could show us an impossible man in full.” -New York Times “In this elegant biography, Barss vividly evokes Penrose’s geometric sensibility and his quest to prove that a geometrically perfect world lies hidden behind everyday reality.” -The New Yorker August 16, 2025 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. 3421 Hwy 331 902-688-1855 lahaveriverbooks@gmail.com
August 16, 2025 at 12:18 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
I'm excited to be reading at LaHave River Books in Nova Scotia on Aug. 16. This is a beautiful bookstore, a few kms from where I grew up. Since everyone seems to be traveling east this summer, maybe you'll be in the neighbourhood and drop by!
A poster promoting a reading by Patchen Barss at LaHave River Books in LaHave Nova Scotia on August 16. The poster includes a colour picture of the bookstore, which has many books, comfy couches, and large doors opening out onto a pier, which extends into the scenic LaHave River. The poster also includes a headshot of author Patchen Barss, and an image of the cover of his book, The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius. The text of the poster reads: LaHave River Books presents Patchen Barss Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based science journalist and author who grew up on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. He has contributed to Nautilus Magazine, Scientific American, the BBC, the Discovery Channel, and The Walrus, as well as the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and Montreal Gazette. Empathetic and honest, The Impossible Man is a gripping, intimate examination of the life of physicist Roger Penrose and the larger question of who gets to be a genius. With a deft, poetic grasp of science, Patchen Barss draws on years of research, interviews, and previously unpublished letters, journals, and other papers, to present a deeply moving, eye-opening portrait of Penrose the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Roger the human being. ----- Named a top 2024 science and technology book by The Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, and The Daily Telegraph. “This biography depicts Sir Roger in multiple dimensions; only a writer as psychologically astute as Barss could show us an impossible man in full.” -New York Times “In this elegant biography, Barss vividly evokes Penrose’s geometric sensibility and his quest to prove that a geometrically perfect world lies hidden behind everyday reality.” -The New Yorker August 16, 2025 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. 3421 Hwy 331 902-688-1855 lahaveriverbooks@gmail.com
July 31, 2025 at 1:52 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
This is a picture of my great great great great grandfather. See any family resemblance?
A photograph of a page in Saltscapes magazine featuring an oval portrait of Nova Scotia privateer Captain Joseph Barss overlaid on a painting of his sailing ship, The Liverpool Packet. Headline: Treasure hunters and patriots. Subhead: When war raged and American raiders menaced coastal communities, privateers defended the East Coast.
July 4, 2025 at 1:09 AM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
You mean THIS graphic that arrived in my mailbox today? I love it!
The poster, Patchen Barss, holding up a physical copy of Scientific American opened to a two-page graphic by OlenA Shmahalo depicting what happens when a black hole devours a star.
June 17, 2025 at 11:47 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Here are some images from an annual report, also for CIFAR.
Cover of an annual report for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research featuring a r-shirt with the words “The T-Shirt Edition” on it. Image of a man wearing aviator glasses leaning on a sports car, wearing a T-shirt saying “My other entangled particle is a photon.” Image of a teenaged kid wearing a T-shirt saying “what part of ‘quantum oscillations in the superconducting pseudogap” don’t you understand?’”
April 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Going to post a few of the visuals here for the workshop from previous projects. Here are two images from the “Postcards From the Frontiers of Human Knowledge” campaign when I was at CIFAR.
A postcard displaying a photo of a baby reading a book while subatomic particles fly around their head. A postcard displaying an image of a human eye made from a composite of smaller photographs.
April 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
The Cambrian explosion seem all the more amazing when you realize it took place millions of years before the first molecules formed. 🧪
A Google AI Overview of search results in response to the query "When did the first molecules form." The overview reads: The first molecules formed in the universe shortly after the Big Bang, around a quarter of a million years ago. The first molecule was likely helium hydride (HeH*), which is a combination of a helium atom and and a hydrogen ion.
February 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Proud to have made the Financial Times Best Books of 2024 list.
Screen grab of FT list heading: "Best books of 2024: Environment, Science and Technology. Pilita Clark, Clive Cookson and John Thornhill select their must-read titles." Image includes covers of Supremacy, More More More, Not the End of th eWorld, and Aliens Earths. Under the heading "Science," an image of UK cover of The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss FT blurb: the Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss (Atlantic Books). Barss, a Canadian science journalist, has written a revealing biography of one of the greatest thinkers in contemporary physics — Roger Penrose, no 93. With the co-operation (but not copy approval) of Penrose, his family and friends, Barss describes both his genius for detecting patterns in the fabric of the universe and his inability to develop satisfying relationships with people close to him.
November 26, 2024 at 9:26 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
I’m honoured the @theglobeandmail.com included The Impossible Man in their top 100 books of 2024, alongside so many fabulous authors.
Screen shot of the Globe and Mail feature "The Globe 100: 100 best books of 2024. Our annual guide to the books that entertained, informed and delighted us this year." Bylines include Margaret Cannon, Jeffrey Canton, Emily Donaldson, Lara Pingue, Judith Pereira, Julie Van Rosendaal, and Rebecca Tucker. Screen capture of Globe 100 summary of The Impossible Man: "While not quite a household name like his one-time collaborator Stephen Hawking, the mathematical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose is arguably more deserving of the term "genius." Now 93, Penrose's wide-ranging intellect has left is mark on multiple fields, from cosmology to consciousness. In this deeply research and engagingly written biography, science journalist Barss expertly unpacks both the mind and the man.
November 23, 2024 at 2:57 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Pleased that The Impossible Man is one of the @nytimes.com recommended new books this week.
The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius. Patchen Barss This biography depicts the British mathematical physicist and Nobelist Sir Roger Penrose in all his iconoclastic complexity, as a needy genius who understood the cosmos but had a harder time with basic human interactions.
November 22, 2024 at 8:58 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Thanks to all who came out last night to Type Books for the Canadian launch of The Impossible Man. Thanks especially to Ramona Pringle for her incisive questions. It was lovely to see you all!
A photograph taken from the outer door of type books, over the heads of the crowd, looking past shelves of books to where Ramona Pringle is interviewing Patchen Barss about The Impossible Man.
November 20, 2024 at 8:08 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
If you’re in Toronto on Tuesday, November 19, join me at Type Books on Queen West for the Canadian launch of The Impossible Man. I’ll be in conversation with Ramona Pringle from TMU’s Creative School.
Text reads: "Book launch: "The Impossible Man" Patchen Barss with Ramona Pringle. Tuesday, November 19, 7 pm. Type Books 883 Queen St. W. Toronto. The image includes the book cover of The Impossible Man, and a headshot of the author, Patchen Barss.
November 18, 2024 at 4:00 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
A review of The Impossible Man by Julian Baggini
in the @wsj.com. Link to full review in next post.
The Nobel Prize-winning British physicist Roger Penrose certainly fits the template. Even so, Patchen Barss’s absorbing biography, “The Impossible Man,” is not a voyeuristic freak show. Mr. Barss, a science journalist, has a higher purpose: to help us better understand “how science happens, where creative inspiration comes from, and who contributes and sacrifices to make works of genius possible.” On all three counts, he succeeds.
November 15, 2024 at 9:08 AM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
It’s UK publication day for The Impossible Man. (The UK cover features an “impossible triangle” – I love it as much as the US/Canadian edition). 🧪📚
UK cover of The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, featuring a black and white picture of Roger Penrose framed by a multicoloured impossible triangle.
November 14, 2024 at 10:52 AM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
It’s US/Canada publication day for The Impossible Man! I’m proud of the book, and humbled by its reception so far.
US/Canadian cover of The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius. Main image is a black and white photograph of Penrose standing in front of a chalkboard drawing of a Robinson congruence.
November 12, 2024 at 2:45 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
One week to publication. 🧪📚
British and us covers of The impossible Man
November 6, 2024 at 12:29 AM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Here’s German-American mathematical physicist Rainer Sachs on Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking.
Comparing the two, I always felt Hawking’s calculations were comparatively straightforward—had I been smarter, better educated, more focused, and harder working I might have come up with some of them. Roger’s were completely alien: Never could I have started one of his calculations, which always seemed to begin with an epiphany. Hawking was a human genius. Penrose’s insights seem to stem from some superhuman life form. —Rainer K. Sachs
November 1, 2024 at 4:05 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
One reason I chose to write about Roger Penrose’s life and work has to do with how other great physicists talk about him. The best of the best still stop and wonder, “How did Penrose do it?” Here’s Lee Smolin:
The sheer brilliance of Roger! He’s one of the handful of people I’ve met in my life I would apply the word ‘genius’ to. If you forget twistor theory, forget his ideas about quantum mechanics, about everything else and just look at his contributions to classical relativity—I would say he’s the most important person who worked on the subject after Einstein. —Lee Smolin, theoretical physicist
October 30, 2024 at 3:00 PM
patchenbarss.bsky.social
Sharing a review of The Impossible Man in the Weekend Financial Times by Anjana Ahuja. Link to full review in next post. 🧪📚
“As Toronto-based science journalist Patchen Barss shows in his beautifully composed and revealing biography The Impossible Man, Penrose’s exceptional talent for solving the hidden patterns and puzzles in the universe has long contrasted with his struggle to fit into the world of people… Barss, in addition to adeptly explaining complex concepts such as the singularity theorem, makes skilful and sensitive use of Penrose’s archive” —The Financial Times
October 28, 2024 at 2:07 PM