> "This defect is like a black swan—something special going on that isn't typical," said Dr. Edwin Thomas, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
The wikipedia entry[1] has the explanation of both. And the usage by Dr. Thomas certain refers to the phrase not the theory.
"Black Swan" was in use before Taleb's book, at a similar frequency as it is today (Google Trends scores 2 vs 3, where 100 is when the book was released).
"Black swan" as a phrase dates at least to Roman times, often referring to the philosophical idea that the observation of a single black swan would prove their existence. (I've heard 'black sheep' used for this as well, although that has other more popular meanings).
The interesting part is that this did come to pass, for black swans: which are only native to Australia.
So, in my mind, it refers to something which is conceivable, but not believed to exist and not (yet) observed.
In fact he likely used the term for his title because it's a well-known metaphor.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_emblems_and_popular...
2nd paragraph of article, first sentence: "This defect is like a black swan—something special going on that isn't typical,"
So how is this an actual black swan - a bird with wings... and not a "black swan" - an unkown unknown (as described eslewhere)?
GP is pointing out that it's being used incorrectly
(I think we've all been "guilty" of this at one point or another)
Kind of like np-completeness.
Condensed matter is stuff that is not gas.
Soft matter is shorthand for soft condensed matter, which is stuff that is not gas nor solid.
Fluidics, liquid crystals, polymers are examples of soft matter.
Source: I am a soft matter physics PhD that focused on liquid crystal phase characterization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
"Taleb's "black swan theory" refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.[2]:xxi"
This discovery (unexpected behavior of matter) seems like it'll have a surprising and large magnitude.
It just means something very rare, and that's been the common meaning of the phrase in English for hundreds of years. It comes from Latin.
"Materials can be broadly classified as hard or soft matter. Hard materials, like metal alloys and ceramics, generally have a very regular and symmetric arrangement of atoms. Further, in hard matter, ordered groups of atoms arrange themselves into nanoscopic building blocks, called unit cells. Typically, these unit cells are comprised of only a few atoms and stack together to form the periodic crystal. Soft matter can also form crystals consisting of unit cells, but now the periodic pattern is not at the atomic level; it occurs at a much larger scale from assemblies of large molecules."