At least I hope Mark's coming.
On the 6th, we have The quandary of the quark at The Royal Society.
It's usually worth a visit, the odd theist nutcase notwithstanding. Be there early, if you fancy a seat. RS virgin - but an old friend of mine - Paul M will be along, and we are thinking of popping along to Ed's for old time's sake afterwards.
Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at December 02, 2005 07:32 PMYeah alright then. Mark and I will be there. But if they start talking about wave/particle duality there will be words.
Posted by: Katherine on December 5, 2005 11:25 AMYes I, think the royal we are coming along :-)
Posted by: Mark Matthews on December 5, 2005 11:28 AMOh yeah - that whole wave/particle duality drives her crazy. I suggest mentioning it a *lot*...
Posted by: Mark Matthews on December 5, 2005 11:30 AMWhat's the problem? Don't understand it? Don't like it? Don't believe it?
If the former - don't worry, no one does, not really. If the middle, well, Einstein didn't either. If the latter, well, even Einstein gave up on that in the end.
Posted by: Simon Brunning on December 5, 2005 11:59 AMThe lecture seems mostly to deal with the strong force binding the quarks within nucleons, and nucleons within nuclei. Oh, and quarks themselves, the separation thereof, and the energies invovled. Smashing ions apart will no doubt be a major feature. Is that new CERN collider up and running yet? - must check.
I think electromagnetic emissions will be discussed (possibly in terms of decay/emissions) but not the nature of electromagnetic radiation itself - that duality thing is a different subject. You ought to be safe. Well, as safe as anyone in a particle physics lecture.. Swot up on your quantum chromodynamics!
Posted by: Paul M on December 5, 2005 12:27 PMA mixture of the middle and the latter - and feeling good that I'm with Einstein on that. And probably the former too to be honest, but I'm kind of getting there with that. I have the problem that my mind works visually, and if there is one thing that just does not work visually it is bl**dy quantum mechanics.
Quantum chromodynamics then. Right. The internet will provide no doubt. Wikipedia here I come.
Posted by: Katherine on December 5, 2005 02:21 PMHow was it?
Posted by: Katherine on December 8, 2005 10:23 AMI knew that turning up at the last moment was going to bite you in the end!
Yup, it was good. Rather high level, but a nice overview of everything from the discovery and structure of atoms, right through to QCD.
One interesting thing I learned - the mass of the quarks that make up the fermions that make up the matter of the Universe is orders of magnitude less than the mass of the fermions themselves - the majority of that mass actually comes from the finding energy. So, not only is mass equivalent to energy, but in fact the majority of the mass that you and I are made of actually *is* energy! Mind blowing.
Posted by: Simon Brunning on December 8, 2005 10:42 AM