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Hello, and welcome to the Physics World weekly

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podcast. I'm Hamish Johnston.

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In this episode, I'm joined by my colleague,

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Matin Durrani, and we're going to talk about

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some interesting aspects of the Nobel Prize for

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Physics, and we're also going to speculate

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who might win this year.

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But first, I'd like to acknowledge the generous

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support of American Elements.

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American Elements,

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the world's manufacturer of engineered and advanced materials.

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American Elements,

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now invent.

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Next week, the winners or possibly winner

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of the 2025

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Nobel Prize for Physics will be announced.

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In the run up to the announcement, we

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like to look back on previous awards and

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explore the quirky history of the world's most

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famous prize in physics.

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We also make a prediction or two for

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this year's prize,

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predictions that rarely come true.

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And at the end of this podcast, we'll

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have a fun

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Nobel quiz.

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This year, Physics World's Margaret Harris has written

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about two rather

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puzzling awards that were given in the early

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days of the Nobel Prize.

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And Matin has chosen his favorite,

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Are you gonna correct me on that, Matin?

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Not your favorite. Top five. His top five

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prizes of the two thousands.

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Hi, Matin.

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Welcome to the podcast.

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Hello, Hamish. How's it going? Not too bad.

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Although, I have to say I'm feeling very

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old

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because as someone who came of age in

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the nineteen eighties,

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I really struggle with the fact that it's

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2025.

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And what's more, a whopping

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68 people have bagged

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a physics Nobel Prize

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since February.

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That's a lot of people. It's a a

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lot more than I thought when I first

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started counting.

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And, indeed, that's more than the number of

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people who won

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Nobel's

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in the first fifty years of the physics

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prize,

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which began in nineteen o one. And I

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think that reflects the fact that three laureate

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awards,

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they're pretty well the norm these days,

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whereas single winners were much more common

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in the early days of the prize.

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And I think, you know, since February, there's

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been a mix of of two and three,

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And, I think you've got those in your

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in your top five. So let's let's count

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down your your top five prizes

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since the year February.

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So starting at number five,

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you've got the twenty fifteen prize,

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and that had to do with the confirmation

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of

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neutrino oscillation,

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which led to the conclusion that neutrinos have

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mass.

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So why is this special? I mean, one

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reason it's special is, of course, Art Macdonald,

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Canadian,

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fellow Canadian,

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shared the prize,

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which, you know, for me makes it special.

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But why is it special for you? Well,

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before we go anywhere, Hamish, I gotta stress

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that for me, I don't care what you

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say. The twenty first century

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includes the year February. I know you were

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saying to me,

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starts on the 01/01/2001,

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but, luckily, the 2000 prize isn't on this

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list. So this is

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the 2015

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prize. I just love it because the neutrino

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I mean, it's one of those particles that

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you learn about

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on the physics degree. It was got this

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great history going back to Wolfgang Pauli, who

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do you remember there was that famous quote?

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It was a desperate remedy. So when they

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looked at,

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how a nucleus undergoes beta decay,

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it seemed that their energy wasn't being conserved.

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And so he proposed this idea that there

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was this particle carrying away

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the missing energy, and, he didn't like it.

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And then it wasn't until,

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you know, the sixties that it was discovered,

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and that led to a Nobel Prize for

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a Fred Rines and Clyde Cowen.

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It

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in neutrinos interact so weakly with matter that

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these are really difficult particles to detect.

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And then it wasn't until the nineties that,

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as you say, Hamish Takaki Kajita, who works

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on the sub Super Kamiokande

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detector in Japan,

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and Art McDonald, fellow Canadian, at the Sudbury

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Neutrino Observatory in the early two thousands,

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what they did was they saw that neutrinos,

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which come in these three types, can switch

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or oscillate

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from one type to another.

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And that work is interesting because

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it proved that neutrinos, which we thought were

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massless,

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actually have a very small mass after all.

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And you might think, so what? But that

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contradicts the standard model

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of particle physics. And, you know, isn't it

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great when

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conventional wisdom is sort of upended?

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And what's more, you know, if that wasn't

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enough,

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the idea of neutrino oscillation,

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explained why back in the sixties, Ray Davis

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and John Bacowal had only seen

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a third of the number of solar neutrinos

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predicted by theory from the sun in their

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famous experiments.

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And the reason they didn't see enough is

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that their detector,

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was only sensitive to electron neutrinos

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and not the other types.

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And so they concluded that they'd been oscillating

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from one type to another as they come

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from the sun. So it solved finding the

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neutrino oscillation solved, you know, this

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long standing mystery.

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So that's number five in my list. Do

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you, feel it's worthy on the list of

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number five, Hamish? Oh, definitely. I mean, I

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think anything that that forces physicists to revise

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the standard model of particle physics is extraordinarily

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important. I mean, that is the whole goal

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of particle physics, isn't it? To to overthrow

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the standard model and find some new physics.

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So yeah. Definitely.

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At number,

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number four, you've got the 2,001

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award, and that had to do with the

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creation of the Bose

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Einstein condensate.

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So what's a Bose Einstein condensate, and why

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did

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three people win,

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Nobel,

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or share a Nobel Prize

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for creating it?

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I should have stepped back a bit and

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said the reasons for picking these prizes is

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my my little list of reasons why I've

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chosen them. And I kinda think a Nobel

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Prize is significant if it's simple to understand

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and it's an experimental

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tour de force,

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has long term implications

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for science,

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and it's something on people's bucket list that

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people have hoped to happen for a long

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time.

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And also

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that it was won by people that we'd

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actually heard of. Not every year have we

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heard of the Nobel Laurence Hamish. And I

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kind of think is of interest to

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people who might not be physicists if you're

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explaining what's,

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what would happen. If they've only got a

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passing interest, you'd think these are the prizes

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you'd pick. And I like Bose Einstein condensation

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again because it's got that long historical link

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first predicted in the mid nineteen twenties.

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And it's essentially a new state of matter.

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And what I also love is that the

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three people who's who won the prize, Eric

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Cornell,

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Carl Wiemann, and Wolfgang Ketterli,

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the first two on those lists, they saw

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this state of matter at a really specific

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time. So I've actually written it down here.

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10:54AM

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on Monday, 06/05/1995

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at the Jiller Laboratory in Boulder,

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Colorado. And they cooled down 2,000

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rubidium 87 atoms

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to 170

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nanokelvin, and then they

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saw them in

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the same quantum state. This is the Bose

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Einstein condensate.

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And then a few months later, Ketterle,

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MIT

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made a Bose Einstein condensate from

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500,000

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sodium 23 atoms at two microkelvin.

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So it's great that, you know, something happened

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at a really specific time. It's very rare

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in physics that you can pinpoint a discovery

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to a certain time and a certain place.

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And, you know, since then, as you've written

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lots of stories over the years, Hamish, we've

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people have created hundreds of hundreds of groups

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have created Bose Einstein condensates,

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and

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they've been used for everything from slowing light

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to making atom lasers and even

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modeling

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black holes.

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Yeah. I well, I can't argue with that

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one. And, you know, I think that the

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the creation of the Bose Einstein condensate is

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a it was a very

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important milestone on the road to the quantum

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renaissance

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that we're enjoying at the moment.

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You know, the the sort of the idea

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that physic because of

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technology and technology that was developed by the

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three people who won that particular Nobel Prize,

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because of that and other amazing technology, we

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can now sort of control quantum systems

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very exquisitely. In fact, we can create new

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quantum systems as with the with the BEC.

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And that's, you know, I think that's been

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very important in in terms of quantum computing,

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quantum sensing, quantum cryptography.

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You know, it was one of those really

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important milestones,

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in the new quantum physics. So, yeah, no

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no arguments there. I might quibble about it

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being number four rather than higher up on

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your list, but,

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yeah, definitely no argument.

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And,

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no argument on the next one either, which

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is the 2013

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prize,

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which, had to do with the

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discovery

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experimental discovery.

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Oh, no. It's the the the theoretical

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prediction

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of the Higgs boson, which was then,

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confirmed experimentally at CERN. So,

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who who won that prize, and why why

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were they worthy?

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Well, the twenty thirteen prize famously went to

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Francois Englert, the Belgian physicist,

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the late Peter Higgs,

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for discovering the mechanism

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by which subatomic particles get mass. And

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their work, which they'd originally done in the

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sixties,

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was then obviously

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confirmed

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by the discovery of

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what Peter Higgs called the so called Higgs

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boson. He never liked it to use that

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00:10:53,730 --> 00:10:55,809
name himself, and that obviously was at the

278
00:10:55,809 --> 00:10:57,029
ATLAS and the CMS

279
00:10:57,570 --> 00:11:00,470
detectors at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

280
00:11:01,009 --> 00:11:02,529
So it was a prize that went to

281
00:11:02,529 --> 00:11:03,910
the theoretical work

282
00:11:04,294 --> 00:11:07,595
that paved the way for understanding mass, and,

283
00:11:08,534 --> 00:11:12,074
obviously, they didn't themselves undiscovered the Higgs boson.

284
00:11:12,294 --> 00:11:14,154
And I think Peter Higgs was at pains

285
00:11:14,615 --> 00:11:15,754
to distance himself

286
00:11:16,230 --> 00:11:18,629
from any contribution that he might have made,

287
00:11:18,629 --> 00:11:19,529
and the famously,

288
00:11:20,309 --> 00:11:20,889
the citation

289
00:11:21,269 --> 00:11:22,009
did, however,

290
00:11:22,870 --> 00:11:26,230
acknowledge the the research that CERN discovered it.

291
00:11:26,549 --> 00:11:27,850
So it went to those two,

292
00:11:28,789 --> 00:11:30,629
for work they'd done back in the early

293
00:11:30,629 --> 00:11:32,774
sixties. So I kinda think we have to

294
00:11:32,774 --> 00:11:34,615
have the Higgs boson on this list. I

295
00:11:34,615 --> 00:11:35,514
mean, it would be

296
00:11:35,975 --> 00:11:38,215
weird not to include it, but it's not

297
00:11:38,215 --> 00:11:38,715
top

298
00:11:39,174 --> 00:11:39,674
because

299
00:11:40,054 --> 00:11:42,134
there's this strange thing that is really for

300
00:11:42,134 --> 00:11:44,250
their theoretical work they did many years ago.

301
00:11:44,970 --> 00:11:46,970
Yeah. It is that that was a funny

302
00:11:46,970 --> 00:11:48,889
one. And, you know, I think that brought

303
00:11:48,889 --> 00:11:49,549
to light,

304
00:11:51,289 --> 00:11:53,850
I suppose, a controversy about the Nobel Prize

305
00:11:53,850 --> 00:11:55,230
in the sense that only

306
00:11:55,690 --> 00:11:56,590
three people,

307
00:11:57,554 --> 00:11:58,455
can be honored,

308
00:11:59,075 --> 00:12:00,455
by the Nobel Prize.

309
00:12:00,835 --> 00:12:01,975
And, really,

310
00:12:02,355 --> 00:12:04,434
there were thousands of people involved in the

311
00:12:04,434 --> 00:12:04,934
discovery

312
00:12:05,315 --> 00:12:07,394
of the Higgs boson at CERN. It was

313
00:12:07,394 --> 00:12:08,375
made by two

314
00:12:08,835 --> 00:12:09,815
different collaborations,

315
00:12:10,355 --> 00:12:11,415
Atlas and CMS.

316
00:12:12,169 --> 00:12:14,889
And, it just seemed a bit weird really

317
00:12:14,889 --> 00:12:15,389
that

318
00:12:15,850 --> 00:12:18,089
the the prize could only go to two

319
00:12:18,089 --> 00:12:18,589
people

320
00:12:19,049 --> 00:12:19,950
rather than

321
00:12:20,409 --> 00:12:21,149
all those

322
00:12:21,769 --> 00:12:24,105
other people who worked very hard.

323
00:12:24,584 --> 00:12:25,865
But I suppose it would just be a

324
00:12:25,865 --> 00:12:29,384
nightmare to to decide who out of those

325
00:12:29,384 --> 00:12:30,445
thousands of people

326
00:12:30,824 --> 00:12:32,284
would win the award.

327
00:12:32,664 --> 00:12:33,164
So,

328
00:12:33,544 --> 00:12:34,904
I mean, I know at the time there

329
00:12:34,904 --> 00:12:37,410
was talk about, oh, you know, should they

330
00:12:37,410 --> 00:12:40,290
change the rules at the Nobel Prize and

331
00:12:40,290 --> 00:12:42,850
and give it to collaborations? But I think

332
00:12:42,850 --> 00:12:43,250
it was

333
00:12:44,290 --> 00:12:46,149
I I hope I get this name right.

334
00:12:46,529 --> 00:12:49,090
Lars Brink. I think Lars Brink I spoke

335
00:12:49,090 --> 00:12:52,154
to, who is a member of the, Nobel

336
00:12:52,154 --> 00:12:52,654
committee,

337
00:12:53,195 --> 00:12:54,154
told me that,

338
00:12:55,195 --> 00:12:57,695
the the the Physics Nobel Committee in Sweden

339
00:12:57,995 --> 00:12:59,835
basically told me that they, you know, they

340
00:12:59,835 --> 00:13:02,335
didn't want thousands of people going round

341
00:13:02,970 --> 00:13:03,870
calling themselves

342
00:13:04,250 --> 00:13:06,750
Nobel Laureates. They wanted to keep it exclusive.

343
00:13:07,370 --> 00:13:09,690
So I suppose that's why it's,

344
00:13:10,250 --> 00:13:12,889
why why it's still three people. I mean,

345
00:13:12,889 --> 00:13:14,429
even among the theorists themselves,

346
00:13:14,970 --> 00:13:16,970
there were several other people involved. There was

347
00:13:16,970 --> 00:13:17,709
Tom Kibble,

348
00:13:18,325 --> 00:13:19,065
Philip Anderson,

349
00:13:20,404 --> 00:13:22,725
who potentially could have been included in that

350
00:13:22,725 --> 00:13:24,345
list of theorists. And so

351
00:13:24,804 --> 00:13:25,625
there was quite

352
00:13:26,245 --> 00:13:27,764
a debate at the time about who else

353
00:13:27,764 --> 00:13:29,284
might have won it. So it was those

354
00:13:29,284 --> 00:13:29,784
two,

355
00:13:30,404 --> 00:13:31,924
that got it. So, yeah, that's number three

356
00:13:31,924 --> 00:13:33,899
on my list. Yeah. Well, it's a it's

357
00:13:33,899 --> 00:13:36,320
a good choice, and I suppose it illustrates

358
00:13:36,460 --> 00:13:39,019
the power of the standard model, doesn't it?

359
00:13:39,019 --> 00:13:41,100
That, you know, somebody made a prediction. It

360
00:13:41,100 --> 00:13:43,660
was at '64 back way back, anyway, a

361
00:13:43,660 --> 00:13:44,639
long time ago.

362
00:13:45,164 --> 00:13:47,884
And, you know, that prediction held for years

363
00:13:47,884 --> 00:13:49,965
and years and years, and then sudden and

364
00:13:49,965 --> 00:13:50,945
then all of a sudden,

365
00:13:52,044 --> 00:13:54,445
in the in the twenty first century, the

366
00:13:54,445 --> 00:13:55,985
the the Higgs was discovered,

367
00:13:56,445 --> 00:13:59,309
finally. So, yeah, it just goes to show

368
00:13:59,470 --> 00:14:02,029
the power of the standard model, in terms

369
00:14:02,029 --> 00:14:02,690
of prediction

370
00:14:03,149 --> 00:14:06,289
and, I suppose the ability of experimentalists

371
00:14:06,669 --> 00:14:08,210
to interpret that prediction

372
00:14:08,590 --> 00:14:09,330
and finally,

373
00:14:09,870 --> 00:14:10,850
make the discovery.

374
00:14:11,149 --> 00:14:13,169
So moving on to number two,

375
00:14:13,865 --> 00:14:15,725
this is the 2011,

376
00:14:17,384 --> 00:14:19,784
Nobel Prize for Physics. And this was a

377
00:14:19,784 --> 00:14:22,664
real shocker, you know, the discovery behind this

378
00:14:22,664 --> 00:14:25,384
prize. This is the discovery of what I

379
00:14:25,384 --> 00:14:27,565
mean, I suppose what we call dark energy.

380
00:14:27,799 --> 00:14:29,720
It's not really the discovery of dark energy

381
00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:31,819
because we don't know what dark energy is,

382
00:14:32,039 --> 00:14:34,919
but it's a Nobel Prize associated with dark

383
00:14:34,919 --> 00:14:37,500
energy. So what's, what happened there?

384
00:14:38,199 --> 00:14:40,519
Yes, Amy. So that's the twenty eleven prize.

385
00:14:40,519 --> 00:14:42,939
So that went to, again, three people,

386
00:14:43,985 --> 00:14:46,085
Brian Schmidt, who had led

387
00:14:46,544 --> 00:14:47,845
something called the Hi

388
00:14:48,225 --> 00:14:50,884
z or Zed? Hi z z supernovae

389
00:14:51,504 --> 00:14:54,325
search team and his colleague Adam Rees,

390
00:14:54,785 --> 00:14:56,725
and Saul Perlmutter, who led

391
00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:57,740
another

392
00:14:58,040 --> 00:14:59,980
rival team called the Supernovae

393
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,480
Cosmology Project. And what those teams were doing

394
00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,899
were studying these exploding stars,

395
00:15:06,279 --> 00:15:06,779
supernovae.

396
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:09,179
And, yeah,

397
00:15:09,639 --> 00:15:11,639
they always blow up in the same way

398
00:15:11,639 --> 00:15:12,404
when they reach

399
00:15:13,125 --> 00:15:15,225
the same mass, so they're standard candles.

400
00:15:16,085 --> 00:15:17,764
And so you can measure distances in the

401
00:15:17,764 --> 00:15:18,264
universe.

402
00:15:18,644 --> 00:15:21,205
And they're very rare, and they've been carrying

403
00:15:21,205 --> 00:15:23,545
out these painstaking surveys of these,

404
00:15:24,245 --> 00:15:24,745
supernovae.

405
00:15:25,860 --> 00:15:28,019
And they thought they would find out that

406
00:15:28,019 --> 00:15:29,879
the universe is decelerating,

407
00:15:30,259 --> 00:15:32,279
getting expanding more slowly.

408
00:15:33,059 --> 00:15:35,000
But as the data piled up, they realized,

409
00:15:35,299 --> 00:15:38,179
the data only made sense if they if

410
00:15:38,179 --> 00:15:40,279
the universe has a force that's pushing

411
00:15:40,580 --> 00:15:41,559
matter apart.

412
00:15:42,554 --> 00:15:45,214
So those three won it for the accelerating

413
00:15:45,514 --> 00:15:46,654
expansion of the universe,

414
00:15:47,115 --> 00:15:50,235
AKA, it's this mysterious dark energy that, we

415
00:15:50,235 --> 00:15:52,735
still don't really know what it is.

416
00:15:54,620 --> 00:15:56,459
So like you say, Hamish, it was quite

417
00:15:56,459 --> 00:15:57,600
a shocking finding.

418
00:15:57,980 --> 00:15:59,519
It's quite simple to understand.

419
00:15:59,899 --> 00:16:00,379
It's,

420
00:16:01,019 --> 00:16:03,899
has implications for where the cosmos is gonna

421
00:16:03,899 --> 00:16:05,899
go. I mean, who doesn't love those kind

422
00:16:05,899 --> 00:16:06,799
of big questions?

423
00:16:07,419 --> 00:16:10,059
So that, to me, is number two on

424
00:16:10,059 --> 00:16:10,514
the list.

425
00:16:12,035 --> 00:16:14,134
It's quite closely related to,

426
00:16:16,035 --> 00:16:18,195
the work done by John Mather and George

427
00:16:18,195 --> 00:16:20,455
Smoot. They do remember they studied the cosmic

428
00:16:20,595 --> 00:16:23,629
microwave background. George Smoot actually died. That's right.

429
00:16:23,629 --> 00:16:26,590
Certainly. He died recently, didn't he? So he'd

430
00:16:26,590 --> 00:16:29,090
studied small variations in the CND,

431
00:16:29,549 --> 00:16:31,470
which is the kind of echo of the

432
00:16:31,470 --> 00:16:33,330
Big Bang, the remnants of the,

433
00:16:33,870 --> 00:16:35,789
large scale structures that we have in today's

434
00:16:35,789 --> 00:16:38,415
universe. And the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

435
00:16:38,415 --> 00:16:41,054
said that discovery was as significant as that

436
00:16:41,054 --> 00:16:43,075
prize. But to me, this

437
00:16:43,535 --> 00:16:45,695
implication of the future of the universe makes

438
00:16:45,695 --> 00:16:48,254
it more important, I would say. So that,

439
00:16:48,575 --> 00:16:50,894
CMB work was the 2,006 prize, but I

440
00:16:50,894 --> 00:16:52,460
think this edges it. Yeah.

441
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,240
I know. I I I agree. You know,

442
00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:57,740
they they first of all, they they discovered

443
00:16:57,879 --> 00:16:58,379
that,

444
00:16:58,759 --> 00:17:00,920
in a sense, the opposite of what we

445
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:01,420
expected

446
00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:02,860
is happening.

447
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,880
And then the added bonus is that we

448
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:07,019
we have no explanation

449
00:17:08,365 --> 00:17:10,684
for for for why this is happening. You

450
00:17:10,684 --> 00:17:12,924
know, we call it dark energy, but who

451
00:17:12,924 --> 00:17:14,845
knows what dark energy has. So in a

452
00:17:14,845 --> 00:17:17,404
sense, it's it's sort of opened up a

453
00:17:17,404 --> 00:17:18,065
a huge

454
00:17:18,605 --> 00:17:20,464
field of of of speculation

455
00:17:20,924 --> 00:17:21,585
and work

456
00:17:21,970 --> 00:17:25,350
in, in cosmology and astronomy astrophysics.

457
00:17:25,890 --> 00:17:26,630
So, yeah,

458
00:17:27,009 --> 00:17:28,390
no no arguments there.

459
00:17:29,490 --> 00:17:32,289
So drum roll, please. We're on to,

460
00:17:33,330 --> 00:17:34,230
number one,

461
00:17:35,105 --> 00:17:37,445
and that is the 2017

462
00:17:38,865 --> 00:17:42,085
prize, which went to physicists who are involved

463
00:17:42,225 --> 00:17:44,325
with the first observation

464
00:17:44,785 --> 00:17:46,484
of gravitational waves.

465
00:17:46,799 --> 00:17:49,140
So we're still in the on the cosmological

466
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,920
scale here. So what what's going on with

467
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,880
these gravitational waves? How are they discovered, and

468
00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:56,019
why is it important?

469
00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:58,820
So this was the 2017

470
00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,515
prize, which again went to three people, Rainer

471
00:18:02,515 --> 00:18:04,695
Weiss, who again died very recently,

472
00:18:05,394 --> 00:18:07,494
Barry Barish and Kip Thorne

473
00:18:07,795 --> 00:18:10,595
for discovering gravitational waves. And, again, there's that

474
00:18:10,595 --> 00:18:12,934
link to Einstein. He predicted these,

475
00:18:13,759 --> 00:18:16,000
what you might call, ripples in space time.

476
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,940
That's a sort of shorthand for it.

477
00:18:18,399 --> 00:18:20,720
And for years, these been these have been

478
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:22,179
on people's bucket lists,

479
00:18:22,799 --> 00:18:24,640
as a sort of thing that people wanted

480
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:24,974
to

481
00:18:25,454 --> 00:18:28,674
detect. And they built the LIGO detectors, which,

482
00:18:29,134 --> 00:18:30,215
there were two of them,

483
00:18:30,654 --> 00:18:31,794
these huge interferometers,

484
00:18:32,255 --> 00:18:33,075
one in

485
00:18:33,855 --> 00:18:34,355
Louisiana

486
00:18:34,734 --> 00:18:36,815
and the other in Washington state. And these

487
00:18:36,815 --> 00:18:39,315
are amazing feats of engineering that

488
00:18:40,289 --> 00:18:41,269
when a gravitational

489
00:18:41,570 --> 00:18:45,110
wave strikes the detector, they can effectively detect

490
00:18:45,730 --> 00:18:47,509
changes. And I I love this stat.

491
00:18:47,890 --> 00:18:49,110
Changes in distance

492
00:18:49,890 --> 00:18:52,549
tinier than the radius of the proton.

493
00:18:52,850 --> 00:18:53,830
So really

494
00:18:54,154 --> 00:18:55,615
incredible feats of engineering

495
00:18:56,394 --> 00:18:59,694
involving thousands of people and some really sensitive,

496
00:19:01,434 --> 00:19:01,934
measurements.

497
00:19:03,034 --> 00:19:04,634
And again, it was that I love it

498
00:19:04,634 --> 00:19:06,720
because it was on a certain date. It

499
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,759
was Monday, 09/14/2015,

500
00:19:09,759 --> 00:19:11,140
so ten years ago.

501
00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:14,660
And the staff who'd been calibrating the LIGO

502
00:19:14,799 --> 00:19:16,960
detector in Livingston had gone to bed as

503
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,359
it happened. And when and they'd left their

504
00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:19,859
instruments,

505
00:19:20,265 --> 00:19:22,105
they it was about to start taking data

506
00:19:22,105 --> 00:19:25,384
and the gravitational waves were recorded, and that

507
00:19:25,384 --> 00:19:27,404
signal was known as g w

508
00:19:28,184 --> 00:19:31,164
one five zero nine fourteen after the date.

509
00:19:31,705 --> 00:19:34,345
And it was the collision of two black

510
00:19:34,345 --> 00:19:34,845
holes

511
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:37,500
1,300,000,000

512
00:19:37,559 --> 00:19:38,619
light years away

513
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:40,220
had hit that detector.

514
00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:41,180
And,

515
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:43,480
you know, what an incredible thing, you know,

516
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:45,640
a real thirst. It's something that we'd long

517
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:46,940
sought after. And, again,

518
00:19:47,394 --> 00:19:49,315
this was something that, if you remember, Hamish

519
00:19:49,315 --> 00:19:51,234
was everywhere on the news. It was a

520
00:19:51,234 --> 00:19:52,775
big, big deal at the time.

521
00:19:53,474 --> 00:19:55,634
And since then, we've detected about well, not

522
00:19:55,634 --> 00:19:58,375
we. Physicists have detected about 200

523
00:19:59,075 --> 00:20:00,454
gravitational wave events.

524
00:20:02,269 --> 00:20:04,529
And what's more, there's this whole field of

525
00:20:04,829 --> 00:20:06,529
gravitational wave astronomy.

526
00:20:07,309 --> 00:20:09,089
So the idea that you

527
00:20:09,710 --> 00:20:12,450
detect a an a cosmic event with gravitational

528
00:20:12,669 --> 00:20:14,829
waves, and then you can look at them

529
00:20:14,829 --> 00:20:15,329
with

530
00:20:15,884 --> 00:20:17,984
follow-up studies using cosmic rays,

531
00:20:18,765 --> 00:20:19,265
neutrinos,

532
00:20:19,884 --> 00:20:20,384
photons,

533
00:20:21,244 --> 00:20:23,724
and those different things come give you different

534
00:20:23,724 --> 00:20:25,904
information about cosmic events. So

535
00:20:26,365 --> 00:20:27,805
I think it's number one on the list,

536
00:20:27,805 --> 00:20:30,465
an amazing discovery, something we'd long

537
00:20:30,820 --> 00:20:31,640
sought after,

538
00:20:31,940 --> 00:20:33,240
quite simple to understand,

539
00:20:33,539 --> 00:20:35,960
and opened up this big new field.

540
00:20:36,580 --> 00:20:39,140
Yeah. It is, it is amazing. And, you

541
00:20:39,140 --> 00:20:40,759
know, then there's the historical,

542
00:20:42,900 --> 00:20:44,865
side of it where I think it, Am

543
00:20:44,865 --> 00:20:47,285
I right in thinking that Albert Einstein predicted

544
00:20:47,825 --> 00:20:50,404
gravitational waves in 1915?

545
00:20:50,545 --> 00:20:52,065
Is that right? When he came up with

546
00:20:52,065 --> 00:20:54,085
his general theory of,

547
00:20:54,625 --> 00:20:55,125
relativity.

548
00:20:55,664 --> 00:20:57,265
And it was pretty well a hundred years

549
00:20:57,265 --> 00:20:59,285
later, wasn't it, that they were actually

550
00:20:59,750 --> 00:21:02,170
observed? That that's amazing. And the other

551
00:21:02,470 --> 00:21:03,990
incredible thing about,

552
00:21:04,549 --> 00:21:05,850
the LIGO detectors

553
00:21:06,390 --> 00:21:07,850
that made this observation

554
00:21:08,470 --> 00:21:11,029
is, you know, that they're they're huge, but

555
00:21:11,029 --> 00:21:11,769
they're quantum

556
00:21:12,710 --> 00:21:13,210
instruments.

557
00:21:13,575 --> 00:21:15,355
Right? You know, they rely on

558
00:21:15,894 --> 00:21:18,075
lots and lots of sort of quantum

559
00:21:18,855 --> 00:21:19,355
metrology

560
00:21:19,734 --> 00:21:22,534
technologies. And, you know, it it they're sort

561
00:21:22,534 --> 00:21:24,875
of, well, they're just part of the quantum

562
00:21:24,934 --> 00:21:25,434
renaissance

563
00:21:25,734 --> 00:21:26,954
that I mentioned earlier.

564
00:21:27,980 --> 00:21:31,500
This exquisite control of light, for example, to

565
00:21:31,500 --> 00:21:34,619
to make those incredible measurements. So, yeah, I

566
00:21:34,619 --> 00:21:36,220
I I have to agree with you on

567
00:21:36,220 --> 00:21:38,380
that one. I I think that's definitely number

568
00:21:38,380 --> 00:21:38,880
one,

569
00:21:39,820 --> 00:21:41,519
for for many reasons.

570
00:21:41,944 --> 00:21:43,644
Definitely. I'm glad you agree.

571
00:21:44,025 --> 00:21:45,164
I'm glad you agree.

572
00:21:45,625 --> 00:21:48,744
Obviously, you know, it's totally, totally arbitrary, this

573
00:21:48,744 --> 00:21:51,144
list, and, you know, everyone else might have

574
00:21:51,144 --> 00:21:52,664
had their own separate list. It's just a

575
00:21:52,664 --> 00:21:54,265
bit of fun. There's no, I'm not saying

576
00:21:54,265 --> 00:21:56,105
there's any sort of authority to my choice,

577
00:21:56,105 --> 00:21:57,349
but that's that's

578
00:21:57,890 --> 00:22:01,009
my pick. Okay. Well, so we're gonna go,

579
00:22:01,490 --> 00:22:01,990
from

580
00:22:02,609 --> 00:22:06,390
the last, twenty five years further further back

581
00:22:06,769 --> 00:22:07,589
into history.

582
00:22:08,369 --> 00:22:10,929
And we're gonna look at two prizes that

583
00:22:10,929 --> 00:22:11,750
were awarded,

584
00:22:12,325 --> 00:22:14,484
I think were they awarded roughly in the

585
00:22:14,484 --> 00:22:17,625
first decade or thereabouts, anyway, very early,

586
00:22:18,244 --> 00:22:19,225
Nobel Prizes.

587
00:22:19,605 --> 00:22:23,384
And, our colleague Margaret Harris has written two

588
00:22:23,845 --> 00:22:24,984
fascinating articles

589
00:22:25,730 --> 00:22:26,230
about,

590
00:22:26,769 --> 00:22:29,029
well, these two prizes that are puzzling

591
00:22:29,570 --> 00:22:32,070
to say the least, very odd prizes.

592
00:22:33,090 --> 00:22:35,830
And I'm afraid Margaret can't join us today.

593
00:22:36,210 --> 00:22:38,529
But, so Matina and I are gonna have

594
00:22:38,529 --> 00:22:40,150
a look at these prizes.

595
00:22:40,804 --> 00:22:43,125
Now one of them was awarded in nineteen

596
00:22:43,125 --> 00:22:45,464
o eight to the French physicist

597
00:22:45,845 --> 00:22:46,904
and inventor,

598
00:22:47,605 --> 00:22:48,825
Gabriel Littmann,

599
00:22:49,684 --> 00:22:51,625
for his method of reproducing

600
00:22:52,164 --> 00:22:52,664
colors

601
00:22:53,579 --> 00:22:54,079
photographically

602
00:22:54,940 --> 00:22:56,480
based on the phenomenon

603
00:22:57,179 --> 00:22:58,160
of interference.

604
00:22:59,500 --> 00:23:02,319
So, are you familiar with this prize, Matin?

605
00:23:02,380 --> 00:23:05,099
It it it's a really interesting one. So,

606
00:23:05,099 --> 00:23:06,859
yeah, this was the nineteen o eight prize.

607
00:23:06,859 --> 00:23:07,839
So at the time,

608
00:23:09,015 --> 00:23:10,474
two years before that,

609
00:23:10,934 --> 00:23:11,434
Thompson

610
00:23:12,055 --> 00:23:13,914
won the prize for discovering the electron.

611
00:23:14,934 --> 00:23:17,255
Nineteen o seven, we have the Michelson Morley

612
00:23:17,255 --> 00:23:19,414
experiment that sort of showed there isn't an

613
00:23:19,414 --> 00:23:21,255
ether and that the speed of lights and

614
00:23:21,255 --> 00:23:21,994
so on.

615
00:23:22,349 --> 00:23:24,190
So this one kind of came out the

616
00:23:24,190 --> 00:23:25,710
blue a bit. So this was,

617
00:23:26,349 --> 00:23:27,490
it's for a weird

618
00:23:28,269 --> 00:23:29,490
photography method

619
00:23:29,869 --> 00:23:32,509
that, well, first of all, it's never really

620
00:23:32,509 --> 00:23:33,250
took off.

621
00:23:33,950 --> 00:23:36,109
Apparently, for it to take pictures, you need

622
00:23:36,109 --> 00:23:36,609
to

623
00:23:37,174 --> 00:23:39,815
take a whole minute in sunlight for it

624
00:23:39,815 --> 00:23:40,394
to work.

625
00:23:40,855 --> 00:23:42,535
You can only see the pictures if you

626
00:23:42,535 --> 00:23:43,674
view them head on.

627
00:23:44,134 --> 00:23:46,634
And there's the other problem that this

628
00:23:47,255 --> 00:23:49,674
the mirrored back of the photographic plate

629
00:23:50,054 --> 00:23:51,434
needed toxic mercury.

630
00:23:52,079 --> 00:23:54,579
So this is hardly a kind of breakthrough.

631
00:23:56,319 --> 00:23:58,159
And, funnily enough, the reason for the prize

632
00:23:58,159 --> 00:23:59,380
being awarded was,

633
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,319
there was a big ding dong behind the

634
00:24:02,319 --> 00:24:02,819
scenes.

635
00:24:03,519 --> 00:24:05,299
And it was meant to be

636
00:24:05,625 --> 00:24:07,945
Max Planck for his work on quantum, but

637
00:24:07,945 --> 00:24:09,005
people were a bit

638
00:24:09,384 --> 00:24:12,025
sniffy about quantum physics back then. They weren't

639
00:24:12,025 --> 00:24:13,805
quite sure what it was all about,

640
00:24:14,505 --> 00:24:18,285
and it hadn't really been experimentally confirmed. So,

641
00:24:19,130 --> 00:24:20,750
and then there was this side

642
00:24:21,369 --> 00:24:22,169
issue of,

643
00:24:22,649 --> 00:24:25,230
Max Planck had been nominated by

644
00:24:25,690 --> 00:24:28,190
the Swedish physicist and chemist, Svante

645
00:24:29,210 --> 00:24:30,990
Arrhenius, who famously

646
00:24:31,804 --> 00:24:33,744
predicted that c o two can,

647
00:24:34,765 --> 00:24:35,744
affect the climate.

648
00:24:36,684 --> 00:24:38,365
And he had a bit of a tiff

649
00:24:38,365 --> 00:24:41,025
with another rich mathematician called

650
00:24:41,484 --> 00:24:41,984
Gustave

651
00:24:42,444 --> 00:24:43,664
Mittag Leffler,

652
00:24:44,365 --> 00:24:46,224
and, they didn't get on particularly.

653
00:24:46,890 --> 00:24:49,789
So Irenaeus had nominated Max Planck,

654
00:24:50,410 --> 00:24:52,250
and, he wasn't the chair of the Nobel

655
00:24:52,250 --> 00:24:54,190
Committee, but he had a sort of influential

656
00:24:54,330 --> 00:24:54,830
voice.

657
00:24:55,609 --> 00:24:58,330
But behind the scenes, this other guy, Mittag

658
00:24:58,330 --> 00:24:58,830
Leffler,

659
00:24:59,289 --> 00:25:02,029
he persuaded the committee members not to vote,

660
00:25:02,914 --> 00:25:04,835
to vote Dan Planck because he didn't like

661
00:25:04,835 --> 00:25:05,335
him.

662
00:25:05,794 --> 00:25:06,294
And

663
00:25:06,914 --> 00:25:07,734
in the end,

664
00:25:08,194 --> 00:25:10,775
he got so Lippmann got 23 nominations,

665
00:25:12,035 --> 00:25:14,194
from 12 people, all of whom are French.

666
00:25:14,194 --> 00:25:15,335
Lippmann is French.

667
00:25:16,755 --> 00:25:17,759
And once he got

668
00:25:19,039 --> 00:25:22,400
awarded the prize, this Mittag Leffler guy was

669
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:23,859
boasting about his victory.

670
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,039
So basically, he was a bit nefarious. He

671
00:25:27,039 --> 00:25:28,820
got his mates on the panel

672
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:32,420
to vote against Max Planck and for Lippmann.

673
00:25:32,894 --> 00:25:35,134
And it was this sort of behind the

674
00:25:35,134 --> 00:25:37,154
scenes skullduggery that led to Lippmann

675
00:25:37,615 --> 00:25:40,275
winning the nineteen o eight Nobel Prize.

676
00:25:41,055 --> 00:25:43,134
It's a really incredible story that,

677
00:25:43,855 --> 00:25:45,455
not sure how many people are aware of,

678
00:25:45,455 --> 00:25:46,914
but, that is the

679
00:25:48,019 --> 00:25:49,859
person that you know, he really stands out

680
00:25:49,859 --> 00:25:52,099
in those early years. You wonder why did

681
00:25:52,099 --> 00:25:54,339
he win this prize. So that's that's the

682
00:25:54,339 --> 00:25:56,200
story that Margaret's dug into.

683
00:25:56,500 --> 00:25:58,339
Yeah. It's it's it's a really great piece

684
00:25:58,339 --> 00:26:00,255
that she's that she's written. And, you know,

685
00:26:00,255 --> 00:26:02,015
I have to say after reading it and,

686
00:26:02,015 --> 00:26:03,454
you know, sort of doing a bit of

687
00:26:03,454 --> 00:26:03,954
research

688
00:26:04,575 --> 00:26:06,515
online, reading about Littmann,

689
00:26:08,414 --> 00:26:10,734
you know, I I really like it. I

690
00:26:10,734 --> 00:26:13,855
mean, sure. Okay. Maybe it's not physics. Littmann

691
00:26:13,855 --> 00:26:14,755
was a physicist.

692
00:26:15,329 --> 00:26:15,829
But,

693
00:26:16,210 --> 00:26:18,289
it all sort of hinges on this concept

694
00:26:18,289 --> 00:26:19,669
of structural color,

695
00:26:20,049 --> 00:26:21,650
which is something that, you know, it's a

696
00:26:21,650 --> 00:26:24,130
really hot topic these days. You know, structural

697
00:26:24,130 --> 00:26:25,569
color is the thing that makes,

698
00:26:26,210 --> 00:26:28,869
you know, certain berries look extraordinarily

699
00:26:29,329 --> 00:26:32,005
blue or, you know, the colors that appear

700
00:26:32,005 --> 00:26:32,904
on some butterflies

701
00:26:33,445 --> 00:26:33,924
or,

702
00:26:34,565 --> 00:26:35,945
on some birds' feathers.

703
00:26:37,045 --> 00:26:38,644
And, you know, it's all sort of tied

704
00:26:38,644 --> 00:26:39,465
in with metamaterials

705
00:26:40,005 --> 00:26:42,164
these days. You know, to me, it feels

706
00:26:42,164 --> 00:26:43,224
really modern.

707
00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:45,640
But, you know, of course, on the other

708
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,960
hand, it was very clunky and, you know,

709
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,039
the exposure had to had to be very

710
00:26:50,039 --> 00:26:51,900
long, as you say, toxic chemicals.

711
00:26:52,279 --> 00:26:55,500
Apparently, people do this today, hobbyists and artists.

712
00:26:56,724 --> 00:26:58,404
And so it's it's it's sort of a

713
00:26:58,484 --> 00:27:00,164
still a thing that people do. They don't

714
00:27:00,164 --> 00:27:02,585
use the toxic chemicals anymore.

715
00:27:03,044 --> 00:27:05,444
So yeah. I mean, it it on the

716
00:27:05,444 --> 00:27:07,684
face of it, it looks weird. But, you

717
00:27:07,684 --> 00:27:09,419
know, there is, you know, I think I

718
00:27:09,419 --> 00:27:11,579
think there is actually some interesting physics in

719
00:27:11,579 --> 00:27:14,299
there, and it somehow, it feels sort of

720
00:27:14,299 --> 00:27:14,799
modern.

721
00:27:15,980 --> 00:27:17,819
Actually, I one thing about,

722
00:27:18,220 --> 00:27:20,059
Margaret's article, if you take a look at

723
00:27:20,059 --> 00:27:20,960
it, there are

724
00:27:21,304 --> 00:27:22,444
images, aren't there,

725
00:27:22,825 --> 00:27:23,704
that have been,

726
00:27:24,105 --> 00:27:26,045
taken that actually he took,

727
00:27:26,744 --> 00:27:27,884
that Lippmann took,

728
00:27:28,505 --> 00:27:30,984
images of I suppose they're sort of they're

729
00:27:30,984 --> 00:27:33,785
photographs, so all the light angles were set

730
00:27:33,785 --> 00:27:36,045
up properly and then a photo was taken.

731
00:27:36,329 --> 00:27:38,490
But, they do look very nice. I think

732
00:27:38,490 --> 00:27:39,630
there's one of the Matterhorn.

733
00:27:40,169 --> 00:27:42,169
Is it the Matterhorn? Or maybe Mont Blanc

734
00:27:42,169 --> 00:27:44,329
or anyways, taken in the Alps as sort

735
00:27:44,329 --> 00:27:45,929
of an alpine scene. I mean, the other

736
00:27:45,929 --> 00:27:47,929
thing we always forget is that when Alfred

737
00:27:47,929 --> 00:27:48,429
Nobel,

738
00:27:48,730 --> 00:27:51,065
created his will, it was for the the

739
00:27:51,065 --> 00:27:52,585
prize was meant to go for the person

740
00:27:52,585 --> 00:27:54,684
who'd made the most important discovery

741
00:27:55,065 --> 00:27:55,724
or invention

742
00:27:56,505 --> 00:27:58,265
during the preceding year. And I kind of

743
00:27:58,265 --> 00:28:00,684
think that preceding year and invention,

744
00:28:01,065 --> 00:28:02,984
that's perhaps been lost a bit over the

745
00:28:02,984 --> 00:28:04,650
years. And, definitely, this was

746
00:28:05,049 --> 00:28:07,470
an invention and that had just happened.

747
00:28:08,970 --> 00:28:10,650
So I feel in the early years there

748
00:28:10,650 --> 00:28:12,509
was a feeling that we had to acknowledge

749
00:28:12,570 --> 00:28:14,349
work that had just been done. Whereas

750
00:28:14,809 --> 00:28:16,910
in recent years, I think pretty much

751
00:28:17,275 --> 00:28:18,875
not always I mean, the Higgs boson was

752
00:28:18,875 --> 00:28:20,954
an exception. That was definitely the previous year,

753
00:28:20,954 --> 00:28:23,595
and gravitational waves was the also the year,

754
00:28:23,595 --> 00:28:24,575
but not always

755
00:28:24,875 --> 00:28:27,275
is it work that has just happened. Yeah.

756
00:28:27,275 --> 00:28:29,115
I mean, the invention bit. Yeah. That that

757
00:28:29,115 --> 00:28:31,115
is something that's forgotten. I mean, last year,

758
00:28:31,115 --> 00:28:32,880
there was the the prize,

759
00:28:33,339 --> 00:28:35,119
to two computer scientists

760
00:28:36,059 --> 00:28:39,419
for their development of AI, artificial intelligence. And

761
00:28:39,419 --> 00:28:41,579
that, I suppose, is an invention prize, isn't

762
00:28:41,579 --> 00:28:43,679
it? And you can't argue that,

763
00:28:44,634 --> 00:28:47,055
artificial intelligence is a really important

764
00:28:47,434 --> 00:28:48,494
technology and

765
00:28:48,954 --> 00:28:51,434
that, you know, they were honored for inventing

766
00:28:51,434 --> 00:28:53,134
it. And and speaking

767
00:28:53,674 --> 00:28:54,734
of inventions,

768
00:28:55,835 --> 00:28:58,174
the next the next prize is,

769
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,299
I suppose, even even weirder

770
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,380
than the photography prize. So fast forward to

771
00:29:05,759 --> 00:29:06,820
1912,

772
00:29:07,519 --> 00:29:10,100
and that year's Nobel Prize for Physics

773
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:12,580
went to the Swedish inventor,

774
00:29:13,394 --> 00:29:15,335
Nils Gustaf Dalen,

775
00:29:16,275 --> 00:29:18,515
apologies to any Swedes out there for my

776
00:29:18,515 --> 00:29:19,015
pronunciation,

777
00:29:20,035 --> 00:29:22,855
for his invention of automatic regulators

778
00:29:23,475 --> 00:29:24,855
for use in conjunction

779
00:29:25,475 --> 00:29:26,375
with gas

780
00:29:26,674 --> 00:29:27,174
accumulators

781
00:29:28,019 --> 00:29:28,840
for illuminating

782
00:29:29,779 --> 00:29:30,279
lighthouses

783
00:29:31,059 --> 00:29:31,960
and buoys.

784
00:29:32,740 --> 00:29:33,240
So

785
00:29:33,539 --> 00:29:35,380
so this guy, it seems, was a sort

786
00:29:35,380 --> 00:29:36,920
of gas engineer.

787
00:29:37,700 --> 00:29:39,619
Maybe not, you know, the same engineer that

788
00:29:39,619 --> 00:29:41,974
comes to fix your boiler in your house,

789
00:29:42,035 --> 00:29:44,694
but, I I don't think he had any

790
00:29:44,914 --> 00:29:46,855
connection to physics. He was

791
00:29:47,234 --> 00:29:49,255
he was interested in using gas,

792
00:29:50,434 --> 00:29:50,934
to

793
00:29:51,555 --> 00:29:52,595
to light up,

794
00:29:53,394 --> 00:29:53,894
lighthouses.

795
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,240
I mean, it's not surprising because, you know,

796
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,220
much of Sweden's coastline is rugged and irregular,

797
00:30:00,279 --> 00:30:03,019
so lighthouses were a crucial

798
00:30:03,799 --> 00:30:04,299
infrastructure.

799
00:30:04,599 --> 00:30:07,240
And apparently, at the time, gas was the

800
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:08,059
best thing.

801
00:30:08,625 --> 00:30:09,605
I suppose electricity

802
00:30:09,904 --> 00:30:10,384
was not,

803
00:30:11,025 --> 00:30:13,265
maybe you just couldn't get the wattage through

804
00:30:13,265 --> 00:30:15,684
to to really pump out a bright light

805
00:30:15,825 --> 00:30:18,224
at a lighthouse. So they so they relied

806
00:30:18,224 --> 00:30:18,964
on gas.

807
00:30:19,744 --> 00:30:21,664
So his work was important, but,

808
00:30:22,700 --> 00:30:24,539
again, I think Max Planck might have missed

809
00:30:24,539 --> 00:30:26,000
out on this one, didn't he?

810
00:30:26,299 --> 00:30:27,759
Well, no. It was so

811
00:30:28,619 --> 00:30:31,200
nineteen o nine, the prize went to Marconi

812
00:30:31,500 --> 00:30:32,880
for wireless communication,

813
00:30:33,339 --> 00:30:35,440
big name in physics. 1910,

814
00:30:35,819 --> 00:30:39,275
van der Waals for his molecular work. 1911,

815
00:30:39,414 --> 00:30:40,394
Wilhelm Wien,

816
00:30:40,855 --> 00:30:42,154
again for black body.

817
00:30:42,615 --> 00:30:43,494
1912,

818
00:30:43,494 --> 00:30:45,815
the prize people thought it ought to go

819
00:30:45,815 --> 00:30:46,134
to,

820
00:30:46,775 --> 00:30:50,075
the Dutch physicist, Camilleen Hones, for superconductivity.

821
00:30:53,279 --> 00:30:53,599
But,

822
00:30:54,319 --> 00:30:55,539
a nasty accident,

823
00:30:56,079 --> 00:30:58,099
ended up with, kind of Darwin

824
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,880
winning this prize. So just to go back

825
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:02,960
a bit. So, yeah, Darwin, from what we

826
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:04,900
know, was, kind of a lazy

827
00:31:05,355 --> 00:31:07,535
student. When he was younger, apparently, he'd made

828
00:31:07,755 --> 00:31:09,835
a machine to make himself coffee in the

829
00:31:09,835 --> 00:31:10,335
morning.

830
00:31:10,794 --> 00:31:12,634
Sounded like an early sort of tease made

831
00:31:12,634 --> 00:31:14,474
that, he was too lazy to get up

832
00:31:14,474 --> 00:31:15,294
and make coffee.

833
00:31:16,075 --> 00:31:17,375
But like you say, lighthouses

834
00:31:18,789 --> 00:31:20,869
were a sort of thing that were important

835
00:31:20,869 --> 00:31:22,650
at the time for shipping, and they traditionally

836
00:31:22,710 --> 00:31:23,190
were,

837
00:31:23,509 --> 00:31:24,250
lit by

838
00:31:24,950 --> 00:31:25,450
acetylene,

839
00:31:25,910 --> 00:31:27,750
which is very bright, but it can be

840
00:31:27,750 --> 00:31:28,250
explosive

841
00:31:29,269 --> 00:31:31,829
and you can't ship it around. So what

842
00:31:31,829 --> 00:31:33,369
he did, he created this

843
00:31:33,894 --> 00:31:34,394
canister

844
00:31:35,335 --> 00:31:37,095
and he filled it with a strange mixture

845
00:31:37,095 --> 00:31:39,674
of asbestos and something called

846
00:31:41,335 --> 00:31:41,914
di diatomaceous

847
00:31:42,535 --> 00:31:44,615
earth. And it was a material that you

848
00:31:44,615 --> 00:31:45,994
could pour the

849
00:31:46,295 --> 00:31:47,434
acetylene in

850
00:31:47,759 --> 00:31:49,839
like a sponge and then transport it around.

851
00:31:49,839 --> 00:31:51,759
So the first thing he did was he

852
00:31:51,759 --> 00:31:54,740
created a way of shipping the acetylene around.

853
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,320
He then made it safe by creating a

854
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,200
device to turn the acetylene supply on and

855
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:02,420
off for the lighthouse

856
00:32:03,085 --> 00:32:04,144
so it could flash.

857
00:32:04,525 --> 00:32:06,205
And then the third thing he did was

858
00:32:06,205 --> 00:32:07,265
he made a valve,

859
00:32:08,365 --> 00:32:11,325
to turn the acetylene burners on at night

860
00:32:11,325 --> 00:32:13,965
and off in the morning automatically without needing

861
00:32:13,965 --> 00:32:16,225
any human intervention. So

862
00:32:16,549 --> 00:32:18,730
he creates a way of shipping acetylene,

863
00:32:19,269 --> 00:32:21,509
making it safe, and having it turn on

864
00:32:21,509 --> 00:32:22,089
and off.

865
00:32:24,230 --> 00:32:26,630
But that year, very sadly, he's he was

866
00:32:26,630 --> 00:32:28,809
injured in a factory accident and blinded.

867
00:32:30,034 --> 00:32:32,194
And so kind of it was a sympathy

868
00:32:32,194 --> 00:32:34,534
vote for him because he'd suffered this terrible

869
00:32:34,755 --> 00:32:37,234
injury, and it was his brother actually who

870
00:32:37,234 --> 00:32:39,095
went to the ceremony in Stockholm,

871
00:32:39,954 --> 00:32:40,934
on his behalf.

872
00:32:41,714 --> 00:32:43,714
So it was a kind of sympathy vote

873
00:32:43,714 --> 00:32:44,855
for that injury.

874
00:32:45,409 --> 00:32:47,809
I should say that he carried on as

875
00:32:47,809 --> 00:32:50,450
a scientist and I this is crazy. He

876
00:32:50,450 --> 00:32:50,950
was

877
00:32:51,649 --> 00:32:54,390
ten years later, he invented the AGA cooker,

878
00:32:55,169 --> 00:32:56,390
so beloved of

879
00:32:56,929 --> 00:32:59,429
people with big houses and, lots of money.

880
00:33:00,424 --> 00:33:02,345
Who knew that that the man who won

881
00:33:02,345 --> 00:33:03,544
the 1912

882
00:33:03,544 --> 00:33:06,345
Nobel Prize invented the AGA cooker and won

883
00:33:06,345 --> 00:33:09,404
a Nobel Prize? So this is the Margaret

884
00:33:09,464 --> 00:33:10,924
calls it by some margin.

885
00:33:11,384 --> 00:33:12,605
It's the unluckiest

886
00:33:12,904 --> 00:33:15,464
Nobel laureate in history, but also perhaps lucky

887
00:33:15,464 --> 00:33:16,289
in some sense.

888
00:33:16,690 --> 00:33:18,609
Yeah. That yeah. That is an amazing story

889
00:33:18,609 --> 00:33:20,150
that he invented the AGA,

890
00:33:21,410 --> 00:33:21,910
cooker,

891
00:33:22,289 --> 00:33:25,029
which is, yeah, as you say, much beloved

892
00:33:25,570 --> 00:33:27,730
in the, in in the British countries. Have

893
00:33:27,730 --> 00:33:28,630
you got one, Hamish?

894
00:33:29,410 --> 00:33:29,910
No.

895
00:33:31,174 --> 00:33:32,695
I don't know if I've ever have I

896
00:33:32,695 --> 00:33:35,222
ever seen I I just don't, I don't

897
00:33:35,222 --> 00:33:37,575
know. Mixing those circles. No. No. No. No.

898
00:33:37,575 --> 00:33:38,934
I've you know, I've I I am an

899
00:33:38,934 --> 00:33:41,414
avid listener to the archers, and sometimes there

900
00:33:41,414 --> 00:33:43,654
is a a mention of the AGA not

901
00:33:43,654 --> 00:33:46,330
working or fire up the AGA or that

902
00:33:46,330 --> 00:33:47,450
sort of thing. But,

903
00:33:47,930 --> 00:33:48,750
yeah, that

904
00:33:49,210 --> 00:33:51,070
that is a a really good story,

905
00:33:52,250 --> 00:33:54,910
but both of them actually, Littmann and Dolan,

906
00:33:55,529 --> 00:33:57,610
from the early days of the Nobel Prize.

907
00:33:57,610 --> 00:33:59,690
And, you know, it I suppose it is

908
00:33:59,690 --> 00:34:02,294
an illustration of how, you know, things have

909
00:34:02,294 --> 00:34:03,755
changed in terms of timeliness

910
00:34:04,294 --> 00:34:05,434
and also utility.

911
00:34:06,454 --> 00:34:09,255
You know, you don't really get prizes these

912
00:34:09,255 --> 00:34:09,755
days,

913
00:34:10,614 --> 00:34:11,514
for the invention

914
00:34:11,894 --> 00:34:13,434
of something in physics.

915
00:34:15,309 --> 00:34:17,150
So are we coming up to your predictions

916
00:34:17,150 --> 00:34:19,089
for the Nobel Prize this year, Hamish?

917
00:34:20,829 --> 00:34:21,969
Yeah. We are.

918
00:34:23,710 --> 00:34:25,250
Every year we make predictions,

919
00:34:25,550 --> 00:34:27,570
and, we're rarely right.

920
00:34:28,635 --> 00:34:31,375
Sometimes we do get it. Sometimes we're close.

921
00:34:32,235 --> 00:34:33,835
But I think it's a bit of a

922
00:34:33,835 --> 00:34:34,815
stopped clock

923
00:34:35,275 --> 00:34:36,574
effect because,

924
00:34:37,835 --> 00:34:39,835
well, to be honest, you know, we often

925
00:34:39,835 --> 00:34:41,375
put forth the same people

926
00:34:41,900 --> 00:34:43,739
every year, you know, people at the top

927
00:34:43,739 --> 00:34:46,400
of their game in physics. And eventually,

928
00:34:47,019 --> 00:34:48,860
one or two of them do win a

929
00:34:48,860 --> 00:34:49,360
prize.

930
00:34:49,660 --> 00:34:49,980
But,

931
00:34:51,340 --> 00:34:52,160
this year,

932
00:34:53,180 --> 00:34:54,780
It is quantum year, isn't it? Do you

933
00:34:54,780 --> 00:34:57,824
think quantum will? I mean, I personally think

934
00:34:57,824 --> 00:35:00,144
it will. I mean, the Nobel Committee aren't

935
00:35:00,144 --> 00:35:01,664
at fools. They do like to sort of

936
00:35:01,664 --> 00:35:03,045
acknowledge what's going on

937
00:35:03,344 --> 00:35:05,344
in the wider world. I've got a funny

938
00:35:05,344 --> 00:35:07,744
feeling they'll be sucked in by quantum. I

939
00:35:07,744 --> 00:35:09,045
do. And you you know,

940
00:35:09,744 --> 00:35:11,824
part of my belief is inspired by last

941
00:35:11,824 --> 00:35:12,324
year's

942
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:13,820
prize,

943
00:35:14,119 --> 00:35:16,039
you know, which was won by two computer

944
00:35:16,039 --> 00:35:16,539
scientists.

945
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,820
And I sort of thought, well, you know,

946
00:35:20,039 --> 00:35:20,539
quantum

947
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:24,140
quantum computers. What about the computer science

948
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,994
side of it rather than the, you know,

949
00:35:26,994 --> 00:35:29,255
the physics side of it. And so

950
00:35:29,715 --> 00:35:31,894
I'm going to predict a prize

951
00:35:32,275 --> 00:35:34,454
for pioneers of quantum

952
00:35:34,914 --> 00:35:35,414
algorithms.

953
00:35:36,355 --> 00:35:39,155
But the problem is that I've got four

954
00:35:39,155 --> 00:35:40,295
people in mind,

955
00:35:41,070 --> 00:35:42,769
and only three of them can win.

956
00:35:43,070 --> 00:35:43,469
So,

957
00:35:44,030 --> 00:35:47,809
my contenders are Peter Shor and Gilles Brassard.

958
00:35:48,269 --> 00:35:50,289
They're both computer scientists,

959
00:35:51,789 --> 00:35:53,650
and then Charles Bennett

960
00:35:54,190 --> 00:35:56,614
and David Deutsch. Now I know Deutsch is

961
00:35:56,614 --> 00:35:59,175
definitely a physicist. I think Bennett is also

962
00:35:59,175 --> 00:36:00,554
a physicist as well.

963
00:36:00,934 --> 00:36:03,175
And I'm going to say that three of

964
00:36:03,175 --> 00:36:03,994
those people,

965
00:36:05,414 --> 00:36:07,815
are going to win for their contributions to

966
00:36:07,815 --> 00:36:09,195
the developments of

967
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,219
algorithms for quantum computing and quantum

968
00:36:12,679 --> 00:36:13,179
cryptography.

969
00:36:14,039 --> 00:36:14,440
And,

970
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,239
you know, my bias will come out again.

971
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:19,960
I think I'm hoping that Gilles Brassard will

972
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,155
be in there because, of course, he's Canadian.

973
00:36:22,615 --> 00:36:24,695
And we do love a Canadian Nobel Prize

974
00:36:24,695 --> 00:36:26,535
winner. We've had lots of them recently. How

975
00:36:26,535 --> 00:36:28,295
many Canadians have won a Nobel Prize for

976
00:36:28,295 --> 00:36:29,894
Physics? That's not part of my quiz, but

977
00:36:29,894 --> 00:36:32,135
it ought to be. Oh oh, gosh. I

978
00:36:32,135 --> 00:36:34,135
don't I don't know. There's lots. More than

979
00:36:34,135 --> 00:36:35,035
you would expect.

980
00:36:35,414 --> 00:36:36,715
More than you would expect.

981
00:36:38,309 --> 00:36:40,489
Yeah. So so that's one prediction,

982
00:36:41,349 --> 00:36:43,269
sort of based on the fact that quantum

983
00:36:43,269 --> 00:36:44,410
is hot and

984
00:36:44,950 --> 00:36:47,829
thinking, oh, yes. Computer scientists can win. Why

985
00:36:47,829 --> 00:36:49,815
not these computer scientists? But

986
00:36:50,775 --> 00:36:52,534
we also we we sort of have a

987
00:36:52,534 --> 00:36:53,034
running

988
00:36:53,335 --> 00:36:53,835
infographic,

989
00:36:55,335 --> 00:36:56,954
that we started to produce,

990
00:36:57,494 --> 00:37:00,135
a few years ago. And, essentially, what we

991
00:37:00,135 --> 00:37:02,474
do is we divide all the Nobel prizes

992
00:37:02,534 --> 00:37:03,194
up into

993
00:37:03,590 --> 00:37:06,890
into fields, categories like condensed matter physics, particle

994
00:37:06,949 --> 00:37:07,449
physics,

995
00:37:08,150 --> 00:37:09,130
applied physics,

996
00:37:09,590 --> 00:37:10,969
and we sort of chart

997
00:37:11,670 --> 00:37:12,730
year on year

998
00:37:13,349 --> 00:37:15,750
where the award is given. And the idea

999
00:37:15,750 --> 00:37:17,530
being, you know, we're looking for patterns.

1000
00:37:19,075 --> 00:37:21,715
Is is an award given in particle physics

1001
00:37:21,715 --> 00:37:22,855
every five years,

1002
00:37:23,394 --> 00:37:25,474
every six years, that sort of thing. So,

1003
00:37:25,474 --> 00:37:26,914
you know, if you stare at this thing

1004
00:37:26,914 --> 00:37:29,474
for long enough, you can see patterns in

1005
00:37:29,474 --> 00:37:30,210
it. And

1006
00:37:31,489 --> 00:37:34,050
what's really apparent is that there hasn't been

1007
00:37:34,050 --> 00:37:36,869
an award for condensed matter physics

1008
00:37:37,730 --> 00:37:39,809
in a while, and there hasn't been an

1009
00:37:39,809 --> 00:37:41,670
award in particle physics

1010
00:37:42,050 --> 00:37:42,869
for a while.

1011
00:37:44,924 --> 00:37:47,244
Now the particle physics has been a bit

1012
00:37:47,244 --> 00:37:49,884
quiet on the particle physics front over the

1013
00:37:49,884 --> 00:37:50,284
past,

1014
00:37:50,684 --> 00:37:53,644
you know, decade or so. So that's a

1015
00:37:53,644 --> 00:37:54,704
difficult one.

1016
00:37:55,244 --> 00:37:56,464
I mean, if you

1017
00:37:57,119 --> 00:37:57,779
if you

1018
00:37:58,239 --> 00:37:59,299
if you consider,

1019
00:38:00,159 --> 00:38:02,099
the concept of cosmic inflation

1020
00:38:02,799 --> 00:38:04,179
to be particle physics,

1021
00:38:05,279 --> 00:38:07,119
you know, maybe you could have an award

1022
00:38:07,119 --> 00:38:07,619
for

1023
00:38:08,079 --> 00:38:08,925
Alan Guth,

1024
00:38:09,644 --> 00:38:10,625
Paul Steinhardt.

1025
00:38:11,804 --> 00:38:13,664
I'm sure I'm sure there's some other people

1026
00:38:14,045 --> 00:38:16,385
that I've left out that could be included

1027
00:38:16,925 --> 00:38:18,144
in such an award.

1028
00:38:18,684 --> 00:38:21,244
And for a condensed matter, I suppose there's

1029
00:38:21,244 --> 00:38:21,985
two options.

1030
00:38:22,610 --> 00:38:24,070
One would be metamaterials,

1031
00:38:25,809 --> 00:38:26,309
where

1032
00:38:26,610 --> 00:38:29,890
our old friend John Pendry at, Imperial College

1033
00:38:29,890 --> 00:38:32,710
London And David Smith. That's right.

1034
00:38:33,410 --> 00:38:34,929
Those two have been on a lot of

1035
00:38:34,929 --> 00:38:37,065
lists for a lot of years. Yeah. And

1036
00:38:37,065 --> 00:38:39,164
I would add Federico Capasso

1037
00:38:39,545 --> 00:38:41,164
to that. Yeah. The the

1038
00:38:41,465 --> 00:38:41,965
amazing,

1039
00:38:42,905 --> 00:38:43,804
applied physicist,

1040
00:38:44,664 --> 00:38:46,585
who does a lot of work in, you

1041
00:38:46,585 --> 00:38:48,045
know, sort of using metamaterials

1042
00:38:48,505 --> 00:38:49,324
for practical

1043
00:38:49,940 --> 00:38:50,440
applications.

1044
00:38:51,059 --> 00:38:53,000
I mean, I think he really, really

1045
00:38:53,300 --> 00:38:55,380
deserves a Nobel Prize, so it would be

1046
00:38:55,380 --> 00:38:56,920
great if he won one.

1047
00:38:57,300 --> 00:38:57,700
And,

1048
00:38:58,500 --> 00:39:00,500
and then the other the other option is

1049
00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:01,000
twisted

1050
00:39:01,539 --> 00:39:02,039
twistronics,

1051
00:39:02,420 --> 00:39:03,480
twisted graphene,

1052
00:39:04,244 --> 00:39:07,125
which has some pretty amazing properties. But I

1053
00:39:07,125 --> 00:39:09,204
think it might I don't know. It might

1054
00:39:09,204 --> 00:39:11,045
be a bit too early for that. And,

1055
00:39:11,045 --> 00:39:13,385
you know, we've already had a a graphene

1056
00:39:13,444 --> 00:39:15,944
Nobel Prize, which you which wasn't in your

1057
00:39:16,404 --> 00:39:19,029
top five. It wasn't. No. So, basically, you

1058
00:39:19,029 --> 00:39:21,190
made four predictions. Like, one of one of

1059
00:39:21,190 --> 00:39:22,909
them might be right. You are you allowed

1060
00:39:23,029 --> 00:39:24,309
so but if you had one to choose

1061
00:39:24,309 --> 00:39:27,049
from, you'd go for the, the quantum stuff.

1062
00:39:28,469 --> 00:39:30,630
Yeah. Well, I would because I think it's

1063
00:39:30,630 --> 00:39:31,849
it's very relevant

1064
00:39:32,534 --> 00:39:34,775
at the moment, you know. We again, it's

1065
00:39:34,775 --> 00:39:35,994
this quantum renaissance.

1066
00:39:37,255 --> 00:39:38,454
It's something that,

1067
00:39:39,255 --> 00:39:41,494
you know, it's it's gone out of academic

1068
00:39:41,494 --> 00:39:43,734
physics. It's industry, you know. There's lots of

1069
00:39:43,734 --> 00:39:46,474
quantum computing startups. Quantum cryptography

1070
00:39:46,775 --> 00:39:47,755
is being used.

1071
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,019
So, you know, there's a very practical

1072
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,559
side of things as well. So I'll go

1073
00:39:54,559 --> 00:39:55,380
for the quantum

1074
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,539
algorithms and, yeah, hopefully,

1075
00:39:58,400 --> 00:39:59,539
my fellow Canadian,

1076
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:01,940
Gilles Brassard, will be in there,

1077
00:40:02,605 --> 00:40:05,244
along with a few other people. Okay. So

1078
00:40:05,244 --> 00:40:07,405
it's now time for the, the quiz, Hamish.

1079
00:40:07,405 --> 00:40:10,125
Now I had totally forgotten that in 2020,

1080
00:40:10,125 --> 00:40:12,045
in the depths of lockdown, I did a

1081
00:40:12,045 --> 00:40:14,445
Nobel quiz. I'm glad to find that some

1082
00:40:14,445 --> 00:40:16,045
things I've forgotten I ever did, but, you

1083
00:40:16,045 --> 00:40:17,849
know, there's some questions on there. I'm sure

1084
00:40:17,849 --> 00:40:19,530
you've definitely forgotten. So I'm not gonna go

1085
00:40:19,530 --> 00:40:21,610
through them all. I love asking you questions,

1086
00:40:21,610 --> 00:40:23,450
Hamish, because you're normally pretty good at these.

1087
00:40:23,450 --> 00:40:23,950
So,

1088
00:40:25,130 --> 00:40:26,349
so question one,

1089
00:40:27,530 --> 00:40:29,369
like, not many people have won a Nobel

1090
00:40:29,369 --> 00:40:31,530
Prize in two subjects. So Marie Curie is

1091
00:40:31,530 --> 00:40:32,190
the famous

1092
00:40:32,954 --> 00:40:34,815
person who won the chemistry prize

1093
00:40:35,434 --> 00:40:37,215
and the physics prize. Now

1094
00:40:37,914 --> 00:40:40,235
can you remember in which order she won

1095
00:40:40,235 --> 00:40:40,735
them?

1096
00:40:43,675 --> 00:40:45,914
Was it physics first and then chemistry or

1097
00:40:45,914 --> 00:40:46,860
the other way around?

1098
00:40:48,619 --> 00:40:49,280
I well,

1099
00:40:49,579 --> 00:40:51,260
I've got a fifty fifty chance of getting

1100
00:40:51,260 --> 00:40:53,500
this time. Easier, obviously. So I'm gonna say

1101
00:40:53,500 --> 00:40:54,000
chemistry.

1102
00:40:55,900 --> 00:40:58,300
She won the physics prize in nineteen o

1103
00:40:58,300 --> 00:40:58,800
three

1104
00:40:59,655 --> 00:41:01,675
and the chemistry prize in 1911.

1105
00:41:02,454 --> 00:41:05,414
So physics first nineteen o three and chemistry

1106
00:41:05,414 --> 00:41:06,235
1911.

1107
00:41:06,454 --> 00:41:06,954
Right.

1108
00:41:07,655 --> 00:41:09,494
So you got that wrong. Oh, no. Not

1109
00:41:09,494 --> 00:41:10,954
at one. Okay. Next

1110
00:41:11,574 --> 00:41:13,114
next question, Hamish.

1111
00:41:15,869 --> 00:41:18,049
Right. In 2010,

1112
00:41:18,829 --> 00:41:19,730
Roy Glauber,

1113
00:41:20,670 --> 00:41:23,150
his Nobel Prize, what happened to it? Was

1114
00:41:23,150 --> 00:41:23,889
it, a,

1115
00:41:24,510 --> 00:41:25,489
sold for money,

1116
00:41:25,869 --> 00:41:26,369
b,

1117
00:41:27,230 --> 00:41:28,369
stolen by burglars,

1118
00:41:29,015 --> 00:41:30,635
c, thrown in the bin,

1119
00:41:31,414 --> 00:41:31,914
d,

1120
00:41:32,454 --> 00:41:33,755
lost in the woods.

1121
00:41:34,135 --> 00:41:35,355
What happened to his medal?

1122
00:41:36,695 --> 00:41:38,235
I think it was stolen.

1123
00:41:39,494 --> 00:41:39,994
Correct.

1124
00:41:40,295 --> 00:41:41,355
Stolen by burglars.

1125
00:41:42,519 --> 00:41:44,519
Do do were they targeting him for his

1126
00:41:44,519 --> 00:41:46,440
Nobel Prize, or it just happened to be

1127
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,840
on the, on the mantelpiece when they came

1128
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,000
in? I can't remember. Who knows? They stole

1129
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,280
it anyway. But they're they're made from gold,

1130
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:53,720
aren't they? I think they're worth quite a

1131
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:55,694
bit. And, I think it was recovered later.

1132
00:41:56,315 --> 00:41:58,875
Yeah. I do I do remember, yeah, reading

1133
00:41:58,875 --> 00:42:01,054
that it had been recovered, which is good.

1134
00:42:01,355 --> 00:42:03,755
One out of two. Okay. Third question, three,

1135
00:42:03,755 --> 00:42:04,255
Hamish.

1136
00:42:06,234 --> 00:42:08,394
It's very rare that this happens, but which

1137
00:42:08,394 --> 00:42:08,894
physicist

1138
00:42:09,539 --> 00:42:12,019
almost decided to turn down the offer of

1139
00:42:12,019 --> 00:42:13,079
a Nobel Prize?

1140
00:42:13,460 --> 00:42:15,239
Was it, a, Paul Dirac,

1141
00:42:15,860 --> 00:42:17,079
b, Einstein,

1142
00:42:17,780 --> 00:42:19,000
c, Heisenberg,

1143
00:42:19,780 --> 00:42:21,079
or d, Schrodinger?

1144
00:42:21,699 --> 00:42:24,224
Well, I mean, I I think Dirac was

1145
00:42:24,465 --> 00:42:24,965
famous

1146
00:42:26,065 --> 00:42:26,724
for being,

1147
00:42:27,025 --> 00:42:29,345
I don't know, sort of strange character, wasn't

1148
00:42:29,345 --> 00:42:31,585
he? So, I think it's got to be

1149
00:42:31,585 --> 00:42:32,085
Dirac.

1150
00:42:32,785 --> 00:42:35,265
Correct. So, yeah. It was Paul Dirac. And

1151
00:42:35,265 --> 00:42:37,744
I think I think Rutherford told him, look,

1152
00:42:37,744 --> 00:42:39,760
you'll you'll get more publicity if you turn

1153
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:41,440
it down. There'll be more noise about it

1154
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:43,220
than if you just go and accept it.

1155
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:45,119
So he he he picks it up. So

1156
00:42:45,119 --> 00:42:47,440
you got two out of three. Okay. Two

1157
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:49,460
questions to go, Hamish. Question four.

1158
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,695
What informal event do Nobel Laureates

1159
00:42:53,994 --> 00:42:55,855
get invited to in Stockholm

1160
00:42:56,394 --> 00:42:58,015
after they pick up their medals?

1161
00:42:58,715 --> 00:43:00,894
Okay. You got four choices. Is it, a,

1162
00:43:00,954 --> 00:43:01,775
the dog

1163
00:43:02,155 --> 00:43:02,655
ball,

1164
00:43:03,195 --> 00:43:04,815
b, the frog ball,

1165
00:43:05,510 --> 00:43:07,210
c, the hog ball,

1166
00:43:07,510 --> 00:43:08,969
or d, the warthog

1167
00:43:09,750 --> 00:43:10,250
ball.

1168
00:43:11,269 --> 00:43:14,070
Ball as in like a a dew. Yeah.

1169
00:43:14,070 --> 00:43:15,750
So it's something the students will do, I

1170
00:43:15,750 --> 00:43:17,909
think, in Stockholm. Which one of those was

1171
00:43:17,909 --> 00:43:20,954
it? Dog, frog, hog, or warthog?

1172
00:43:23,574 --> 00:43:25,034
Oh, gosh. I don't know.

1173
00:43:26,054 --> 00:43:28,375
I mean Apparently, Frank Wilczek loved going to

1174
00:43:28,375 --> 00:43:30,074
it when he went. He enjoyed

1175
00:43:30,534 --> 00:43:32,635
taking part in this thing. Okay.

1176
00:43:33,769 --> 00:43:36,650
I mean, I suppose Warthog sounds more sort

1177
00:43:36,650 --> 00:43:37,389
of exciting.

1178
00:43:37,690 --> 00:43:40,089
You're you're shaking your head with tuna. We've

1179
00:43:40,089 --> 00:43:42,650
only got that one. It is the frog

1180
00:43:42,650 --> 00:43:43,150
ball.

1181
00:43:43,849 --> 00:43:45,849
They do the frog ball. So there you

1182
00:43:45,849 --> 00:43:47,069
go. That is

1183
00:43:48,565 --> 00:43:50,085
wrong Hamish. You got two out of four.

1184
00:43:50,085 --> 00:43:52,425
So No. Not doing very well. Final question.

1185
00:43:53,844 --> 00:43:55,605
This is this is this is quite easy.

1186
00:43:55,605 --> 00:43:58,105
Well, isn't this easy? Okay. So how old

1187
00:43:58,244 --> 00:43:59,704
was William Lawrence

1188
00:44:00,164 --> 00:44:01,945
Bragg? Do you remember he won the prize

1189
00:44:02,005 --> 00:44:02,905
with his dad

1190
00:44:03,460 --> 00:44:06,440
for X-ray crystallography? And he is the youngest

1191
00:44:06,820 --> 00:44:07,320
person

1192
00:44:07,780 --> 00:44:10,199
to win a Nobel Prize for physics. So

1193
00:44:10,260 --> 00:44:11,640
how old was William

1194
00:44:12,179 --> 00:44:14,280
Lawrence Bragg? Was he, a,

1195
00:44:14,820 --> 00:44:15,719
22,

1196
00:44:16,574 --> 00:44:18,034
b, 25,

1197
00:44:18,815 --> 00:44:20,195
c, 28,

1198
00:44:20,494 --> 00:44:21,315
or d,

1199
00:44:22,014 --> 00:44:22,914
31?

1200
00:44:24,255 --> 00:44:26,414
Well, before before you gave me those options,

1201
00:44:26,414 --> 00:44:28,014
I thought, oh, it's got to be about

1202
00:44:28,014 --> 00:44:28,914
25.

1203
00:44:29,539 --> 00:44:30,760
Is it 25?

1204
00:44:33,139 --> 00:44:34,599
No. He was,

1205
00:44:36,420 --> 00:44:38,019
oh, no. He was. Yes. Correct. He was

1206
00:44:38,019 --> 00:44:39,859
25. Sorry. Yeah. Be you. Getting my dates

1207
00:44:39,859 --> 00:44:41,940
mixed up. So he was 25. So, yeah,

1208
00:44:41,940 --> 00:44:43,079
Paul, William

1209
00:44:43,795 --> 00:44:46,114
Lawrence Bragg, who won it with his dad,

1210
00:44:46,114 --> 00:44:46,614
was

1211
00:44:47,394 --> 00:44:48,195
25

1212
00:44:48,195 --> 00:44:50,614
years old. So I think you've got three

1213
00:44:51,155 --> 00:44:52,454
out of five Is that respectable

1214
00:44:52,994 --> 00:44:55,335
mid That's decent. Mid table result?

1215
00:44:56,159 --> 00:44:57,920
There are a further five questions on the

1216
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:00,400
physics world website. I won't torture you with

1217
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,239
all of them because I think you ought

1218
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:03,539
to know the rest of them.

1219
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:05,679
Why is that? Because I those are the

1220
00:45:05,679 --> 00:45:07,359
ones that I came up with. Well, no

1221
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,644
Probably forget the answers even if I came

1222
00:45:09,644 --> 00:45:11,005
up with the quiz. But one of them

1223
00:45:11,005 --> 00:45:12,364
is what day of the week is the,

1224
00:45:12,605 --> 00:45:15,565
Nobel Prize normally awarded on? Well, that's yeah.

1225
00:45:15,565 --> 00:45:17,804
Well, for physics, it's Tuesday. Tuesday. Yeah. It's

1226
00:45:17,804 --> 00:45:19,425
always a Tuesday. So Yeah.

1227
00:45:19,724 --> 00:45:21,324
I'll give you an extra point. Four you

1228
00:45:21,324 --> 00:45:23,565
got four out of six then. Well well

1229
00:45:23,565 --> 00:45:24,065
done.

1230
00:45:24,909 --> 00:45:25,409
Okeydoke.

1231
00:45:26,510 --> 00:45:28,530
Well, thanks for joining me, Matin.

1232
00:45:28,829 --> 00:45:30,829
And I should say that, all of the

1233
00:45:30,829 --> 00:45:33,809
articles that we've talked about in this episode,

1234
00:45:34,110 --> 00:45:36,610
I'll put links to them in the notes

1235
00:45:37,085 --> 00:45:39,344
for this week's podcast.

1236
00:45:39,724 --> 00:45:41,744
I'm afraid that's all the time we have,

1237
00:45:42,125 --> 00:45:45,184
and I would like to thank American Elements

1238
00:45:45,484 --> 00:45:47,184
for their generous support

1239
00:45:47,484 --> 00:45:48,545
of this episode.

1240
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:51,800
Thanks for joining me, Matin, and a special

1241
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:52,940
thanks to our producer,

1242
00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:54,380
Fred Ailes.

1243
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,079
We'll be back again next week with an

1244
00:45:57,079 --> 00:45:57,579
episode

1245
00:45:58,200 --> 00:45:58,700
devoted

1246
00:45:59,079 --> 00:46:00,140
to this year's

1247
00:46:00,599 --> 00:46:03,719
Nobel Prize for Physics, which, of course, will

1248
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,714
be announced next Tuesday.

1249
00:46:06,255 --> 00:46:07,234
See you then.

1250
00:46:08,734 --> 00:46:09,795
American Elements,

1251
00:46:10,574 --> 00:46:14,114
the world's manufacturer of engineered and advanced materials.

1252
00:46:16,014 --> 00:46:16,994
American Elements,

1253
00:46:17,375 --> 00:46:17,875
now

1254
00:46:18,255 --> 00:46:18,755
invent.