How we explore unanswered questions in physics
1,666,441 views |
James Beacham |
TEDxBerlin
• September 2016
James Beacham looks for answers to the most important open questions of physics using the biggest science experiment ever mounted, CERN's Large Hadron Collider. In this fun and accessible talk about how science happens, Beacham takes us on a journey through extra-spatial dimensions in search of undiscovered fundamental particles (and an explanation for the mysteries of gravity) and details the drive to keep exploring.
James Beacham looks for answers to the most important open questions of physics using the biggest science experiment ever mounted, CERN's Large Hadron Collider. In this fun and accessible talk about how science happens, Beacham takes us on a journey through extra-spatial dimensions in search of undiscovered fundamental particles (and an explanation for the mysteries of gravity) and details the drive to keep exploring.
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBerlin, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.Help the LHC experiments search for revolutionary new particles with your personal computer's spare CPU cycles via LHC@Home.
Big science like the LHC thrives on diversity. Support organizations dedicated to rectifying representation and access imbalances in STEM fields, such as Million Women Mentors.
About the speaker
James Beacham is an experimental high-energy particle physicist working with the ATLAS collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
Lisa Randall | Harper Perennial, 2006 | Book
Lisa Randall developed some of the key ideas about how gravity could live in extra dimensions, and this book is a gripping and accessible account of branes, spacetime, Kaluza-Klein theory and general relativity from the world’s expert. This book has inspired more than a few skeptical little kids to become physicists.
Brian Greene | W. W. Norton & Company, 2010 | Book
If you’re not satisfied with the possibility of only one or two extra dimensions of space, perhaps you’d prefer the ten (or twenty-five?) of string theory. Brian Greene’s electrifying account of the journey physicists took from thinking about elementary point particles to considering that there may be another level of substructure below that — that all particles are vibrating loops of string — remains one of the best explorations of the biggest open questions of physics and our inventive attempts to answer them. I wouldn’t have gone into physics if it weren’t for this book.
You can also watch Brian's talks here and here
You can also watch Brian's talks here and here
Bruce Schumm | Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004 | Book
The Standard Model of particle physics is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of humankind, and there are lots of great books that describe it in a non-technical and qualitative way. But to really understand and appreciate it, you need to dive into the mathematics behind it, that of gauge groups and quantum field theory. This can be intimidating to many non-specialists. That’s why Bruce Schumm’s book is so good, since it presents the math of the Standard Model without the math, describing the concepts behind the mathematical structures — and how they map into the physical world — without overwhelming the reader with equations. An unparalleled book for getting a deeper sense of what particle physics is all about without getting a PhD (although I also suggest you get that PhD).
BBC Horizon, 1981 | Watch
Essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand why physicists do what we do: because we’re insatiably curious. Feynman was a couple of orders of magnitude smarter than most physicists (including me), but here he tells stories, gives his views, and ends up displaying the attributes so many of us share: a love of problem-solving, a dedication to empiricism, a healthy and deep-seated distrust of asserted authority, and the recognition that science is simply the best set of methods and tools that we have for determining truth from falsehood — and that physics, in its purest form, is inherently fun.
Natalia Toro | Lecture at the Perimeter Institute, 2015 | Watch
My close colleague — and recipient of the 2015 New Horizons in Physics Prize, part of the Breakthrough Prizes — Natalia Toro is one of the deepest thinkers in physics right now. This talk is actually for graduate students in theoretical physics, but it’s a masterpiece of how contemporary particle physicists think about the world and, even more fundamentally, how we organize our thinking to push the boundaries of what we know and find where our current understanding breaks down — which often opens up opportunities to make progress.
Tova Holmes, Laura Jeanty and Larry Lee | Listen
Founded by my colleagues Tova Holmes, Laura Jeanty and Larry Lee, In Particular is a wonderful, personable look at the people we work with at CERN every day featuring fantastic first-person accounts of the research we do.
David J. Griffiths | Pearson Education, 2015 | Book
Landau & Lifshitz | Butterworth-Heinemann, 1975 | Book
David J. Griffiths | Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004 | Book
J. J. Sakurai | Addison-Wesley, 1967 | Book
Peskin & Schroeder | Westview Press, 2015 | Book
Streater & Wightman | Princeton University Press, 2000 | Book
James B. Hartle | Pearson, 2003 | Book
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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBerlin, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.Help the LHC experiments search for revolutionary new particles with your personal computer's spare CPU cycles via LHC@Home.
Big science like the LHC thrives on diversity. Support organizations dedicated to rectifying representation and access imbalances in STEM fields, such as Million Women Mentors.