#92 – Harry Cliff: Particle Physics and the Large Hadron Collider
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2020
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Harry Cliff is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment that specializes in searching for hints of new particles and forces by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark”. In this way, he is part of the group of physicists who are searching answers to some of the biggest questions in modern physics. He is also an exceptional communicator of science with some of the clearest and most captivating explanations of basic concepts in particle physics I’ve ever heard.
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EPISODE LINKS:
Harry’s Website: https://www.harrycliff.co.uk/
Harry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harryvcliff
Beyond the Higgs Lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edvdzh9Pggg
Harry’s stand-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnediKM_Sts
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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
OUTLINE:
00:00 – Introduction
03:51 – LHC and particle physics
13:55 – History of particle physics
38:59 – Higgs particle
57:55 – Unknowns yet to be discovered
59:48 – Beauty quarks
1:07:38 – Matter and antimatter
1:10:22 – Human side of the Large Hadron Collider
1:17:27 – Future of large particle colliders
1:24:09 – Data science with particle physics
1:27:17 – Science communication
1:33:36 – Most beautiful idea in physics
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge, |
| 0:05.7 | working on the large, head-drawn, collider beauty experiment that specializes in investigating |
| 0:11.9 | the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the |
| 0:17.3 | Beauty Quark, or B Quark. In this way, he's part of the group of physicists who are searching for |
| 0:23.2 | the evidence of new particles that can answer some of the biggest questions in modern physics. |
| 0:28.3 | He's also an exceptional communicator of science, with some of the clearest and most captivating |
| 0:34.1 | explanations of basic concepts in particle physicists that have ever heard. So when I visited London, |
| 0:40.9 | I knew I had to talk to him. And we did this conversation at the Royal Institute Lecture |
| 0:46.4 | Theatre, which has hosted lectures for over two centuries from some of the greatest scientists |
| 0:52.0 | in science, communicators in history, for Michael Theriday, to Carl Sagan. |
| 0:57.5 | This conversation was recorded before the outbreak of the pandemic. For everyone feeling the |
| 1:02.0 | medical and psychological and financial burden of this crisis, I'm sending love your way. Stay |
| 1:07.5 | strong, or in this together, will beat this thing. This is the Artificial Intelligence Podcast. |
| 1:13.6 | If you enjoy it, subscribe on YouTube, review it with five stars and Apple podcasts, |
| 1:18.1 | support it on Patreon, or simply connect with me on Twitter, at Lex Friedman spelled F-R-I-D-M-A-N. |
| 1:24.9 | As usual, I'll do a few minutes of ads now and never any ads in the middle that can break the |
| 1:28.8 | flow of the conversation. I hope that works for you and doesn't hurt the listening experience. |
| 1:34.8 | Quick summary of the ads. Two sponsors. ExpressVPN and CashApp. Please consider supporting |
| 1:40.8 | the podcast by getting ExpressVPN at expressvpn.com slash Lex pod. And downloading CashApp |
| 1:47.9 | and using code LexPodcast. This show is presented by CashApp, the number one finance app in the app store. |
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... |
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