4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2007
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk. |
0:10.0 | I hope you enjoy the programme. |
0:11.0 | Hello, the Nobel Prize-winning British physicist Paul Deerech declared that the laws of |
0:16.0 | nature should be expressed in beautiful equations. True to his word, he is responsible for one of the |
0:21.2 | most beautiful. Formulated in 1928 it describes the behavior |
0:25.0 | of electrons and is called the Dirac equation. But the Dirac equation is strange. For every question |
0:30.9 | it gives two answers, one positive and one negative. |
0:34.0 | From this its author concluded that for every electron there's an equal and opposite twin. |
0:39.0 | He called this twin the anti-electron and so the concept of antimata was born. Since then |
0:44.7 | physicists have created antimatter in the laboratory and we even use it in our hospitals |
0:48.9 | but antimatter remains fundamentally mysterious. There should be much more of it around, but there isn't. |
0:54.0 | And to understand why may bring us closer to understanding events at the origin of the universe. |
0:59.0 | With me to discuss antimatter, I Ruth Gregory, |
1:02.0 | Professor of Mathematics and physics at |
1:03.8 | the University of Durham |
1:04.9 | Frank Close professor of physics at Exeter College University of Oxford and Val Gibson |
1:09.5 | reading high energy physics at the University of Cambridge. |
1:13.0 | Val Gibson, let's establish some basic definitions. |
1:15.6 | Before we talk about antimatter, can you outline us the picture of matter |
1:19.2 | and explain how that breaks down? |
1:21.6 | Yes, of course. Matter is the stuff that we and everything around |
1:26.0 | it is made of, right? So if you had the most powerful microscope in the world, you could |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.