Felix Flicker: The Magic of Physics on The Into The Impossible Podcast (#318)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2023

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Watch the video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/AJJGv-5Rk4I #CondensedMatter #superconductors #quantummechanics The tagline for our podcast by Arthur C. Clarke is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Theoretical physicist Felix Flicker’s imaginative new book The Magick of Physics provides ample service to that notion. In Flicker’s book the magic is in “condensed matter physics”, the quotidian solids, liquids, and gasses that surround us—and the more exotic matter— which form the foundations for our electronic lives, and may hold the keys to a transformed future, from quantum computing to real-life invisibility cloaks. Flicker finds magic in real physics like creating new particles which never existed before, and making crystals that shoot out light that can cut through metal. Using metaphors of wizards, infinite libraries, staffs and wands, the book has a compelling narrative that circumvents the need for equations and charts, yet conveys real, practical knowledge. Felix Flicker is a lecturer at Cardiff University in the School of Physics and Astronomy. He holds an MPhys in physics from St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and received his PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics from the University of Bristol in 2015. He has published in both Nature and Science. Felix has trained in Kung Fu for twenty years and has been an instructor for fifteen years. He is the former British Champion of Shuai Jiao (Chinese wrestling), and a student of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) and sailing. www.felixflicker.com Buy The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life https://a.co/d/2JtuhM1 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:30 Judging the book by its cover 00:07:10 What is the philosopher's stone? 00:09:20 The announcement by Ranga Diass of the development of a room temperature superconductor at the March 2023 meeting of the American Physical Society of 10,000 scientists. 00:15:45 What qualifies as a legit superconducting material? Why is ultra-high pressure an issue? 00:19:00 What is the significance of condensed matter physics and why should a scientist consider pursuing it? The elevator pitch. 00:25:50 The glory of room temperature superconductors 00:28:25 Felix’s journey through martial arts, calligraphy and tea. 00:33:45 Tea and phase transitions 00:41:54 How does physics go from theory to practice? 00:49:00 Why are knots important in condensed matter physics? Topological quantum computation! 00:56:00 Existential questions - What are your choices for the most magical or impressive scientific fact(s)? Phonons! Subscribe to the Jordan Harbinger Show for amazing content from Apple’s best podcast of 2018! https://www.jordanharbinger.com/podcasts Please leave a rating and review: On Apple devices, click here, https://apple.co/39UaHlB On Spotify it’s here: https://spoti.fi/3vpfXok On Audible it’s here https://tinyurl.com/wtpvej9v Find other ways to rate here: https://briankeating.com/podcast Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating or become a Member on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join To advertise with us, contact [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The tagline for selling condensed matter physics is that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
0:09.0	I think that would be my tagline for the subject.
0:11.0	The clear example of that is a quasi-particle. And I will be more specific, I'll say the phone on is probably an example of what you've asked for.
0:19.6	He would be described light as being carried by elementary particles. We can describe sound as being carried by elementary particles, we can describe
0:23.2	sound as being carried by particles but they're not elementary.
0:25.9	Phonon is like a particle of sound and it can only exist inside crystals or some other
0:30.8	states of conense matter and you could well, it's just the atoms vibrating
0:34.4	as the sound travels through, the thing you learned at school, right?
0:36.4	Sure, they're an effective description,
0:38.0	but mathematically, it's exactly the same thing you do.
0:39.9	And I think if you want to believe that photons are real elements of reality,
0:43.6	I think you should admit in the same way that phonons are fundamental real things in reality.
0:48.6	And so I suppose the philosophical point I'd want people to have as a take-home one for this segment is that emergent stuff, things
0:56.8	where the whole is more than the sum of the parts, things like phonons that's purely
1:00.6	emergent phenomenon, right? It's not present in any one of the atoms there that's vibrating.
1:04.4	It's some collective behavior of lots of them.
1:07.1	But it's no less real. Welcome everyone to this magical episode of Into the
1:19.6	Impossible. Our podcast introduction features a quote from announced science fiction writer
1:24.8	futurist and inventor Arthur C. Clark. Any sufficiently advanced technology
1:29.3	is indistinguishable from magic. This is an apropos aphorism for this episode with Felix Flicker, discussing
1:36.6	his new book, The Magic of Physics. Flicker shares his fascination with the reality bending things that happen at
1:44.1	small scales at the extremes of matter when emergent phenomenon are not
	...

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