Sir Michael Berry on phenomena in physics' borderlands

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Professor Jim Al-Khalili meets one of Britain's greatest physicists, Sir Michael Berry. His work uncovers 'the arcane in the mundane', revealing the science that underpins phenomena in the world around us such as rainbows, and through his popular science lectures he joyfully explains the role of quantum mechanics in phones, computers and the technology that shapes the modern world. He is famed for the 'Berry phase' which is a key concept in quantum mechanics and one Sir Michael likes to explain through an analogy of holding a cat upside and dropping it, or parallel parking a car. Presenter: Jim Al-Khalili Studio Producer: Tom Bonnett Audio Editor: Gerry Holt

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.
0:08.8	Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.7	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes,
0:24.6	you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service, listen to all episodes on BBC B. C Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:35.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of The Life Scientific.
0:39.0	I'm Jim Alkalele and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading
0:43.2	scientists and you get to find out what drives them. So sit back, get comfortable and
0:48.0	enjoy the episode.
0:49.2	Hello, sometimes ideas in physics can feel so abstract that they border on philosophy, concepts
0:56.6	like higher dimensional space or time ceasing to exist, subatomic particles behaving like waves.
1:04.0	Often it's when someone comes up with the simple analogy to explain these ideas that we can
1:09.2	get, if not the full picture, at least a glimmer of understanding. This is particularly true in the area of
1:15.4	science that my guest today and yours truly work in theoretical physics. Please don't turn
1:21.9	off. As well as being one of the most respected
1:24.3	physicists in the world today, Sir Michael Berry continues the tradition of
1:28.6	making complex ideas accessible. In his hands even the blurred edges of a rainbow or the way light dances on the bottom of a swimming
1:37.2	pool can reveal deep mathematical secrets that underpin our very existence. His most famous contribution to science is an
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