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Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

The Elusive Higgs Boson: Frank Close (#238)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2022

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frank Close is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics, and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College. He was formerly Head of Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, vice President of the British Science Association and Head of Communications and Public Understanding at CERN. He was awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for his 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics' in 1996, an OBE for 'services to research and the public understanding of science in 2000, and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science in 2013. He is the only professional physicist to have won a British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. Author of 20 books about science, the latest "Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass", marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs Boson. On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs’s work did. Topics Discussed Include: The mystique and character of Peter Higgs A brief history of CERN and the LHC The influence of Freeman Dyson. What part did the Nobel Prize play in motivating Peter Higgs? A brief history of particle physics and super-colliders. The Large Electron Positron (LEP) Collider, precursor to the LHC. The Nobel Prize for the Higgs Boson: Was it given fairly? Who deserves credit? Frank's advice to his younger self for going into the impossible. 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 A New Contender is Here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6A6myur--c Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Weinstein and Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sheldon Glashow: https://youtu.be/a0_iaWgxQtA?sub_confirmation=1 Neil deGrasse Tyson https://youtu.be/1kxgK6J4S5Y Michio Kaku: https://youtu.be/3to9ymn-XKI Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Be my friend: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast.php A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/ Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating Produced by Brian Keating & Stuart Volkow P.G.A Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The same advice I'll give to the students right here and now that are coming through their PhDs.

0:11.0

There's going to be a time in the future when the textbooks will be filled with stuff that is yet to be discovered.

0:20.0

Somebody has to discover it. Why not you?

0:26.0

Welcome everyone to another phenomenal unparalleled edition of the Into the Impossible Podcast featuring yours truly, Dr. Brian Keening,

0:36.8

slowly emerging from the pandemic bunker in which I have dwelled, emerging only to check my shadow and to talk with genius guests.

0:48.0

Like today's guest.

0:51.4

Frank Close, an order of the British Empire member. I think that makes him a night. I'm not sure. It's all very difficult, what they do over there.

1:01.0

He's a fellow of the Royal Society, a particle physicist,

1:04.1

and emeritus professor of physics at the University of Oxford, author of a dozen books, including

1:09.3

Half Life, the Infinity Puzzle, and more, and this book is about an anomaly.

1:15.0

A particle named after a person.

1:17.6

No other basic particle physics that we have is named after a person and it's slightly ironic as we discuss because Higgs himself Peter Higgs who is knighted now

1:28.5

hates the fact or at least originally hated the fact that he got so much attention. In fact, on the day of the

1:34.0

announcement in the Nobel Committee called to tell him he had won the prize, Higgs was

1:37.5

off dining at a restaurant without a cell phone, so he could not be found and that was

1:41.6

very much by design.

1:43.0

I found a Frank's biography incredibly interesting and wonderful for us to bring to you.

1:50.0

So this is a controversial episode.

1:52.0

This has a lot of commentary from people on Twitter

1:55.3

and on YouTube about the propriety of the prize

1:58.3

being awarded to just two individuals.

2:00.0

And I pressed Frank about that.

...

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