The Life Scientific: Sir Michael Berry

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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 down and dropping it, or parallel parking a car.

Presenter: Jim Al-Khalili Studio Producer: Tom Bonnett Audio Editor: Gerry Holt Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

Transcript

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0:29.2	World of Secrets, season 2, investigates allegations surrounding one of the most powerful religious figures of the 21st century, TB Joshua.
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0:43.0	Hello, sometimes ideas in physics can feel so abstract that they border on philosophy,
0:51.0	concepts like higher dimensional space or time ceasing to exist, subatomic particles
0:56.7	behaving like waves.
0:58.9	Often it's when someone comes up with the simple analogy to explain these ideas that we can get, if not the full picture,
1:05.6	at least a glimmer of understanding. This is particularly true in the area of science that my
1:10.9	guest today, and yours truly work in theoretical physics.
1:15.6	Please don't turn off. As well as being one of the most respected physicists in the world
1:20.0	today, Sir Michael Berry continues the tradition of making complex ideas accessible.
1:26.5	In his hands even the blurred edges of a rainbow or the way light dances on the bottom of a swimming
1:31.9	pool can reveal deep mathematical
	...

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