Truth and Uncertainty in Particle Physics | Doctor Steve Mrenna

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This lecture was given on July 15th, 2023, at the "Thomistic Philosophy & Natural Science Symposium" at the Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Dr. Steve Mrenna is a scientist and particle theorist at the Fermi National Accelerator Science Laboratory, a premier U.S. particle physics lab. He is a contributor to the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Dr. Mrenna works closely with Monte Carlo event generators, which are computer programs that simulate the complex structure of particle beam collisions at high energies. He is one of the primary authors of the Pythia event generator, and works to develop critical components of data analysis to relate observed data to theoretical models in particle physics. His work is at the crucial intersection of theory and practice in modern physics.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.0	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.0	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.0	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:22.5	to mystic institute.org.
0:25.5	And despite all those accolades, I'm humbled to be here.
0:32.4	I have been charged to talk about what particle physicists do,
0:37.4	what they take to be true, and what they mean by uncertainty.
0:41.3	If you look closely at the practice of particle physicists, I believe you will find that the meaning of truth is not far from the traditional one.
0:50.3	Truth is that which conforms to reality.
1:01.3	Reality means those objects or entities or relations that are the subject of experimental investigation.
1:03.2	Particle physics is not just interested in cataloging these things, but in understanding
1:08.3	the causes behind them.
1:10.7	My focus is not on those objects or entities or relations,
1:15.5	though some background is necessary.
1:18.2	Instead, my focus is on truth and uncertainty.
1:22.4	Given the finiteness of our measurement devices and methods,
1:26.5	our formulation of the laws of physics, and our
1:29.8	interaction with the natural world, what statements can we make about those objects or entities
1:36.4	or relations that are true? Let me begin with a story about discovery in particle physics, one from your lifetime.
1:46.3	Even this brief story is laden with jargon, and one goal of this talk is to make what I say
1:52.8	comprehensible to other scientists, and I hope, philosophers of science.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Thomistic Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Thomistic Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.