Today was the day for theoretical physicists. I could felt Khai Ming’s excitement as well, even though he did not show it explicitly. For some unknown reasons, Prof. Dr. Cronin's presentation was canceled. But the transition went well, Prof. Dr. Riccardo Giacconi started the talk on astrophysics and later Prof. Dr. George Smoot told us about the big bang and the development that finally formed the universe we had today. His presentation was rather multimedia rich, showing us many animations such as the view of the stars from our galactic plane, and the development of our universe. (Sorry, only photo available here, too amazed.)
Every time, the coffee break turned out to be a water war for me, because I had to rush to the serving counter to grab those fast-finishing still water. Carbonated water was not my taste (although I was used to it by now). Prof. Dr. Veltman and Prof. Dr. David Gross were the next two Nobel Laureates who gave the participants lectures on particle physics. I should not forget to mention that Prof. Dr. Veltman was the PhD advisor for Prof. Dr. 't Hooft, who presented the following day.
Dr. Veltman
Dr. Veltman told us about the development of particle accelerators, from linear to ring, and also the prospect of particle physics. Of course, he had described the Large Hadron Collider (most popularly known as LHC of CERN), the highest energy particle accelerator ever made. On the other hand, Dr. Gross gave more on the aspect of the theoretical model of the particle physics. The standard model divides the elementary particles into leptons, quarks, and force carriers. The numbers are actually quite symmetry but the physicists had no clear idea how each particles obtained their mass, in other words the theory was not complete. Many theories had been proposed, and the most successful being the Higgs mechanism. One of the LHC objectives was to observe the existence of the Higgs particle predicted by the theory. I guessed that every theoretical physicists, like Dr. Gross, Dr. Veltman and Khai Ming, were anticipating the experimental results of the LHC.
The Standard Model.
It was rather odd to have the theme suddenly shift to climate change after heavy series of astrophysics and particle physics. Prof. Dr. Jack Steinberger actually mentioned that he was not an expert in this field in the earlier panel discussion. However, from his discussion, you could see that he analysed every graphs and figures he used for his presentation, there were markings and writings on the slides, which included comparisons and comments. This is why physicists are needed in nearly every field: they have great analytical and problem solving skills.
Climate change in the midst of particles.
I went to Dr. Gross’ discussion session first. It was located at a place away from the Inselhalle. The response was spectacular. Let me elaborate further, we actually moved to the tent, the place we had our lunch and dinner, simply because the crowd was just too large for the old venue. The participants were like pouring questions on string theory to Dr. Gross. It was quite interesting for me and I stayed there for quite some time, but finally I moved to Dr. Smoot’s room, which I did not understand much. Finally, I went to Dr. Veltman’s talk but it was finished. Then, a one-in-a-lifetime moment happened, which I will never forget. Before Dr. Veltman left the hall, I went to him and asked him the same question I like to ask. He had his hand over my shoulder, and it was like a father to son talk, he stressed that we should NEVER work because of the Nobel Prize, but instead because it is interesting physics.
(Side note: Dr. Veltman and me were walking and met Countess Bettina, the short yet memorable conversation later took place among three of us.)
Celebrity.
The night is even better. All participants, including the Nobel Laureates, were invited to a concert at the City Theatre. The presenters were the musicians from the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra. This small group of seven were just like us, truly international. They came from Serbia, Turkey, France, USA/Israel, China, and Poland. Something interesting to note, after the performance was finished, we kept on clapping our hands until the performers reappeared on the stage and responded our clapping as a hint of encore. It happened twice. After the show and a photo taking session, we headed back to our hotel for another day.
What does physics and music have in common?
Carbonated water?
Price: 50 Euro cents. Result: a satisfied young man.
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