2009-01-16

2008-07-03 (Lindau Day 5)

Today theme was optics in the early morning and more to general science in the late morning. Dr. Glaser started his lecture by showing us the 2-dot apparent motion, he demonstrated that the human vision can be manipulated to observe what actually was not there, and this is commonly known as optical illusion. I was too busy trying his optical illusion until I forgot to take photos of his slides. He studied about how human eyes and brain coordinated and functioned, and further manipulated its mechanism to create optical illusion. It was very interesting as this would mean that we are studying our brain, the part of our human body that we understand the least.

Another interesting Nobel Laureate. Dr. Bloembergen said that he was not so good with power point presentation; therefore he used an old and nostalgic way for his presentation, the overhead projector (OHP)! He reminded me about the time I was studying in the University, copying notes from the OHP slides.

(Side note: He was the only one that uses OHP in the lecture series. Later when I chat with one of the participants, she actually understands it better than some of the other lectures. Some time, we do not need fancy stuff to teach a student better.)

OHP.

I always like quantum physics but I am just bad in it. Therefore, I actually took many photos when Dr. Glauber presented his lecture titled “the individuality of light quanta”. Quantum physics supplemented the old Maxwell theory by treating light as individual particles, otherwise known as light quanta. He was very focused in presenting his lecture until he never notice that the host actually was behind him to remind him time is up.

Sorry, time's up.

You will definitely love Dr. Osheroff if you know him better. He discovered superfluidity in helium-3 together with his supervisors. He showed his log book to tell us that he made his discovery at 2.40am. (You really need passion to become a physicist.) Since his topic was discussing how advances in science are made, he gave some strategies to us on how should experiment be done and what should be your altitude in your research work.

(Side note: Every one is telling me that a log book is really important.)

 Another 2am discovery.

Dr. Josephson gave a confusing talk and many did not understand what actually he was trying to convey. Nevertheless, I guessed he was trying to give a new perspective of defining physics as now, with new emerging nanoscience, the inter-disciplinary boundary started to faint.

I had heard of the name from my course mate way before I came to the Lindau Meeting. He was another famous person in the realm of theoretical physics, Prof. Dr. Gerardus ‘t Hooft. At least, his name is special to me.

 ‘t Hooft.

During the scientific discussion, Dr. Osheroff shared his discovery journey with us. He also spoke a few Chinese words, well, this was not strange at all as his wife was from Taiwan. I later joined Dr. Glauber’s room but the discussion content was too difficult to me and I finally moved to Prof. Dr. Gerardus ‘t Hooft. I found out that Dr. ‘t Hooft was actually answering the participants by order of question paper handed to him.

The night was dedicated to the state of Bavaria. Besides the Bavarian dance that started the opening ceremony, the Bavaria state government was also promoting the Elite Network of Bavaria, a coordinated education programme that aimed to attract international elite to pursue postgraduate studies in education institute located within Bavaria. Four of the students benefited under this programme were given a chance to actually present in front of the Nobel Laureates! Since it was the last night in Lindau, the get together dinner actually lasted very late as everyone seems like grabbing the last chance to social and did not want to go home, neither do I.

(Side note: After chatting with some Germans, they did not understand why Bavarians are so proud of their cultures and traditions, and further called themselves Bavarians. After all, they are still Germans, and those cultures and traditions are part of Germans.)

 Traditional Bavarian dance.

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