At the 2012 Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, physics was on the agenda. The popular topic was particle physics because during the meeting, scientists at CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs particle. To recap on all the Lindau coverage you can check out our reports from the conference, including Storifys and photos, here.
Throughout the conference, the Nature Video team were on hand to capture some of these valuable moments. For example they filmed George Smoot and Martinus Veltman as they digested the news from CERN with three young researchers.
The other films deal with the relationship between theory and experiment, the state of science education, the looming energy crisis, so make sure you check them out!
Film 1: A golden age? with Brian Schmidt and John Mather
The Hubble Space Telescope has shown us distant galaxies and planets orbiting other stars, deepening our knowledge of the Universe. Nobel prizewinner John Mather works on Hubble’s replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope. He believes we are in a golden age of astronomy. But the young researchers he meets are not convinced. There are too many unanswered questions, they say. For example: what’s causing the accelerated expansion of the Universe? Hear how Mather and fellow laureate Brian Schmidt, who first observed this expansion, handle their queries.
Film 2: The energy endgame with Mario Molina and Robert Laughlin
In the next 100 years or so, we will run out of fossil fuels. In this film, Nobel laureates Mario Molina and Robert Laughlin challenge three young physicists to think seriously about the energy endgame and their children’s futures. Molina believes we can solve the looming crisis through international collaboration – as happened after he showed that CFCs were damaging the ozone layer. Laughlin disagrees. He wants engineering solutions, and says nations will go to war unless we find them.
Film 3: Is dark matter real? with George Smoot and Martinus Veltman
The morning after CERN announces the discovery of the Higgs particle, three young physicists sit down with Nobel prizewinners George Smoot and Martinus Veltman to digest the news. The students see it as another success for the standard model of particle physics. But Veltman, who helped to shape this model, is cynical. Moreover, Veltman contends that there is no such thing as dark matter. See how the shocked students and Smoot respond to Veltman’s scepticism.
The 5 films will be published between 19 September and 10 October, so stay tuned. You can also check out last year’s videos here.