Description:

Sir Michael Berry
Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus)
H H Wills Physics Laboratory
University of Bristol, UK

"How quantum physics democratized music: a meditation on physics and technology"

Abstract: Connections between physics and technological invention and aspects of human life that seem far from science are both unexpected and unexpectedly common. And rather than flowing one way - from physics to gadgets - the connections form an intricate web, linking all aspects of human culture, in unexpected ways that frustrate our convenient compartmentalisations and coarse interventions aimed at promoting technology transfer. I will discuss this theme not abstractly but with examples, ranging from music to the colour of gold, and explain how quantum physics helps me do quantum physics (sic).




Keywords: Physcis, Astronomy, Heilborn