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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2016-05-24
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARWBdfWpDyc
so have you ever had this experience having a chat with someone and they're telling you something about a subject to very interested in all they know a lot of facts and you're following along and then at some stage you realize you kind of lost the thread of what they're saying and then you're signing there you realize for absolutely no idea what they're talking about I hope
this a recently with a friend who knows about investing and it's something I don't know a huge demands of arts but isn't important or useful information but he started talking about kind of diversified investment portfolio blah IBM's unfortunate I went away with with no useful information so I think it's a situation we all are familiar with and unfortunate things you can do to improve the situation
which is why I'm going to talk about today so I'm a scientist I work in the area of quantum physics and so I've been on both sides of this kind of interaction they've both been the guy explaining very complicated material to someone but also been on the receiving end of lots of very kind of intense scientific discussions with my colleagues and when this kind of breakdown
of communication happens I've noticed something interesting which is that as a person who stopped understanding you feel kind of guilty about it but if you think about it this is completely wrong it's the wrong way ran because at that point in time this evening nothing you can do to understand better but there is something that the other person can do to help you understand by finding
a better wave explaining what they're talking and so %HESITATION during my experience in science I find that the only way to survive was to come to have the courage says politely stop a person who is explaining say I'm sorry I don't understand what you're saying and then try and go back and start off from minor but lost the thread and it does take a bit of
courage stew this could you kind of admitting that you don't know you know the subject but but I think that's okay insights my fears were completely on warranted generate Terry people respect you if you care about much of buyers you know knowing the right information or care about like understanding so I think we should never ever feel bad about not knowing something and we should never
feel bad about asking questions so I do a lot of science communication and science really has this communication issue with it because generally the subject math series is very complex and you don't know scientists are always complaining about higher with their research is being misrepresented by the media like %HESITATION drinking wine chills comes it totally doesn't %HESITATION but on the other hand you can kind of
understand her journalists we'll maybe oversimplifies things look at things wrong because explain cutting edge cutting edge research you kind of need a PhD in the subject beforehand and it's not something we can expect inner the media journalists to have in all the different scientific so I think it will be very well served by a whole load of people who read to read good at science communication
people who understand the science but could also explain it in a way that the general public understands I'm and this is important for many reasons but one reason is you might know that just about all the science research that goes on around the world is publicly funded so it be nice if the general public that she understand the work that money is going towards but for
me from the even more important a reason that science communication is is good is because it's also interesting the research going on so fascinating it be nice if people could access it take my field for example quantum physic I think quantum physics to be deeply interesting subjects but it's one that gets this reputation of being incredibly difficult and that's that's fair it it's it gets complicated
entertainments petite but it doesn't mean you come talk about it a toll so let me get a show of hands to put your hand up if you don't know what quantum physics is and if you don't don't feel bad about it raise your hand you know %HESITATION yet ignorance is totally fine okay occurred right so contemplate aches is %HESITATION the description of the smallest things in
our universe so if you zoom right times smaller than so stands at the scale of molecules items and things items made of you know subatomic particles protons neutrons electrons this describes her they'll work most heavy interrupt it's light and the interesting thing about Constance's exes it's like the fundamental ruse rules of the universe us and yet the things that happen that is so very strange so
%HESITATION tell you a few of the phenomena that go on in quantity one you might have heard of is cooled PAASCU wave duality Sir you can imagine all the subatomic particles these protons neutrons electrons like little principles got a band singer and bouncing off each but sometimes you have to treat them as like spread out way needs and they kind of do both at the same
time which is hard for us to imagine so open a picture imagine dropping one of these principles into like upon of warts bull would disappear and then you get these recalls going Arabs over the surface not much of one of the rituals hits say a stick all of the riffles on the surface desert area and by that sticks on the bicycle club site again this kind
of strange for a city far right this is the kind of behavior that goes on in the subatomic gravel the time another phenomena you might've heard is cool quantum tunneling so imagine answering one of these principles against the window to be like banks I'm sorry throw parents catch throw parents catch throw it's gone completely through the window it's not smashed it it's not interacted with it
Butthole it's a Sunday on the other side window and you can see it flying away every so that we think it was crazy right but this goes on of sub took room all the time in fact is the only reason we exist so you might know that in the sun it the way it generates energy is through nuclear fusion a nuclear fusion when it is way
too high in lessons come together in the protons in the nucleus banks of each that he was of quantum tunneling the pants off each other and nothing would have what actually happens is the quantum tunnel into each other that's what let's confuse and release the sunlight and we have some lights we wouldn't exist so we can find quantum tunneling for our existence another phenomena is called
superposition it's a very fancy word but all it means is something that can do opposite things at the same time so for example I can spin around one way I can spin around the other way but what would it look like to me to spin around in both directions at the same time we come to you that we can't imagine that this is what the subatomic
particles to all the time in fact we can kind of do it at least bits of us crammed so if you've ever been in an MRI machine one MRI machine does is it finds all of the hydrogen atoms in your body it makes them spin around in both directions at the same time in this superb this is what allows us to see inside people's bodies so
it's interesting that all of this physics seems so kind of abstract and remote from our everyday experience and yet it's happening inside our bodies we've made of quantum stuff so it's happening everywhere around us and it's not just MRI machines that we've we use tech that like quantum physics for has been a whole host of other technologies that come about because of understanding of quantum so
one of those is our understanding of silica and allowed us to invent the silicon chip which is in every single computer in the world so the entire computing infrastructure of the world exists because of our understanding of quantum this and other things like lasers that quite useful and nuclear power plants and there's this other Sam but you might of heard a buyer Clinton's is that no
one really understands well that's actually wrong we do understand quantum physics very well and and you kind of hope that we did if it forms the technology of MRI machines of a nuclear power station what they mean when they say that is that when we turn Katrina had something that can be both a particle and wave at the same time something can spin around in two
directions at the same time we find very hard to pitch the ana heads but we can describe all very well using so it's fascinating that something can be so counterintuitive on one hand but yet can be so practically useful on the of so I really enjoy explaining science to people I make YouTube videos knows right kids books the age range and seven to eleven year old
and every like pushing myself I don't hold back on the science the like explaining the most complicated subjects of our age so quantum physics nanotechnology relativity rocket science those kind and come to the conclusion that you can pretty much explain anything to anybody as long as you go back to in the right way and I've come up with a set of principles I work by to
do that so I'm gonna share these with you so these are my four principles of good science commute and I say science but it can be any kind of technical communicate so number one starts off in the right place so everyone's got a different background everyone's got a different set of knowledge and it's our job to explain the information in terms that they already understand it's
no good leaving epitaph consulting from there because they not gonna follow along it's better to earn if only information from what they already understand and how do you do this well it's as simple as asking them questions about what they know we're even starting an explanation and asking your to get this or is that the inner it is this making any sense and if you're talking
to an audience you have to you know make your best gas in a show of hands can be useful is always better to err on the side of caution people generally don't mind hearing information of the ordinance okay principal to don't go too far down the rabbit hole young people can only take on a certain amount of information anyone time so and we have to just
be realistic about that suspended to explain say three things that someone will understand and remember rose in Paris them with a whole load of information that comes and does all of your good works to begin with so I could count on tokamak quantum physics but hopefully I gave you enough examples that kind of peak your interest and you can go away okay number three clarity beats
accuracy so when we're explaining things of examples the temptation is to give the most you know scientifically accurate explanation they tend to be very long kind of convoluted it's better to come up with a simpler explanation that maybe isn't completely technically correct but it gets the point across you mention that here and you and the complete explanation is here we want to do is just get
them along that pops so for example when us talking about Spain in quantum systems the truth is actually a little bit more abstract of spinning in in the subatomic particles but when I tell you it is good picture and you know if people still interested you can always I acted details later number four explain why you think it's cool if you're explaining something to someone you
know there's a reason why you're doing it eva eva you think it's super important very very interesting and the more that you can convey that to someone the more likely they are to remember it and kind of get somebody from and you can do this in many ways one way system show your you know enthusiasm for the subject and other ways to show you some examples
that's relevant to their lives so for example quantum physics every time you turn on your your phone you're invoking the fundamental laws of the universe to do your bidding as you tweak photos of your cats so there's my full print so just like to leave on an annex towards when I meet people for the first time and I introduced myself semi physicist I get one reaction
more common Lee than any other Chris like who physics ours rubbish of physics in school I'm it happened so often it's such a shame you know science shouldn't be about whether you're good at it on Niles it should only be about whether your interest and so if you find science intimidating or you have fine science intimidating I just encourage you there's so much good information out
