How to make an apple pie from scratch - Dr Harry Cliff
We have teamed up with other Skeptics in the Pub Groups across the UK to deliver online talks during the pandemic....and we are still going strong!
Live event link: https://www.twitch.tv/sitp
This is the first of a series of events we are calling Skeptics in the Collider where we will be hearing from a selection of scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.
In the 1980 smash-hit science documentary series Cosmos, Carl Sagan quipped that “if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe”. Particle physicist Harry Cliff is mad that Sagan never followed up on the idea and so has spent the last two years attempting to write the ultimate apple pie recipe. Tracing the ingredients of an apple pie from today right back to the B of the Big Bang, Harry takes us on a tour of our current understanding of the basic building blocks of our universe and their cosmic origins. As we approach the birth of the universe, we discover that our most successful theories of particle physics tell us that the matter in our apple pie should never have existed in the first place. All attempts by physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider to resolve this conundrum have so far come up empty-handed, but could we finally be on the cusp of a deeper understanding of the origin of matter? And how far back can we ultimately go in understanding the very first moments of our universe? Harry will (attempt to) explain.
Harry is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the LHCb experiment, a huge particle detector buried 100 metres underground at CERN near Geneva. He is a member of an international team of around 1400 physicists, engineers and computer scientists who are using LHCb to study the basic building blocks of our universe, in search of answers to some of the biggest questions in modern physics. He also spends a big chunk of his time trying to share his love of physics with the public. He's just finished his first popular science book, How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch, which will be published in August 2021. From 2012 to 2018 he held a joint post between Cambridge and the Science Museum in London, where he curated two major exhibitions: Collider (2013) and The Sun (2018). He particularly enjoys talking about science in person and has given a large number of public talks, including at TED and the Royal Institution, alongside appearances on television, radio and podcasts.
About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking. New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have. A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337 You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat. You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though. More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://sitp.online/online-safety
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