The Chicago Council on Science and Technology Presents
Street Corner Science: Ask a Nobel Laureate
On Sunday, June 6, Nobel Prize winning Physicist, Dr. Leon Lederman, along with the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, set up shop outside of the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue to answer all kinds of questions about the natural world.
Questions are now closed.
Dr. Lederman:
I am an Education Developer at the Chicago Children’s Museum. We are developing a Physical Science exhibit for children ages 0-10-years-old. Based on our research we found that when exploring the physical world they:
-Build and/or Destroy
- Launch
- Mix
- Take apart
- Test extremes
Think back to when you were a child, did you “play” in the physical world in this way? If yes, what were some of the things that you did? What other ways did you play as a child?
Thank you.
Dr. Lederman: My older brother and I used physics and chemistry sets, supplemented by local drug and harware stores, to connect the family basement to a plausible research laboratory. Explosions were frequent.
Comment by Mia — June 7, 2010 @ 4:07 pm
[...] “Street Corner Science” gave passers-by outside the Wrigley Building the opportunity to “Ask a Nobel Laureate” any question about science, technology, or the natural [...]
Pingback by Street Corner, River Front Science, by Steven Dahlman « Chicago Council on Science and Technology — June 7, 2010 @ 8:59 pm
Dr. Lederman:
I have two questions. The first I believe is more important because the world that we live in today could not exist without science, particularly our advances in technology. So my question is this: Why do you think science is important?
Dr. Lederman: The national annual investment in science comes to tens of billions of dollars devoted to research and development. This yields huge medical and economic returns to the nation.
Secondly, science is about the observation of the world around us and the resulting formulations of explanations. As such, do you think that the anthropic principle is rooted in science or a leap of faith in part of the scientists?
Dr. Lederman: More towards “leap of faith”.
-Thank you
Comment by Conan — June 7, 2010 @ 10:55 pm
Hello Dr. Lederman
The clock ran out and the heavens opened Sunday before I could ask you my question within Einstein’s special relativity. Sidewalk Science is a great idea, and I hope you will repeat it another day.
In lieu of my original question, I am substituting a request to help advance a certain activity whose goal I suspect would be dear to your heart.
You are someone who takes actions to encourage more young people and adults to become interested in science.
I am someone who
- has had an emotional relationship with the figure of Albert Einstein since I was 6 years old, 66 years ago,
- for 40 years has been dreaming about introducing non-technical people to Einstein’s contributions to science.
There is overlap here.
Since recently retiring, I have made good headway into building a path to my dream.
I have always excelled in demystifying technical topics for non-technical people.
1. Around the time that Fermilab was discovering top quark, I repeatedly gave my one-day seminar to your Fermilab computer programmers and analysts (staff and students) who were having difficulty making a radical paradigm shift into a new way of thinking about software development (“object orientation”).
2. During the international Hoopla surrounding Einstein’s 100th Birthday, I and a cosmology colleague at Loyola University organized the Albert Einstein Fan Club. For several years afterward, we held wonderful monthly meetings around Einstein whose audiences were mostly non-technical men and women.
Since recently retiring, I have diligently been spending the past 6 months
1. deepening my understanding of special relativity,
2. analyzing the barriers in typical expositions that make learning special relativity more difficult than it need be, and
3. writing an exposition free of these barriers, which I believe will lessen the learning curve.
So my “question” (request) to you is- Can you suggest someone who would be interested in tracking what I am doing and giving me quality feedback?
Dr. Lederman, thank you in advance for any assistance you might give to me and to the common cause.
Sincerely,
Frank Sternberg, Ph.D. (Math)
Comment by Frank Sternberg — June 8, 2010 @ 1:24 am
(a) In a gasoline powered car, I’m pretty sure that larger wheels improve the mpg on the highway and reduce it in the city. What would a rough draft of a formula look like that predicts cost/improvement of, say, 14 inch wheels versus 16 inch wheels?
(b) Would the highway/city differential be a wash in a hybrid vehicle?
Dr. Lederman: Not sure…would need to ask an expert on hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles.
Comment by peter — June 8, 2010 @ 9:59 am