2008.01.24 Symmetry - by Daniel Osmer & Robert Porter, Ph.D.

Review:

Last week Daniel Osmer and Robert Porter did a two-part medicine show that was more or less impromptu because the scheduled speaker was called away. The scheduled topic was yin-yang in science so R & D quickly produced a talk about Symmetry, which was portrayed to be relevant to yin-yang. Osmer referred back to the talk he gave on symmetry a few weeks ago and Porter focused on the effects of symmetry in electricity: magnetic and electric fields, and positive and negative polarities in electric charge.

Daniel showed a well-done Nova video about CERN, the huge particle accelerator in Europe. This trillion-volt monster examines the symmetries of sub-nuclear phenomena by smashing them into ever-tinier bits, which are pretty tiny to begin with, eh? Porter showed a less dramatic but still entertaining video about a very simple machine that generates "ten or twenty kilovolts" from mere dripping water. The audience was fascinated until they found out that Porter would not reveal how it works. But he escaped without harm. "Soreheads", he said as he headed for a bar.