Today I've been preparing for a talk that i'll be giving tomorrow: it's for high school students that are visiting the University, and my title is 10 reasons why I love nuclear physics.
Well, the title I was given was 10 reasons why I like nuclear physics, but of course I had to change the like into a love; I guess with me there's no in between - I either love something, or I hate it, and I love nuclear physics <3
- the idea of the atom is really a philosophical and "simple" idea
- the atom is more or less all empty space
- the nuclear force is the strongest one we know of - when we release it, fascinating (and scary) things can happen
- things are strange: mass can become energy, and energy can become mass (Einstein, Einstein, Einstein)
- nuclear power is environmental friendly: 1.053 grams of uranium-235 that all fission release the same amount of energy as if you burn 4 tons of coal
- nuclear power is the safest way (of all) of producing power, but interestingly that isn't the common perception
- it's all kind of mysterious - the nucleus radiates, and there's a lot of fear around this, but all in all it's "just" energy 🙂
- knowledge that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction can also be used to cure cancer <3
- it's still sooo much we don't understand; 100 years after Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus, we are still doing extremely similar experiments
- the study of (some of) the smallest things (the nucleus) is suddenly the same as studying the biggest things (big explosions in space)
I have to get up super early tomorrow morning, to finish my slides, so I think I'll just say good night, and sleep tight <3<3<3