The Photon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, the fundamental particle associated with light.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, one of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. Generations of scientists have struggled to understand the nature of light. In the late nineteenth century it seemed clear that light was an electromagnetic wave. But the work of physicists including Planck and Einstein shed doubt on this theory. Today scientists accept that light can behave both as a wave and a particle, the latter known as the photon. Understanding light in terms of photons has enabled the development of some of the most important technology of the last fifty years.
With:
Frank Close
Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford
Wendy Flavell
Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester
Susan Cartwright
Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
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LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Reading listΜύ
Frank Close, The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe (Basic Books, 2013)
Richard Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin, 1990)
Manjit Kumar, Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality (Icon Books Ltd, 2009)
Useful websites
- UNESCO
celebrates the International Year of Light
Μύ- Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ NewsΜύ
Μύ- Nature
- Nobel Prizes
(awarded for developing ground-breaking methods for measuring and manipulating single photons)ΜύΜύΜύΜύ
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Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Melvyn Bragg |
Interviewed Guest | Frank Close |
Interviewed Guest | Wendy Flavell |
Interviewed Guest | Susan Cartwright |
Producer | Thomas Morris |
Broadcasts
- Thu 12 Feb 2015 09:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Thu 12 Feb 2015 21:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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