Just want to stop by and say that Sixty Symbols was the reason I gained an interest in physics and the sciences. I don't come from a background where I would have ever thought I had what it takes to study anything, let alone something that seems so complicated. But the accessibility of the topics and the way you all present them pushed me to get my degree. Just about to start my Masters in Astrophysics. Thank you!
@@mikefelber5129 Exactly. Science at school was so dull, but the way it was presented here is always so interesting and the enthusiasm of the experts is infectious!
I absolutely love these calm videos with Professor Ed talking about possible new discoveries. They're perfect for a quiet watch during breakfast or right before bed.
I think that remark is the physicist equivalent to an EULA disclaimer: "This answer constitutes our current best understanding, but may change without notice." :-)
He didn't actually answer it. He talked about how most of the mass of the proton is mostly in the gluon binding energy. What I expected to hear is that charge and baryon number conservation prevent the electron and proton from simply going away as there is nothing lighter than them but with the same charges that they could decay into, and there is no antimatter around to annihilate them (The tough question here is "Why is there so little antimatter?"). His answer is only remotely related to that: The proton doesn't decay because the quarks themselves are light so they have nothing to decay into. But all he said is that quarks are not very massive without mentioning how that is related to their stability. Probably this connection is so second nature to him that he didn't think the viewers can't make the same connection.
What an exceptional video. Calm (almost) understandable presentation by the best on RU-vid, and incisive questions. It doesn’t get much better than this. Thanks to both of you.
I would say borderline metaphysics. The last half of he video you can see Prof. Copeland having a hard tIme resisting the urge to say "I don't know, we have insufficient data to derive a meaningful answer."
I love the Professor Ed Copeland vids. He manages to explain these immensely complicated experiments and results in a way someone like me who just enjoys learning can almost understand
This was a super interesting episode. You got more into the weeds than usual and I love it. Professor Copeland is fantastic at explaining things in an understandable way without dropping too much of the complexities.
Well, I like the man, too. His enthusiasm and happiness with science is quite lovely. But... There's something about his voice that puts me into a trance and I fall asleep.
I love it when the professors get a question from Brady and you can tell they think it's a really good question, something that sounds simple but really drives to a core concept. Brady, you're an excellent interviewer.
A fascinating video. Prof Copland was brilliant in not only being able to explain the research behind the X-17 particle in a simple, easy to understand way but also in being totally unfazed by some of the tough and relevant questions being put to him by Brady.
Great video. Well balanced views from Ed. It gives people some insights as to how we push back the edge of knowledge in the sciences. As well as the specifics around this particular particle and it’s existence or not. More of this sort of stuff please. Slightly longer format and a chance to go through some of the evidence.
This is by far the best material on this topic. I'm in the direct neighborhood of the Institute where the experiment was done. Still, Prof. Copeland and Brady did a way better job explaining the thing than any other resource I've seen on the topic. Thanks a lot!
Finally another video with Ed Copeland. I waited so long to see some more content with him. I just love his calm and precise way of presenting content. Great.
Ed Copeland did a fantastic job in this interview even when there is clearly quite a limited amount known about X17. Very clear and interesting explanations
LOVE this video. A difficult topic broached with not much assumption beyond high-school physics - yet it exists on the cutting edge of nuclear and particle physics. Very impressed with the quality and straight-forward questions too. Really reflecting and representing the layman viewer without dumbing anything down. Would love to see a follow-up to this video should more information come to light 😀
Triple-alpha process in large stars creates temporary a lot of Beryllium-8 and helium 4 in an excited state , it could then create a lot of x17 if it is real
That would be exciting! Not sure whether Be-8 has more than one excited state in that energy range. And one couldn't detect it at all, sadly. It wouldn't make any observable difference.
New video... I'm happy. I'm a simple man. Thanks for making these supremely nerdy videos. I love all of them, even though I'm too dumb to grasp most of the underlying concepts and I have to re-watch each one 3 times to really get any point... I try to fool myself into thinking I actually understand physics and what these nerds are saying. I don't. But I can't stop watching them. I don't know why. Does anyone else here love these videos despite having no formal education in physics and science? I imagine everyone watching these already knows a ton about science.
If there was a particle with a mass of 17 MeV, how has it been missed all these years? An accelerator that produces enough energy to produce this is not a difficult thing.
@@puppetsock If the particle is protophobic, there are very few experiments which could actually observe it. Also, it's production cross section should be low enough that some experiments simply won't have enough data to see it (this is particularly the case for nuclear physics experiments, some old experiments could have seen it, but they didn't have enough statistics). Our current accelerators could indeed be used to look for it, and there will be many experiments looking for particles like it in the coming years.
The ability of science to speak of such hypotheticals in such great detail while still fiercely holding onto the notion that they might not exist at all is what makes it such a mature subject. The ability to admit one might be mistaken is not a trait that comes easily to us humans. It is a sign of maturity, humility, and wisdom when we see it in those around us when it comes to our own personalities and when applied to ourselves. And I think the same proves true for other endeavours we take part in.
What a great interview! I could listen to this all day. I’ve become super interested in the discovery of new particles and it’s been difficult to find anything that discusses all the “exotic” particles we’ve discovered so far? I’m curious if there are any videos or sites that provide a list or collection of the “exotic” particles we’ve discovered so far? I’d like to understand what we’ve seen so far and what the probability of finding even more elementary particles (I’m looking at you, dark matter!) I think I’m up to speed with elementary particles, but would like to see more on the exotic quark combinations (tetraquarks, mesons, etc) Any thoughts on where I might find anything that covers these particles or discusses them? Thanks again, Sixty Symbols!
Could the decay also be done in reverse? Like firing Electrons and Positrons into each other in order to create X and verify its existence by the following decay into another Electron-Positron pair that comes out in a certain angle?
Ed - thanks for sharing your insights. Agree another experiment really needed, or another couple. I am extremely surprised it has not been done. Anyway, I will stay tuned. Great interview. Thanks.
I love it when something just makes intuitive sense in physics. the hugh momentum particles firing off electrons in a narrow angle makes so much sense.
Again I'm reminded of the fact that if you love something and your explaining it comes from you heart, you can explain even very complicated things to a layman, or a child. The subjects like chemistry or physics, that many people hate in high school are actually awesome but our relationships with these fields are created by the teachers. If someone just read aloud from the text book and doesn't have a real love and inner understanding for his/her field then how can they pass the love for it onto another? What Brady facilitates is amazing because all these people live it, love it and can bring it down and talk about it on levels which gets everyone captivated. I don't know if this quote of Einstein is true but even if it wasn't it makes the perfect sense: If you cannot explain advanced physics to a child then you don't understand physics :o)
Lovely presentation and fascinating topic, thank you. Can anyone explain to me why the emitted photon is referred to as being "virtual"? It does seem to carry away a specific amount of momentum and result in the creation of a known amount of mass upon decay. Is this photon detectable other than by these decay products? Lastly, are there any other examples of proto-phobic type behavior for non-charged species?
Another fantastic discussion. Professor Copeland gives great answers and Brady asks great questions as always! My personal opinion is that the fields in the Standard Model are complete and correct to explain all low-energy physics. However, now that the dangling carrot of SUSY has been removed, new ways of understanding the Standard Model are required to explain nature.
Wonderful interview - probing questions, well-articulated answers a layman can hope to follow, at least for a little way down the particle physics rabbit hole. Thanks!
Isn't lithium 7 a problematic isotope already in regards to the big bang? Would this help to explain why the big bang models are messing up on the abundance problem of lithium 7 observed?
Another great conversation, but I wish you'd pushed him to answer your brilliant question about why matter particles stick around for so long. As you point out, they're just excitations of fields so you'd expect their existence to be very fleeting.
physicist : we found a new thing that is so small u will never see it and so complex u will never understand it me , not a physicist : my understanding of reality is fundamentally altered now
me, a writer: Did I heard dark matter? Well, now I got the fictive birth date for one of my characters. 10/17 it will be, no matter if that X17 thing exists really or not.
If I understood Dr. Copeland correctly, future experiments should place anomalous materials under a powerful anti-mass spectrometer, deviating from standard analysis procedures if necessary
Like so many other things this seems to come back to the fact that we don't have a general theory of how the strength of the known fields relative to one another are set- what determines the coupling constants etc. What's the "field of fields" all about? If we had some idea of how that works we might be able to know how many fields there can be in our spacetime... and if we've found all of them. And if we haven't, how to look for them.
I also did research on matter but in a theoretical way. I discovered that there is a limitless quantity of different existing things and a limitless amount of every different existing thing (means a limitless universe) I even wrote a scientific book about it. And now I tell about my work that the answer why there's something rather than nothing etc. is there.
Interesting Video. We rarely hear about the interactions within major particles and their quarks and gluons. Make a video talking about those interactions. How gluons interact, and hold it all together in a proton. Usually all we get is Proton consists of xyz quarks etc.. but rarely do we get info on these interactions.
How about an episode on de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley (dRGT) massive gravity? There has been lots of buzz about it in the media last month. But RU-vid videos on it are either too simple or too hard to understand.
Absolutely love Ed as well as the Sixty Symbols videos! I think there may have been an editing error this time though- the title cards seem to be displaying a weird flashing behavior :o