Talk to the Future
On November 11st, students in Hangzhou Foreign Language School listened to a meaningful and fascinating speech presented by Frank Wilczik, who was the Nobel Prize Winner in 2004.
The topic was ‘Talk to the future’. At the beginning, he told us that he would separated this speech into 2 sections,
- Future technology
- About his own 'babies' -- those inventions which he was proud of.
He started by showing a picture, though we couldn't actually see a figure in it. What he wanted to demonstrate was,future expectations, an Enhanced Sensoria. Nowadays we human beings can only see the colors that arefrom a combination of three original colors. However, most insects and birds have better ability to see colors than human beings. He predicted that by using technology, the color our eyes can see can be better enhanced.
What's more, he describes a beautiful scene about a space elevator. One day, it may come to fruition if scientists can firstly solve the problem of the materials needed to be used. Nowadays, there isn’t suitable material for building this elevator because of the low density and intensity. But who knows what is going to happen in the future? Also, he predicted that scientists will be able to “make things” with little atoms. What I like most is the next part where he described an interesting invention which could help people capture and store the sunlight more efficiently. This equipment is called ‘Dyson diameter’.
Here comes a question, how could these ideas become areality in the future? Take communication as an example. It was hard for people to imagine communicating with other people in different continents 20 years ago. However, we can easily achieve it now. Equivalently, this struggle impacted space communication as well. People can be sent to space and their images pushed into universe. Robots under people's control can be sent fromthe earth and scientists are able to directly receive information from them.
Also, quantum is now a popular topic and one of its functions is to manipulate time. It seems similar to old movies (because we can see the conditions in the past through the screen). However, the situation doesn't exist in real life yet. In the contrast, the quantum could definitelyhelp us experience old days in the future.
Then he made a transition to the second part, his own inventions.
He discussed four kinds of force: Gravity, electromagnetic force, strong interaction and weak interaction.
Quantum mechanics was a focus in this speech. He showed a gif to show the movements of energy. They all gather in a very tiny place and move in a high speed. Even though people cannot see them, by writing equations, we are able to calculate them and draw models. This model represents the accumulation and dispersion of energy. The red and yellow color is the centre of accumulation.
He also mentioned anion. He used an example of the mixture of coffee and milk to show the property of anions which is positive and linear.
In conclusion, helped us understand what studying physics and researching in this field could look like. At last, it was the time for students to ask questions. Students were all so passionate and enthusiastic. For every question, the professor gave specific explanations and answers. It was really a relaxing period and laughter was heard frequently.
Honestly, this speech was fantastic and interesting. On one hand, students learnt more knowledge about physics although it sounded quite complicated. On the other hand, we were fortunate enough to have this first-hand experience to learn how wise men speak and organize apublic speech. Students in HFLS not only broadened theirknowledge but also receivedseveral speech making tips.
（Year 1D Helen Wang, edited by Ms. Menton）
