The Physics thing
ContactHow did you end up doing particle physics?
Me and my sister at my graduation in Oxford.
Back when I had to choose A levels I decided that it was science or nothing. I was good at and fascinated by maths, but I found high school physics to be terribly dull and sitfling, but I gave it a go anyway. At the time I thought that I could study the sciences and enjoy the arts, getting the best of both worlds. Unfortunately I don't think I have the balance quite right at the moment. Anyway, even at A level the physics was rather stifling, but the maths was great fun. When the time came to decide which direction to take, I was tempted with chemistry, but not good enough at it, so decided to take a middle of the road option. Physics had maths, it had intuition and it wasn't too abstract. When I finally got to Oxford was immensely happy to realise that they had the approach I wanted all along- rigorous physics, embedded in a rich structure of maths, and tutorials to help get an intuitive understanding of it all. But even then some of the content didn't seem particularly elegant, so I steered away from the larger-scale physics as soon as I could and ended up with particle physics. It's the discipline that suits me best and has enough variety to keep me interested until at least the end of my PhD.
Why do you like it? What's the most interesting part?
One of the most exciting parts about doing a PhD is that you get to travel the world. I attended a conference in Paris in September 2007. One of the most spectacular sights was the Sacre Coeur
Basically I'm just a geek, and very proud of it. Particle physics appeals to the part of me that wants to organise everything and put it order. There are ample coding opportunities and new ways to use coding, which is something else I love. But most of all I want to understand the universe at the simplest level. With statistical mechanics it's possible to jump right from quantum mechanics to the "real world", which is nice, but doesn't shed much light on what is going on underneath. Quantum mechanics is one of most (if not the most) accurate and precise of all sciences, with 80 years of experimental verification. However, on its own it's useless and while elegant, far too abstract to be of any real use. Particle physics can address both of these challenges, but as we get a more and more fundamental understanding of the processes, the less certain we are that we have the last word. That's what I find most fascinating about it all. The sheer "simplicity" of it all is also captivating. We can get so many effects for free by making very general and very abstract demands on the the theory.
What about the things you don't like?
The Panofsky Auditorium, looking beautiful in the sun.
There seems to be a trend to create elaborate, inelegant and ultimately unfalsifiable theories of physics beyond our current understanding. The best example is super-symmetry, which posits that for every particle we have discovered, there is at least one more which we haven't discovered yet. There may even be "super-symmetric partners" to particles we haven't seen yet! Slightly less superfluous is the Higgs model. There are many physicists out there who believe that the Higgs boson, or "God particle" will complete our model and its discovery is just around the corner. Yet they do this without any evidence, direct or otherwise. Science isn't about speculation, and the implicit assumption that the Higgs will be found at all annoy me.
What use is it?
My office block at Brunel.
Right now? There's no use. Give it a few decades and we may have discoveries that will change the world, but we don't know where our research will lead. We need to follow all the possible paths if we're going to get the best technology the future can offer us. There are several spin-offs that can benefit all sorts of areas of science, the economy and society in general. The computing resources we develop and the statistical tools we use can be taken elsewhere and help change so many aspects of the world around us. The skills students learn get taken into business and lead to more innovation, better organisation and different approaches to existing problems. One of the current cutting edge areas of particle physics research is medical imaging and treatment. It's very likely that we'll be instrumnetal in finding a better cure for cancer in the next few years.