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Discussion with the Nobel laureate Kip Thorne

  • On 12th October 2021 was organised the most important scientific discussion in Slovakia in 2021.

     

    Prof. Kip Thorne, astrophysicist, the Nobel prize laureate for physics, the science legend, co-author of the movie Interstellar, from the U.S.A., was discussing with prof. Brain Cox, a particle physicist from the U.K on the topic: "Is Science the Solution for Everything?"

     

    Prof. Kip Thorne was invited by the Slovak ESET internet security company to be the chairman of the committee

    Our students could stream the debate and now we can also watch the recorded debate on the link:

    https://www.esetscienceaward.sk/sk/medzinarodna-komisia/kip-thorne

  • Feedback from students

    Humans beings are so complex, that it is not easy for physicists and scientists to explain their behaviour

    This was a really interesting debate. At the beginning, I was afraid it´d be about topics which would be hard for me to understand, but after the first question was answered, I wanted to continue listening. Kip Thorne´s reply about humans being so complex, that it is not easy for physicists to explain their behaviour resonated with me. I like the idea that our minds would take many more years of research for us to completely understand them because of their complexity. On the other hand, I also like that there are more other things explainable with physics.

    Failure is okay

    When Kip mentioned that failure is okay, I started thinking about it. I realized, as he was talking about things we can´t explain now, but maybe we will be able to explain them in the future, that failure will be part of the process of getting to those explanations. And I really like this thought because it makes failure seem not as a bad thing, but as an useful one.

    Large collaborations are very important

    The next question had again an answer I had to stop and think about. Kip was talking about importance of large collaborations and that larger groups of people are better than just three people. He said, this was because no human alone has all needed skills for the task. I liked how he mentioned our minds and their uniqueness. And I agree with him, the more diverse the group, the better and quicker can be the task done.

    The birth of the universe

    I was fascinated by the topicof the birth of the universe. We don´t know yet, what really happend or whether the universe had its birth, but Kip mentioned that we might get closer to these answers in the near future, so I hope we do.

    Kip mentioned other physicists: Stephen Hawking, Richard Feyman and Isaac Newton

    Kip talked about other physicist e.g. Stephen Hawking, Richard Feyman and Isaac Newton. He had close relationship to some of them. They are all well-known names and listen to him talk about them and learn something about them was as fascinating as other discussed topics.

    Asking right questions is very important

    At the end of the debate, they also discussed how we should ask a question we can find an answer to rather than a question, no matter how deep it is, which will give us no answers. Kip described Newton as the one who gave us answers and Hawking as the one giving us answers, which continue giving us great payoffs. And I think that was well said.