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Ep. 164: Inside the Atom
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Play Podcast Astronomy Cast on
December 13th, 2009 |
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in Particles
in Particles
Caffeine atom with 3D electron orbitals. Image credit: Ivan S. Ufimtsev, Stanford University
We've talked about the biggest of the big, now let's focus in on the smallest of the small. Let's see what's inside that basic building block of matter: the atom. You probably know the basics, but with ever more powerful particle accelerators, physicists are revealing particles within particles, announcing new discoveries all the time.
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Shownotes
- Ernest Rutherford — Nobel Prize page
- Plum Pudding model — Wiki
- J.J. Thomson, discovers the electron — Chemical Achievers
- How we saw the atom 100 years ago –American Institute of Physics
- Atomic theory; the early days – Vision Learning
- Atom Tutorial – Learn Chem
- The Structure of the Atom — Purdue
- Proton
- Neutron
- Electron
- Quantized energy — Kent Chemistry
- Pauli Exclusion Principle — GSU
- new spectroscopy technique to take "snapshots" of complex molecules – RSC
- Atomic mass is determined by the number of neutrons and protons that are present in the nucleus
- How Carbon-14 dating works — All About Archaeology
- Bohr Model — UTK
- Quarks — GSU
- More about quarks — Stanford
- Ep. #106: Search for the Theory of Everything
- Ep. #138: Quantum Mechanics
- Lambda particles — GSU
- What is the largest possible atom? Argonne National Lab
- 1995 press release about the discovery of the Top Quark — Fermilab
Transcript
Coming Soon!
Hi – not a biggie, but note the id tag on this file says Ep 165.
Howdy,
Thanks very much for this intro, it was very helpful and gladly I seemed to recognise most of the content (I must be learning something).
One thing that I thought you might have at least addressed if not concentrated on was the reasons for creating large atoms at the end of the show. Why do we do it? Yes, there's the 'because we can' line, of course, but are there any practical benefits to creating elements heavier than 300 units? Just curious really. I felt like I was left hanging a little.
The same question applies, I guess, to the attempts to make new sub-atomic particles out of different quarks. Other than 'because we can' are there any practical benefits to the new particles, even if they are short-lived? Also, can sub-atomic particles have more or less than 3 quarks or is there a limit at 3, and if so why?
Perhaps this could have been two episodes.
Excellent work though, keep it up. You guys are great. Hope you're enjoying your snow and I'm very jealous of you being able to see the aurora.