Interview at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

This Wednesday, November 11, I’m driving up to Palo Alto to conduct a few interviews for two different book projects, one of which is my piece on renewables.

My first interview will be conducted at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center with Dr. Martin Perl, the 1995 Nobel Laureate in Physics, bestowed for his discovery of the tau lepton in 1975. I’ve written out a few questions to keep this on track, which I present here. Notice the question on renewables; it will be interesting to see how he responds.

1) Do developments in particle physics tend to make people more religious as the amazing complication of the universe becomes clearer? Or less religious, as we get closer to unraveling mysteries that were previously though insolvable? I would think I good argument could be made either way.

2) A little over 100 years ago, right before the development of relativity and quantum mechanics, physicists – at least some of them – thought we were right around the corner from having the universe completely understood. Where do you think we are today? Is there hope for a Theory of Everything? (If yes) What do you think it will most probably look like?

3) A number of people hope that with a complete understanding of the universe will come an unlimited supply of renewable energy. I’m sure you’re often asked about the implications of cutting-edge physics in that arena. How do you respond?

4) You may be aware that there are a growing number of people (and I’m one of them) who see an increasing connection between physics and philosophy. For example, at the quantum level, we find things like consciousness affecting the external “real” world. You may have come across the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know?” a few years ago that presented this idea. What do you think about this?

5) What are you working on now? Why have you chosen this endeavor? What’s the most important thing you’d like to accomplish in the rest of your life?