• Question: what is your favourite scientific discovery?

    Asked by ellieyay to Angeline, Catherine, Luke, Philip, Shona on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Angeline Burrell

      Angeline Burrell answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      That’s a hard one. I quite liked the discovery of galaxies, because it really brings home how enormous the universe is. And even when we humans think that we’re thinking large, we aren’t!

    • Photo: Shona Whittam

      Shona Whittam answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      This is a classic question people ask at job interviews in medical physics & I would have to say the discovery of X-Rays as these enable us to see inside the human body.

    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Too many to really pick one. But this particular experiment really resonates with me and, like all physicists, I find the results absolutely astounding and just a little unnerving. It’s the “double slit” experiment with electrons:

      As Feynman said about the double slit experiment, “We choose to examine a phenomenon which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery”

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