CERN & New Realism
25-02-2016
When artists visit CERN, first stop: the bins. Niels Tuning shows us CERN's trashbins with Doina Kraal.
Symmetry – Doina Kraal & Marcel Merk (Nikhef)
12-02-2016
“One of the greatest mysteries in physics is to figure out what happened to the antimatter, or why we see an asymmetry between matter and antimatter.” Marcel Merk
"But isn’t there asymmetry rather than symmetry in everything?" Doina Kraal
"For the last few centuries, the Cartesian project in science has been to break matter down into ever-smaller bits, in the pursuit of understanding. And this works, to some extent. We can understand matter by breaking it down to atoms, then protons and electrons and neutrons, then quarks, then gluons, and so on. We can understand organisms by breaking them down into organs, then tissues, then cells, then organelles, then proteins, then DNA, and so on. But putting things back together in order to understand them is harder, and typically comes later in the development of a scientist or in the development of science."
Excerpt from the article ‘Holism’ by Physician and Social Scientist Nicholas Christakis, Harvard University http://www.edge.org
"But isn’t there asymmetry rather than symmetry in everything?" Doina Kraal
"For the last few centuries, the Cartesian project in science has been to break matter down into ever-smaller bits, in the pursuit of understanding. And this works, to some extent. We can understand matter by breaking it down to atoms, then protons and electrons and neutrons, then quarks, then gluons, and so on. We can understand organisms by breaking them down into organs, then tissues, then cells, then organelles, then proteins, then DNA, and so on. But putting things back together in order to understand them is harder, and typically comes later in the development of a scientist or in the development of science."
Excerpt from the article ‘Holism’ by Physician and Social Scientist Nicholas Christakis, Harvard University http://www.edge.org
