Lezing over Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking in the Periodic Table
Have you ever wondered why the periodic table is so oddly shaped? Or why the different periods seem to come in pairs of equal length, except for the very first period? Did you know we actually don't know? Well, that is, until a team of scientists started looking for the symmetries in the periodic table.
Symmetry lies at the heart of the world. From the 6-sided snowflakes in winter to the floral patterns in summer, symmetry is all around us. It stirs our imagination, and awakens our creativity. Think of Escher's masterpieces or the stories of Lewis Carroll, the fugues of Bach or Balanchine's ballet choreographies.
But, perhaps most importantly, symmetry intrigues us; it stimulates our thinking and drives us onward in our quest to understand. Not surprisingly then, symmetry has become a central principle in science, underlying many of the revolutionary concepts of modern physics and chemistry. As Steven Weinberg (Nobel laureate in Physics) recently said, symmetry provides a key to Nature's secrets; it unlocks the door to a profound understanding of the physical world and all the wonders it entails.
In this lecture, you will be taken on a voyage through higher dimensions in search for the hidden symmetries of the periodic table. We'll climb our way up from the familiar valley of 3 dimensions, via the mind-blowing 4-dimensional symmetries of the hydrogen atom, up to the 6-dimensional symmetry of the philosopher's stone of quantum alchemy. Along the way, we'll explore the rules of atomic chess, and hunt for the chiral bishop who holds the secret to the periodic table.
At the end of our journey, we will have obtained a completely new format of the periodic chart, more elegant and powerful than ever before. So feel free to bring your own copy of the periodic table, but don't forget your scissors as some copy/pasting will be necessary.
Symmetry lies at the heart of the world. From the 6-sided snowflakes in winter to the floral patterns in summer, symmetry is all around us. It stirs our imagination, and awakens our creativity. Think of Escher's masterpieces or the stories of Lewis Carroll, the fugues of Bach or Balanchine's ballet choreographies.
But, perhaps most importantly, symmetry intrigues us; it stimulates our thinking and drives us onward in our quest to understand. Not surprisingly then, symmetry has become a central principle in science, underlying many of the revolutionary concepts of modern physics and chemistry. As Steven Weinberg (Nobel laureate in Physics) recently said, symmetry provides a key to Nature's secrets; it unlocks the door to a profound understanding of the physical world and all the wonders it entails.
In this lecture, you will be taken on a voyage through higher dimensions in search for the hidden symmetries of the periodic table. We'll climb our way up from the familiar valley of 3 dimensions, via the mind-blowing 4-dimensional symmetries of the hydrogen atom, up to the 6-dimensional symmetry of the philosopher's stone of quantum alchemy. Along the way, we'll explore the rules of atomic chess, and hunt for the chiral bishop who holds the secret to the periodic table.
At the end of our journey, we will have obtained a completely new format of the periodic chart, more elegant and powerful than ever before. So feel free to bring your own copy of the periodic table, but don't forget your scissors as some copy/pasting will be necessary.