More LittleAtoms

How can equations be beautiful? Graham Farmelo discusses Nobel Prize winner Paul Dirac’s life and achievements.

Paul Dirac rose from a modest background to the pinnacle to modern science.

Farmelo describes it as a bleak upbringing, with a strong emphasis on education and strict disciplinarian as a father.

At Cambridge, engineer turned physicist Dirac began producing “a beautiful vision of quantum mechanics”. Farmelo describes his papers as having “the perfection of Shakespeare sonnet”.

His breakthrough came with the Dirac equation, which combined quantum mechanics with special relativity to understand the behaviour of the electron. For Farmelo “a beautiful unity between two subjects.”

Dirac married his imagination and mathematics to predict the existence of anti-matter, the discovery that later won him the Nobel prize.

Formelo finds great beauty in the perfection of Dirac’s equation. He says an equation has “a power and compactness like great poetry. A great equation is the most highly charged form of mathematical science. It all fits perfectly together like a Rubiks cube; you can’t change it at all.”

On Dirac's gravestone was written: “because God made it so” suggesting sympathy with religion. But Farmelo argues this was his wife’s influence and that although his views softened in later life, Dirac was fiercely against religion.

Dirac’s own religion was simple: “Man can and must improve”. Seeing God’s will at odds with his science, he could not believe in miracles, “because if they happened,it would break the beauty of universal equations.”

First broadcast 22/01/10

2015-11-27 00:00:00 to 2015-11-27 00:26:27

2015-01-20 09:30:00

http://littleatoms.com/sites/default/files/podcast/grahamfarmelo.mp3

Why do so many American people believe their government is conspiring against them?

In this episode of Little Atoms Kathy Olmsted examines the development of the culture of conspiracy in American society from grassroots to President.

Olmsted identifies World War One and the birth of the modern state as the origin of mass American conspiracy culture.

“As government gets bigger and more powerful and surveillance agencies enforce espionage acts, the American people start to feel the fear of the government as an institution.”

For Olmsted, the state is both the subject and origin of conspiracy theories. She argues that as the government starts watching people, people start to fear they are being watched.

“America starts to believe government is starting to lie cover up and conspire, because it is.”

Conspiracy theories are not confined to the public in American society. Leaders too fall pray to paranoia.

Olmsted argues this is because: “Leaders have access to information; they know that conspiracies exist so come to logical conclusion that more are taking place.”

The culture of transparency perpetuates the notion of conspiracy. The release o information about Northwoods for example, formed the basis of many contemporary conspiracy theories. Many Americans saw it as a template for 9/11.

Omstead explores the irony of democracy and conspiracy from Hoover to Obama to argue that America’s unique contradiction of transparency but lack of accountability serves only to perpetuate conspiracy culture. A culture ingrained in America’s past and present.

First broadcast 10/07/09

2015-11-26 00:30:00 to 2015-11-26 01:00:00

2015-01-20 12:00:00

http://littleatoms.com/sites/default/files/podcast/kathyolmsted.mp3

Lynn Barber, the demon of Fleet Street, talks interviewing; the good, the bad and the bollocks

Barber started her career at Penthouse Magazine, writing about the parameters of sexuality. “It trained me never to be embarrassed and never to show shock or disgust.”

The secret to a good interview, according to Barber, is getting people to talk. “I am genuinely interested in them at the point I am interviewing, I want to understand them”.

But it’s not always plain sailing, the real disasters are never written up and the ones that make the cut are not always perfect.

“If someone else did it better, that’s slightly frustrating, or sometimes every conceivable question has already asked, what more is there to get?”

For Barber, contemporary artists are a favourite but can be difficult to interview. “The reason they are artists is they don’t trust words very much and they express themselves in other ways. To find a way of interviewing that isn't bollocks and has an attachment to reality is a challenge.”

2015-11-26 00:00:00 to 2015-11-26 00:36:36

http://littleatoms.com/sites/default/files/podcast/lynnbarber.mp3

“Everything that is done or written is done by someone who is half a chromosome away from being a chimpanzee. It’s not going to be any better than that.”

In this episode of Little Atoms, Christopher Hitchens explores the dangers of mans tendency towards religion and our attitudes to freedom. The ultimate fight, he argues, is against censorship.

Man created God, God didn’t create man. Hitchens describes this creation as an ineradicable problem that humanity cannot solve.

Religion takes advantage of our bad wiring and selfishness. We would be better off if we grew out of it, but until we give up wishful thinking and our fear of death, it is impossible”.

Although religion is an incurable affliction, Hitchens argues that western leaders must not dismiss the threat posed by it.

“The possible interception of messianic ideas with apocalyptic weaponry is increasingly something to be worried about.”

Our predisposition towards order and security undermines our struggle for liberty. For Hitchens, this explains why liberation struggles are so rare and so unsatisfactory.

“Most people, most of the time, have no great desire to be free. We would rather have the trouble of putting up with oppression rather than having the trouble of throwing it off.”

With the threat posed by religion and our apathy towards liberty, Hitchens believes the ultimate enemy we face is censorship. Hitchens argues that all things associated with enlightenment are worth dying for. He describes the struggle against censorship as “a fight that can be won but certainly one that cannot be lost”.

First broadcast 08/06/07

2015-11-25 06:30:00 to 2015-11-25 07:29:50

http://littleatoms.com/sites/default/files/podcast/christopherhitchens.mp3

“The responsibility of the novelist is to be irresponsible. You do what you want, the more you upset the better”.

As a writer Howard Jacobson finds great joy in being offensive. He argues that one of the ways comedy works is to cleanse the system, “you laugh at the things you should not laugh at. You have to have a moment you break everything you believe in”.

Racist comedy too has its place, “comedy is a place you go, some of the time, to be absolutely vile. And if you aren’t going to go, where are you going to go?”

But it is part of the novelist's job never to push an ideology. Jacobson argues the first thing you must do is to overcome what you believe and that “to do so is a great aesthetic leap.”

On the question of limits, most of the time Jacobson would argue “tough, read something else” but admits that he sometimes he does censor himself. “Demonstrably bad taste is corny; you can tell when someone is trying to hard.”

“Our sense of humour is part of our sense of intelligence. If we are solemn and tip toe around it, we deny the best part of our minds the chance to deal with the most horrible thing that ever happened.”

First broadcast on 14th December 2007

2015-11-25 06:00:00 to 2015-11-25 06:27:36

http://littleatoms.com/sites/default/files/podcast/howardjacobson.mp3