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SUMMARY:Relativity\, microphysics\, and the senses of the sciences - Richa
 rd Staley (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20190130T120000Z
DTEND:20190130T130000Z
UID:TALK118384@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cavendish Inspiring Women
DESCRIPTION:This lecture pursues the history of two very different experim
 ents to explore the dialogue between the laboratory\, the body of the expe
 rimenter\, and the world outside the laboratory around 1900. The first is 
 Einstein’s famous 1907 thought experiment on a man falling. Revisiting M
 ach’s earlier critiques of Newtonian absolutes of time\, space and motio
 n will show the extent to which Mach’s engagement with psychophysics gui
 ded Einstein’s imagination. The second is Wilson’s cloud chamber\, inv
 ented in the Cavendish in 1895 and used to offer images of particle tracks
  from 1911. While commonly thought to move decisively from a mimetic attem
 pt to recapture natural clouds to an analytic exploration of ions in 1895\
 , I will show that Wilson actually understood his chamber to mimic the beh
 aviour of air rising above cloud. Examining both experiments\, our aim is 
 to explore the porous boundaries between laboratory\, natural phenomena an
 d the scientist's body - even in the period in which the rise of microphys
 ics and relativity introduced newly abstract investigations of liminal phe
 nomena\, and abstract forms of symmetry.  
LOCATION: Small Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory\, J.J. Thomson Aven
 ue
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