CBC Quirks & Quarks ; More on the weird physics of the fine structure so-called constant, 10 billion light years away…
Last September saw a burst of arcane physics news (earlier post) on the fine structure constant that physicists use to explain the precise frequencies at which the electron orbitals in atoms and molecules absorb and emit radiation. It’s a very basic basic constant, itself constructed from other fundaments such as Planck’s constant and the speed of light. It is dimensionless, and is ~1/137. Nobody knows why it is what it is. The news was that a very teeny change in it has been inferred (not proven) according to how far away (and long ago) one looks, and in what direction one looks, as divined from very difficult telescopic observations and precision spectrometry.
This news seems to have gotten deep under the skin of a producer, Jim Lebans, at Quirks & Quarks of Canada’s CBC radio network. He has kept digging away at it. In a somewhat self-referential production, show host Bob Mcdonald interviews producer Lebans, who in turn provides audio clips of conversations he has had with experts on the topic. It is well done, particularly Lebans’s explanation in lay language of why the fine structure constant is such an important pillar of physics and why cosmologists and quantum physicists are so skeptical about the data, but so excited about the possibility they may be no mistake.
That link goes to the entire program, which covers a lot of interesting stuff, including foxes that might be able to ‘see’ the Earth’s magnetic field and a plant with ballistic seeds. The fine structure constant one is toward the end, listenable separately or in sequence. We haven’t posted much on Quirks & Quarks lately, and must note again how unusual it is to find such a complete lineup of pertinent links so conveniently provided. Such a thing is like the “further reading” one might have found in Scientific American before the internet age – but now the gratification is instant. After starting to write this post, I discovered it even has links that in turn refer to ksjtracker’s own post in September. Much obliged.
- Charlie Petit
