The 28th edition of the International Conference on Atomic Physics lives large in my imagination. Eight hundred passionate practitioners from around the globe gathering with seriousness, politeness and warm humour to discuss the tiny glittering particles of matter and light that comprise our world and the interactions between them. There is great excitement and joyful and open friendliness.
It is a spectacle. The energetically delivered presentations with bizarre language and complex charts, can lead the lay person to ask, “Are these people crazy?”. Then there is the concentrated questioning at the end of each talk and the gathering around posters as folks in backpacks try to balance glasses, lunch and teacups while debating and pointing.
Some of the myriad questions are practical ones – “Can we make a nuclear clock?”, “How will we make our quantum computers” or “Can I date ancient ice?”. Others seek deep understanding and are shockingly audacious – “Do the fundamental constants vary?”, “Can the forces be unified?”, “Why is there more matter than antimatter?”. Still others, I discover, are not as simple as they sound – “How do things thermalise?” and “What is a magnet?”.
I enjoyed happy and interesting conversations. Wolfgang Ketterle told me “We create beautiful islands of emergence, places, where Nature allows us to play with her …..”. These words inspired the title of the poster where I have tried to identify some of the islands in this rich and growing archipelago and to capture the energy, optimism, diversity and playfulness that your work embodies. You seem always to be sketching ideas and relations, holding them up against Nature and letting them evolve and be re-drawn, so drawing seemed the most apt form.
Though the conference evaporated as quickly on Friday afternoon as it coalesced on Sunday evening, the ripples – the spirit, ideas, connections, and blueprints for new islands will travel far into the future. I hope you enjoy this small memento.
Geraldine Cox. 2024.
80 x 40cm, matt paper, 190 gsm.
A small selection of comments
Physics is beautiful, fascinating – that there is a maths language for Nature, that there is some order, and that we can find simplicity in the complexity. Ana Maria Rey.
To work physically, not purely cerebrally is meaningful and pleasurable. Eric Cornell.
It is exciting to compute a little piece of the Universe. Marianna Sofranova
We can create beauty in the minds of others by how we communicate. Wolfgang Ketterle
To find something no one else has is a kind of love. Pierre Agostini.
A good day is when you learn something new to science or just to you. Bill Phillips.