WEBVTT

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So, have you ever had this experience?

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You're having a chat with someone

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and they're telling you something
about a subject they're very interested in

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or they know a lot about,

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and you're following along.

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Then, at some stage you realize you kind
of lost the thread of what they saying.

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And then, you're standing there

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and you realize you have absolutely
no idea what they're talking about.

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(Laughter)

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I had this recently with a friend
who knows a lot about investing.

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And it's something I don't know
a huge amount about,

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but it's very important,
very useful information.

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But he started talking about
kind of diversified investment portfolio -

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blah -

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(Laughter)

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And unfortunately, I went away
with no useful information.

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So, I think it's a situation
we all are familiar with,

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and fortunately there's things you can do
to improve this situation,

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which is what I'm going
to talk about today.

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So, I'm a scientist.
I work in the area of quantum physics.

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And so, I've been on both sides
of this kind of interaction.

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I've both been the guy explaining
very complicated material to someone,

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but I've also been on the receiving end

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of lots of very kind of intense scientific
discussions with my colleagues.

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And, when this kind of breakdown
of communication happens,

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I've noticed something interesting,

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which is that, as a person
who's stopped understanding,

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you feel kind of guilty about it.

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But, if you think about it,
this is completely wrong,

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it's the wrong way around
because at that point in time,

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there's literally nothing you can do
to understand better.

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But there is something that the other
person can do to help you understand

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by finding a better way of explaining
what they're talking about.

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And so -

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during my experience in science,

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I found that the only way to survive
was to kind of have the courage

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to politely stop the person
who is explaining,

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say, "I'm sorry, I don't understand
what you're saying,"

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and then try and go back and start off
from where I'd lost the thread.

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And it does take
a bit of courage to do this

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because you're kind of admitting that you
don't know, you know, the subject matter.

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But I think that's OK, and in fact,
my fears were completely unwarranted.

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Generally people respect you
if you care much about, you know,

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knowing the right information

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or care about, like,
understanding it properly.

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So, I think we should never ever feel bad
about not knowing something

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and we should never feel bad
about asking questions.

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So, I do a lot of science communication,

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and science really has
this communication issue with it

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because generally 
the subject matter is very complex.

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And you might know
scientists are always complaining

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about how their research
is being misrepresented by the media,

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like "Drinking wine cures cancer."

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(Laughter)

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It totally doesn't, by the way.

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But on the other hand,
you can kind of understand

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how journalists will maybe
oversimplify things or get things wrong

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because, to explain cutting-edge research,

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you kind of need a PhD
in the subject beforehand,

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and that's not something we can expect,
you know, the media, journalists to have

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in all the different
scientific disciplines.

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So, I think the world would be very
well-served by a whole load of people

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who are really good
at science communication,

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people who understand the science
but can also explain it in a way

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that the general public can understand.

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And this is important for many reasons,

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but one reason is you might know

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that just about all the science research
that goes on around the world

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is publicly funded.

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So, it'd be nice if the general public
could actually understand

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the work that their money 
is going towards.

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But for me, the even more important reason
that science communication is good

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is because it's also interesting.

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The research going on is so fascinating
it'd be nice if people could access it.

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Take my field for example, 
quantum physics.

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I find quantum physics to be
a deeply interesting subject,

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but it's one that gets this reputation
of being incredibly difficult.

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And that's fair, it gets complicated
when you get down into the details,

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but it doesn't mean
you can't talk about it at all.

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So, let me get a show of hands.

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So, put your hand up if you don't know
what quantum physics is.

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And if you don't, don't feel bad about it.

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Raise your hand, you know.
Own your ignorance.

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It's totally fine.

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Okay, okay, right.

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So, quantum physics is the description
of the smallest things in our universe.

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So, if you zoom right down
smaller than cells,

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down to the scale of molecules, atoms,
and things atoms are made of,

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you know, subatomic particles,
protons, neutrons, electrons,

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it just describes how they all work
and also how they interact with light.

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And the interesting thing
about quantum physics is

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it's like the fundamental rules
of the universe,

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and yet, the things that happen there
are so very strange.

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So, I'll tell you a few of the phenomena
that go on in quantum physics.

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One you might have heard of
is called particle wave duality.

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So, you can imagine
all these subatomic particles,

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these protons, neutrons, electrons,
like little bouncy balls,

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kind of bouncing around,
bouncing off each other.

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But sometimes you have to treat them
as like spread-out waves.

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And they kind of do both at the same time,
which is hard for us to imagine.

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So, I'll paint a picture.

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Imagine dropping one of these bouncy balls
into like a pond of water.

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The ball would disappear,

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and then you'd get these ripples
going out over the surface.

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Now, imagine one
of the ripples hits, say, a stick.

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All of the ripples
on the surface disappear,

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and by that stick suddenly
a bouncy ball pops out again.

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That's kind of strange
for us to think about, right?

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But this is the kind
of behavior that goes on

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in the subatomic realm all the time.

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Another phenomena you might have heard
is called quantum tunneling.

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So, imagine I've thrown one of these
bouncy balls against a window.

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So, it would be like bounce - oh, sorry -

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throw, bounce, catch -

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throw, bounce, catch -

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throw -

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It's gone completely through the window.

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It's not smashed it.
It's not interacted with it at all.

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It's just suddenly
on the other side of the window

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and you can see it flying away.

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(Laughter)

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If we saw that, 
we'd think it was crazy, right?

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But this goes on at the
subatomic realm all the time.

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In fact, it's the only reason we exist.

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So, you might know that, in the Sun,

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the way it generates energy
is through nuclear fusion.

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And nuclear fusion is when
two hydrogen atoms come together

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and the protons in their nucleus
bounce off each other.

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Now, if it wasn't for quantum tunneling,

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they'd bounce off each other
and nothing would happen.

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But what actually happens is
they quantum-tunnel into each other,

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and that's what lets them fuse
and release the sunlight,

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and without that sunlight,
we wouldn't exist.

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So, we can thank quantum tunneling
for our existence.

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Another phenomenon 
is called superposition.

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And it's a very fancy word,

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but all it means it something that can do
opposite things at the same time.

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So, for example,

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I can spin around one way,

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I can spin around the other way,

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but what would it look like for me

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to spin around in both directions
at the same time?

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(Laughter)

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We can't do that, we can't imagine that,

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but this is what these subatomic
particles do all the time.

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And in fact, we can kind of do it,
at least bits of us can.

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So, if you've ever been in an MRI machine,

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what an MRI machine does is it finds
all the hydrogen atoms in your body

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and makes them spin around
in both directions at the same time

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in this superposition.

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This is what allows us to see
inside of people's bodies.

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So, it's interesting that all of this
physics seems so kind of abstract

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and remote from our everyday experience.

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And yet, it's happening inside our bodies,
we're made of quantum stuff.

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So, it's happening everywhere around us.

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And it's no just MRI machines
that we use tech like quantum physics for.

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There's been a whole host
of other technologies that come about

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because of our understanding
of quantum physics.

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So, one of those
is our understanding of silicon

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allowed us to invent the silicon chip,

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which is in every single
computer in the world.

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So, the entire computing
infrastructure of the world exists

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because of our understanding
of quantum physics.

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And it's in other things, like lasers -
they're quite useful -

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and nuclear power plants.

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And there's this other sound bite you
might have heard about quantum physics:

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it's that no one really
understands quantum physics.

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Well, that's actually wrong.

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We do understand 
quantum physics very well,

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and you'd kind of hope that we did

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if it forms the technology MRI machines
or nuclear power stations.

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What they mean when they say that

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is that when we try and picture
in our heads something

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that can be both a particle
and a wave at the same time,

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or something that can spin around
in two directions at the same time,

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we find it very hard
to picture that in our heads.

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But we can describe it all very well
using mathematics.

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So, it's fascinating that something can be
so counterintuitive on one hand,

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but yet, can be so practically
useful on the other.

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So, I really enjoy explaining
science to people.

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I make YouTube videos
and also write kids books

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for the age range around seven
to eleven-year-old,

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and I really like pushing myself,
I don't hold back on the science,

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I like explaining the most
complicated subjects to that age.

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So, quantum physics, nanotechnology,
relativity, rocket science,

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those kinds of things.

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And I've come to the conclusion

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that you can pretty much explain
anything to anybody,

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as long as you go about it the right way,

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and I've come up with a set
of principles I work by to do that.

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So, I'm going to share these with you.

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So these are my four principles
of good science communication.

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And I say science, but it can be
any kind of technical communication.

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Okay.

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So, number one:


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start off in the right place.

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So, everyone's got a different background,

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everyone's got a different
set of knowledge.

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And it's our job 
to explain the information

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in terms that they already understand.

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It's no good leaving a gap
and starting from there

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because they're not going to follow along.

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It's better to, yeah, form the information
from what they already understand.

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And how do you do this?

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It's as simple as asking them
questions about what they know,

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or even starting an explanation
and then asking,

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"Do you already get this?,"
or, you know, "Is this making any sense?"

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And if you're talking to an audience,

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you have, you know,
to make your best guess,

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and a show of hands can be useful too.

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It's always better to err
on the side of caution.

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People generally don't mind hearing
information that they already know.

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Okay.

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Principle two:

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don't go too far down the rabbit hole.

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People can only take on a certain
amount of information at any one time,

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and we have to just be
realistic about that.

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So, it's better to explain,
say, three things

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that someone will
understand and remember

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rather than barrage them
with a whole load of information

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that kind of undoes all
of your good work, to begin with.

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So, I could have carried on
talking about quantum physics,

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but hopefully I gave you enough examples
that kind of piqued your interest

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and you can go away with.

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Okay.

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Number three:

00:12:51.180 --> 00:12:55.029
clarity beats accuracy.

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So, when we're explaining
things with examples,

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the temptation is to give the most
scientifically accurate explanation,

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but they tend to be long
and kind of convoluted.

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It's better to come up
with a simpler explanation

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that maybe isn't completely
technically correct,

00:13:14.205 --> 00:13:15.933
but it gets the point across.

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Imagine they're here,
and the complete explanation is here.

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All you want to do
is just get them along that path.

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So, for example, when I was talking
about spin in quantum systems,

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the truth is actually
a little bit more abstract,

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of spinning in these subatomic particles,

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but what I tell you is a good picture,

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and, you know, if people
are still interested,

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you can always iron out the details later.

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Okay.

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Number four:

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explain why you think it's cool.

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(Laughter)

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If you're explaining something to someone,

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you know, there's a reason
why you're doing it.

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Either you think it's super important
or very, very interesting.

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And the more that you can
convey that to someone,

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the more likely they are to remember it
and kind of get some value from it

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And you can do this in many ways.

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One way is just to show
your enthusiasm for the subject.

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Another way is to show, using examples,
how it's relevant to their lives.

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So, for example, quantum physics:
every time you turn on your phone,

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you're invoking the fundamental
laws of the universe to do your bidding -

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(Laughter)

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as you tweet photos of your cat.

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(Laughter)

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So, those are my four principles.

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So, I'd just like to leave on an anecdote.

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When I meet people for the first time,

00:14:40.428 --> 00:14:42.708
and I introduce myself
and say I'm a physicist,

00:14:42.708 --> 00:14:46.369
I get one reaction
more commonly than any other,

00:14:46.369 --> 00:14:50.159
which is like, "Ooh, physics.
I was rubbish at physics in school."

00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:51.450
(Laughter)

00:14:51.450 --> 00:14:55.039
And it happens so often it's such a shame.

00:14:56.107 --> 00:15:00.020
You know, science shouldn't be
about whether you're good at it or not.

00:15:00.020 --> 00:15:03.630
It should only be about
whether you're interested.

00:15:04.618 --> 00:15:09.857
And so, if you find science intimidating
or you have found science intimidating,

00:15:09.857 --> 00:15:13.898
I just encourage you: there's so much
good information out there these days.

00:15:13.898 --> 00:15:17.178
Just pick the subject
that you're interested in,

00:15:17.178 --> 00:15:19.046
find some material,

00:15:19.046 --> 00:15:22.109
and then just, from there,
follow your curiosity.

00:15:23.779 --> 00:15:24.899
Thank you.

00:15:24.899 --> 00:15:26.750
(Applause) (Cheers)