Firstly, let me say that it is a pleasure to be here once again to
present the award. Before doing so I thought to tell you that
this is a very special year for us physicists. It is the United
Nations International Year of Physics. This year we are
celebrating 100 years since Albert Einstein published three
major works in 1905, at the age of just 26. First he explained
that Brownian motion was proof of the existence of atoms and
molecules. Then he explained the photoelectric effect showing
how light can behave as particles, for which he got a Nobel
Prize. To round off a good year he gave the world Special
Relativity, which came from the observation that nothing can
travel faster than the speed of light. This lead to crazy ideas
like moving clock slowing down, moving lengths contracting, and
the famous formula E=mc2.
Now, how many of you have never heard off E=mc2? How many
can tell me what the formula means? To celebrate the year, in
my capacity as Chair of the WA branch of the AIP, I will be
organising many public lectures to explain the work of
Einstein to the general community. Some of the lectures will
be given by me and others by national and international
visitors. So, if you are interested tell your teacher to
contact me or keep your eye on the local press.
1905 and the 20th century generally was a
fantastic period for physics. Is this, the 21st century, going to be
any different? Well it started off we a great discovery. Did you know that
Australian physicists have shown that the Universe is expanding at an
ever increasing rate? Noone knows why, and when we look out in space
we now realise that we see at most just 5% of the Universe. The other 95%
we label as Dark Energy and Dark Matter! I can't think of a better way
to start a new century than by acknowledging that we know almost
nothing about the Universe we live in!
Now, this prize, for the best year-eleven physics student, was initiated by
the physicists at Murdoch to encourage you to consider
further study in physics and the nanosciences, necessary
if you want to contribute to discovering the Universe
and be a part of the ongoing nanoscale technological revolution. To
entice you further our best starting
students are offered tax-free $4,000 scholarships.
It gives me great pleasure to award the prize, which
is Stephen Hawking's bestseller The Universe in a Nutshell, to the
best year-eleven physics student of 2004, ...
mailto: Igor Bray
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Last modified: Tue Feb 17 11:07:08 WST 2004