When I was working at Stanford the other day, something happened which hasn’t happened at SLAC in a long time. Well, to be fair, it hasn’t happened in my office building in a long time. People argued about physics in the hallways, at white boards, over espresso. I hadn’t realized until it happened how long it had been since I had been present for a really good physics spat, a real bickering of intellectuals. I also forgot how good it felt to be around that kind of mind wrangling.
The third floor of Varian Physics Lab is the theory and astrophysics floor. The theorists were arguing about all kinds of things. They also laughed about private jokes, had chats about family and travel, and returned to the espresso machine about a half-dozen times. But the arguments were the best. I was sitting in the coffee area, working on some analysis and some computer code. I find working in public areas to be the best private mental space, the white noise of people coming and going better than the cold stillness of my office. The first argument I overheard was a passionate debate about the hypothetical axion, and it started off with words like “string theory” and “branes”, disagreements about assumptions, and all kinds of other fun theory things.
Later there was a seminar by the famous physicist Raman Sundrum, whose work with Lisa Randall resulted in a very exciting notion about how extra dimensions of space could be hiding all around us, and detectable at collider experiments. I couldn’t hear everything he said in his seminar, but it went on for quite some time. This wasn’t because he was a long, dry speaker. To the contrary, he was lively and projected very well, and he kept peppering his presentation with the phrase, “Let me be provocative…” More pepper, please!
The other theorists were taking issue with his conclusions, his assumptions – just about everything a person could take issue with. Afterward, they streamed from the seminar room and clumped near whiteboards, the conversation and the arguments continuing for a few minutes more. There was a din of people chatting, the whiz of the espresso machine, and the barking of a delicious and heated disagreement amongst the sickly sweet eraseable marker fumes.
This environment was intoxicating. It reminded be how bare-knuckle physics gets done. At the end of the day, they were all still friends. At least, they were colleagues.
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