The Proton

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery and growing understanding of the Proton, formed from three quarks close to the Big Bang and found in the nuclei of all elements. The positive charges they emit means they attract the fundamental particles of negatively charged electrons, an attraction that leads to the creation of atoms which in turn leads to chemistry, biology and life itself. The Sun (in common with other stars) is a fusion engine that turn protons by a series of processes into helium, emitting energy in the process, with about half of the Sun's protons captured so far. Hydrogen atoms, stripped of electrons, are single protons which can be accelerated to smash other nuclei and have applications in proton therapy. Many questions remain, such as why are electrical charges for protons and electrons so perfectly balanced? With Frank Close Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford Helen Heath Reader in Physics at the University of Bristol And Simon Jolly Lecturer in High Energy Physics at University College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.
0:08.8	Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.7	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service.
0:28.0	Listen to all episodes on BBC sales.
0:31.0	This is the BBC.
0:33.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:36.0	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs
0:40.0	if you follow us on Twitter at BBC in our time. I hope you enjoy the programs.
0:45.0	Hello there are enough protons in the sun for it to last a thousand billion years and it's only about
0:50.1	half way through them so that's a relief.
0:53.4	The properties of protons there, as on Earth, and throughout the universe are those that make
0:57.8	chemistry, biology and life itself possible.
1:00.8	They've existed since a split second after the Big Bang and are found in a nuclei of all elements.
1:06.0	Hydrogen, by far the most abundant element in the universe, is a single protein with one electron.
1:12.0	Stripped of electrons, those protons can be is a single protein with one electron.
1:12.8	Striptive electrons, those protons can be accelerated
1:15.7	to smash other nuclei to reveal more of the secrets
	...

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