Physics – Memphis Flyer

Gene Hackman in ‘The French Connection’

Welcome to the first installment of our ongoing attempts at dream interpretation. Today we take on infinite regress, gritty lawyers and road rage:

Gene Hackman was in a movie in the ’70s, and then decades later he was in the same exact movie remade with the same title, almost shot for shot. The opening scene was a bit different. Instead of getting out of his car in an irritated fashion, he parked at the end of a long line of cars. His irritation was more about where he had to park. I remember a long wall, and someone walking away down the top of it, arguing to someone below. The movie had lawyers, and gritty conversations about the law.

Dear Mundane Dreamer,

Sometimes, in moments of existential frustration, I will reference the opening lines of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Hawking opens his book with an anecdote about an eminent scientist who, while giving a lecture about the nature of the universe, is interrupted by a little old lady who maintains that the world is merely a flat plate resting on the back of a giant turtle. “But,” retorts the scientist, “What is the turtle standing on?” and the lady says something to the effect of “You stupid asshole. It is turtles all the way down!”

Dr. Seuss, from ‘Yertle the Turtle’

It is turtles all the way down! I think this is what your dream is about: Hawking’s stacked tortoises might as well be your long line of cars, or a movie that is the same shot for shot, or the bottomless gauntlet of boring B flicks from the seventies. You look for something deeper in your subconscious offerings and find only minor permutations of what you have seen before.

But you need not despair, MD, because if the Cosmic Turtles of Infinite Regress have anything to teach us, it is that we contain unseen multitudes. Same-ness doesn’t preclude depth. Maybe your dream is trying to tell you that something you previously saw as unremarkable was actually the point. You simply need to re-envision it, probably with the help of Gene Hackman. (What was this movie called, by the way? Was it Rest Easy, or You Can Sleep When You Are Dead? Jokes, jokes.)

In honor of Hawking’s little old lady, I will also advise you to check out the paintings of American folk artist Grandma Moses. I once heard an interview with Grandma Moses, who started painting at the age of 78, during which she said, “People keep telling me that the snow is blue. But I look and look at it and I can’t see any blue. So I just paint it white.” Was the snow blue? Was it white? Who knows. The point is that she kept looking.

Grandma Moses, ‘Winter’

Yours truly,

Eileen

We here at Exhibit M are taking a stab at dream interpretation, with the help of art and anecdote. Do you wonder what your dreams are about? Send them to: eileen@contemporary-media.com.

“I’m going to try to convince you. … It’s a very strange universe that you live in. It only seems reasonable,” says Mike Ospeck cryptically.

The biophysicist and University of Memphis professor is speaking about the “mysterious uncertainty principle,” an idea that says there are parts of the universe that cannot ever be completely known. But Ospeck and his colleagues at the university’s annual Physics Day are trying to make one small part of the universe known — the U of M’s physics department, to be exact — to some 200 area high school students and teachers.

Each year, students from a variety of schools across the city, including White Station, Craigmont, MUS, and Hutchison, hear short lectures, see demonstrations, and tour the campus’ science facilities during the free seminar.

Joan Schmelz, a physics professor and astronomer at the U of M, kicks off the day with a discussion of black holes — a phenomenon that she says has wide appeal among students. It was Schmelz who first suggested the idea for Physics Day over 10 years ago. Her pitch for the program was successful, and the rest is history.

“Part of it is a recruitment effort for the department,” Schmelz says of Physics Day. “Part of it is outreach to bring more civics to the community.”

The event is tailored to students who might be interested in a physics career path but does not exclude students with their eyes on engineering or related fields. Every year, Schmelz gets feedback from teachers to increase the availability of the program to as many students as possible. This year, every seat in the Manning Hall lecture room is full.

John Hanneken, an associate professor of physics, tries to answer a very real-world question: “What can you do with a physics degree?” Dispelling the perceptions that all physicists are geniuses or that they always become teachers, Hanneken cites a survey that says a student’s success in medical school can be predicted according to how well they do in their undergraduate physics classes. He also points out that physicists ranked 15th for highest incomes on a 2001 Occupational Employment Statistics Survey.

At the end of the day, physics professor Robert Marchini leaves students with more than their college career to ponder. Using several well-known principles, he gives students a glimpse at how basic physics is used by magicians to fool audiences.

“Both magic and science are systematic ways of learning about nature and controlling nature,” Marchini says.

For one of his tricks, Marchini selects a female volunteer. As the students scramble out of their seats to get a closer look, Marchini reveals a bed of nails. After his volunteer has touched one of the nails, assuring the other students of its sharpness, Marchini cautiously lays down on the bed. A tense moment or two passes, but Marchini shows no sign of discomfort. When he asks the girl to stand on his chest, her reluctance is clear — though she does as instructed, much to the delight of the audience.

When Marchini stands up, the audience can see the individual impressions of nails on his back, but the skin has not been broken. Marchini’s demonstration proves the principle of force per unit area: When weight is distributed over many nails, the force exerted on a single nail is dramatically reduced. “I contend that we live in a society that believes more in magic than it does in science,” Marchini says. “All I’m asking of all of you is to maintain a healthy skepticism.”

By the end of the day, students have learned about black holes and biophysics, pyschokinesis and astronomy, and how an interest in those areas might just pull them toward a career.