From Mary Mulvihill » Communicating science:

Q: How much theoretical physics can you condense into a 5-minute Ignite talk?

A: A surprising amount!

Enlighten us, but make it quick!

You know the Ignite format?  Five minutes, and 20 slides.   That’s not much time, and rather a lot of slides.

Yet it is proving to be a popular evening’s entertainment at Dublin’s Science Gallery, where it is now a monthly attraction.

Most talks that I’ve seen steer clear of attempting to communicate scientific concepts.   So I was sceptical when my resident quantum mechanic announced that he would attempt to explain symmetry, antimatter, Dirac’s equation and the LHC’s search for the Higgs particle.

It took a huge amount of work, yet I think he pulled it off.

And the image of the dragonfly missing a wing was, for me, a very effective metaphor for how Dirac discovered the existence of antimatter.

But what do you think?

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Other talks that evening included Mark Conguista on death by bullet point, Peter Lynch on his Commodius Vicus walk around  Ireland, and a performance by DJ Harry Moschops.

And if you fancy the challenge giving a talk at the next Dublin Ignite event (on April 14), contact Conor Haughton, who keeps his finger on the Ignition switch here.

This post first appeared on marymulvihill.net

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