Street corner science lessons with a Nobel Laureate

In 1988, Leon Lederman shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work to understand elementary particles called neutrinos. ScienCentral set Lederman up with a desk on a street corner and encouraged curious passersby to ask science questions. The two-part video was part of SciCentral's Web show series called "Street Corner Science." Lederman talked about time travel, nuclear power, and, particle physics. Street Corner Science with Leon Lederman (ScienCentral, via Eastern Blot)

[#1 posted by anthonyk , September 22, 2008 8:23 PM]

Brilliant, I love this! Thanks for posting.

[#2 posted by sammich , September 22, 2008 8:31 PM]

Nuclear physics I can kind of get my head around.
I need someone to explain nucules to me ... :(

[#3 posted by Antinous , September 22, 2008 8:43 PM]

I need someone to explain nucules to me

Wouldn't that be nuculi?

[#4 posted by sammich , September 22, 2008 8:43 PM]

antinous @ 3 -i hate to appear stoopid, but I have absolutely no education in nucular scienz :(

[#5 posted by Jake0748 , September 22, 2008 8:45 PM]

I could watch this kind of stuff for hours. All the questions asked were pretty good. I'd like to see some of the "clueless" ones too.

I wish this kind of thing was done much more often.

[#6 posted by sammich , September 22, 2008 8:46 PM]

p.s. lol :)

[#7 posted by hypatia , September 22, 2008 9:08 PM]

What a gas! (har har har)

Lederman also wrote a great book called "the God Particle" - it's side-splittingly funny.

[#8 posted by David Pescovitz , September 22, 2008 9:10 PM]

HYPATIA @7, Thanks for the reminder on The God Particle! My dad got that for me years ago and I had forgotten about it.

[#9 posted by brooklyntwang , September 22, 2008 9:11 PM]

took me a minute to find the part 2 video, so to save you the work, here it is:

http://www.sciencentral.com/video/2008/08/28/street-corner-science-with-leon-lederman-pt-2/

[#10 posted by Jack , September 22, 2008 9:42 PM]

This is awesome!

But I wouldn't give the guy any spare change. It just encourages him to do more physics.

[#11 posted by ackpht , September 22, 2008 10:42 PM]

Glad to see Leon's still kickin'.

[#12 posted by scothampton , September 22, 2008 11:20 PM]

i'm pretty sure this is the guy who schooled me in chess at the tables on market.

[#13 posted by musicman , September 23, 2008 12:46 AM]

Jim Cairns, once the Australian Treasurer used to have a book stall at Monash University while I was there. He would always be chatting to students, explaining how the system worked. Who needed class?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cairns

[#14 posted by PaulR , September 23, 2008 4:30 AM]

If you can get a hold of them, Richard Feynman's Basic Physics, and Basic Quantum Physics, as recorded during a class at MIT are also excellent.

Feyman's lectures came out as three CD boxed sets. These two 45 -minute lectures are the first two CDs from the first set.

Much, much better to get as a Christmas gift than a boxed set of Punk'd.

[#15 posted by Versh , September 23, 2008 6:01 AM]

My neighborhood 'be rough with Nobel Laureates on every street corner...you don't want to be around after dark, Poet Laureates will shake you down!

[#16 posted by Talia , September 23, 2008 7:47 AM]

Those guys are thugs alright. Someone needs to do something about the growing threat of Nobel Laureates.

[#17 posted by trr , September 23, 2008 3:23 PM]

Leon Lederman is OK, but I'd watch out for Jimmy Carter. Course that's not a REAL Nobel.

[#18 posted by brooklyntwang , September 23, 2008 10:41 PM]

Please someone let me know when they put Lisa Randall out on a street corner to talk to strangers. She can teach me physics anytime.

[#19 posted by airship , September 24, 2008 7:10 AM]

Did he have a tip jar? How much did he make?

If it was pretty good money, I might set up answering computer questions.