Episode Transcript
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0:00
This is the Engines of
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Our Ingenuity, made possible by
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the friends of KUHF, Houston.
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Today, as scientists, trials
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and tragedies, the
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University of Houston's College of
0:14
Engineering presents the series about
0:16
the machines that make our
0:19
civilization run, and the people
0:21
whose ingenuity created them. In
0:30
1900, a German physicist
0:32
made an important discovery. He
0:35
found a relationship between the
0:38
energy and frequency of radiation.
0:41
His name was Max Planck. The
0:43
constant that relates those two
0:45
parameters is named Planck's Constant.
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A few years back, I came
0:50
across Planck's biography. As
0:53
I expected, Max Planck's scientific
0:55
contributions were outstanding. He
0:57
was one of the originators of
1:00
the quantum theory, the implications of
1:02
which govern our daily lives, including
1:04
the electronics we use today. And
1:07
he won the Nobel Prize in
1:09
Physics. But it
1:11
was his personal life, including
1:13
a series of tragic events
1:16
and his perseverance that caught my
1:18
attention. Max
1:20
Planck was born in Kiel, Germany,
1:23
in 1858. He
1:25
was talented in music. He
1:28
played piano, cello and organ, and
1:30
he composed songs. At
1:32
one point, he considered music as
1:35
a career, but decided to study
1:37
physics. Planck explains
1:39
his decision as the most
1:41
sublime scientific pursuit in life.
1:45
Planck studied with some famous
1:48
scientists, including Kirchhoff and Helmholtz,
1:50
at the universities of Munich
1:52
and Berlin. He married Mary
1:54
Merck and had four children. After the age of 50,
1:57
Planck's life changed. I
2:00
took a tragic turn. His
2:02
wife died in Nineteen O
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Nine then during World War
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One his older son Carl
2:08
who was killed. In. Shortlisted
2:12
packs twin daughters died
2:14
in childbirth. Movie. Theater
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in Nineteen Seventeen and
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Emma in Nineteen Nineteen.
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Tragedy did not end
2:23
there. During World
2:26
War Two, Pints remained in
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Germany. Initially he stayed in
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Berlin, but it was too
2:32
dangerous so he moved out.
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In Nineteen Forty Four, his
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house and Berlin was bombed
2:38
during an air raid. Only
2:41
a few months later, Max
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clients younger son, Air When
2:45
got arrested. He was suspected
2:47
of involvement and attempted assassination
2:49
of Hitler in Nineteen Forty
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Five Planks On Air When
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who was also. His best
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friend was executed by Gestapo
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punk died two years after.
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Max Planck was praised and
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revered by his colleagues, including
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Einstein. He was known for
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his great personal qualities and
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dedication to science. Glancing into
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the life of a scientist
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like Max Planck reminds us
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of the insurance and perseverance
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behind many scientific discoveries. Perhaps
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it can also help. To
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show us the human dimension of
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the not so dispassionate work that
3:29
we science I'm Holly or the
3:32
Billie at the University of Houston
3:34
where we are interested in the
3:36
when in fact his mind.
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