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Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Released Wednesday, 3rd April 2024
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Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Engines of Our Ingenuity 2944: Max Planck’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Wednesday, 3rd April 2024
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0:00

This is the Engines of

0:02

Our Ingenuity, made possible by

0:04

the friends of KUHF, Houston.

0:08

Today, as scientists, trials

0:10

and tragedies, the

0:12

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.

0:48

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

2:04

Nine then during World War

2:06

One his older son Carl

2:08

who was killed. In. Shortlisted

2:12

packs twin daughters died

2:14

in childbirth. Movie. Theater

2:17

in Nineteen Seventeen and

2:19

Emma in Nineteen Nineteen.

2:21

Tragedy did not end

2:23

there. During World

2:26

War Two, Pints remained in

2:28

Germany. Initially he stayed in

2:30

Berlin, but it was too

2:32

dangerous so he moved out.

2:34

In Nineteen Forty Four, his

2:36

house and Berlin was bombed

2:38

during an air raid. Only

2:41

a few months later, Max

2:43

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

2:51

Five Planks On Air When

2:53

who was also. His best

2:56

friend was executed by Gestapo

2:58

punk died two years after.

3:00

Max Planck was praised and

3:03

revered by his colleagues, including

3:05

Einstein. He was known for

3:08

his great personal qualities and

3:10

dedication to science. Glancing into

3:13

the life of a scientist

3:15

like Max Planck reminds us

3:18

of the insurance and perseverance

3:20

behind many scientific discoveries. Perhaps

3:22

it can also help. To

3:25

show us the human dimension of

3:27

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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