1 00:00:13,489 --> 00:00:18,909 There are very few Spanish scientists with a relevant level worldwide, very few. 2 00:00:18,909 --> 00:00:20,550 I would say none. 3 00:00:20,550 --> 00:00:22,470 With a really high level, 4 00:00:22,470 --> 00:00:25,029 there is none. We are a few who have a certain level. 5 00:00:25,029 --> 00:00:27,899 We are well-known, etc,etc. 6 00:00:27,899 --> 00:00:30,729 But a work from a Spanish scientist 7 00:00:30,729 --> 00:00:32,860 from Cajal, Cajal without doubt. 8 00:00:32,860 --> 00:00:35,270 But anyway, in the last fifty years, 9 00:00:35,270 --> 00:00:38,900 a bit of Ochoa, who wasn't Spanish but American. 10 00:00:38,900 --> 00:00:41,940 He was born in Spain but he worked in the United States and when they 11 00:00:41,940 --> 00:00:42,790 asked him 12 00:00:42,790 --> 00:00:46,730 he said that he was American, that he felt American. But anyway, 13 00:00:46,730 --> 00:00:47,490 there aren't. 14 00:00:47,490 --> 00:00:51,590 And there aren't because Spain have had very little interest in science. 15 00:00:51,590 --> 00:00:54,340 They have paid very little attention to it. 16 00:00:54,340 --> 00:00:55,770 Before the Civil War 17 00:00:55,770 --> 00:01:00,030 it had figures like del Río Ortega, who was a frontline biologist. 18 00:01:00,030 --> 00:01:03,690 In physics it had Catalán, who trained himself before the Civil War. 19 00:01:03,690 --> 00:01:05,210 Also Blas Cabrera, 20 00:01:05,210 --> 00:01:09,040 who was a very competent physicist, and was able to found a school. He founded 21 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:09,720 a school 22 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:11,370 with a very high level. 23 00:01:11,370 --> 00:01:14,170 There were chemists of a very high level. 24 00:01:14,170 --> 00:01:16,110 There were engineers 25 00:01:16,110 --> 00:01:17,530 like Torres Quevedo 26 00:01:17,530 --> 00:01:21,020 who has made important contributions to computer science. I met him 27 00:01:21,020 --> 00:01:24,090 during the years I worked as a scientific consultant of IBM, 28 00:01:24,090 --> 00:01:25,740 who also knew 29 00:01:25,740 --> 00:01:28,660 Torres Quevedo. 30 00:01:28,660 --> 00:01:31,280 All the people of a high level 31 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,920 disappeared in Spain during the Civil War. 32 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,860 Even if they were not leftist. I don't think that Blas Cabera was leftist, 33 00:01:37,860 --> 00:01:41,490 but they disappeared because they were the important people and they had 34 00:01:41,490 --> 00:01:44,280 important positions. For example, my father-in-low. 35 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,660 He was the Director of the School of Telecommunications. 36 00:01:48,660 --> 00:01:50,310 He was sent to prison. 37 00:01:50,310 --> 00:01:53,810 'He was leftist.' He wasn't leftist! He was a normal person 38 00:01:53,810 --> 00:01:57,939 and he was director because he had been in Germany because he was renowned and therefore he went 39 00:01:57,939 --> 00:01:59,520 to prison for some months. 40 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,800 Then he was fired and then he was reinstated. 41 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,630 But everything he could have done between 42 00:02:05,630 --> 00:02:08,039 1939 and 1956 43 00:02:08,039 --> 00:02:10,379 then remained undone. 44 00:02:10,379 --> 00:02:14,919 And that means that when I started studying physics in the 50s 45 00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:18,349 there was no science in Spain. The science that we had in Spain was that 46 00:02:18,349 --> 00:02:19,319 of the 47 00:02:19,319 --> 00:02:23,429 19th, mid-19th century. 48 00:02:23,429 --> 00:02:28,019 Spanish science did not exist before the 70s. 49 00:02:28,019 --> 00:02:30,089 Therefore, we have to 50 00:02:30,089 --> 00:02:34,369 take into account tradition, and we are creating the tradition right now. 51 00:02:34,369 --> 00:02:38,529 We will have to see in thirty years. 52 00:02:38,529 --> 00:02:43,019 Particle physics tries to examine what the matter that surround us 53 00:02:43,019 --> 00:02:44,299 is made of, 54 00:02:44,299 --> 00:02:48,249 in the most elementary level possible. 55 00:02:48,249 --> 00:02:52,649 And to see what the matter is made of, then we have to break it down into smaller 56 00:02:52,649 --> 00:02:55,129 and smaller pieces. 57 00:02:55,129 --> 00:02:58,849 And as those pieces are each time more strongly linked, 58 00:02:58,849 --> 00:03:02,179 to break them down we need higher energies. 59 00:03:02,179 --> 00:03:06,009 That is why high energies are used and why it is called high energy 60 00:03:06,009 --> 00:03:07,389 physics. 61 00:03:07,389 --> 00:03:11,399 And what is really curious, actually one of the most curious 62 00:03:11,399 --> 00:03:14,289 things we have discovered in this past century 63 00:03:14,289 --> 00:03:18,099 is that all matter is formed by three elementary particles. 64 00:03:18,099 --> 00:03:20,319 It could have been otherwise, it could have been 65 00:03:20,319 --> 00:03:23,819 ninety types of elementary particles. There may not have been types of 66 00:03:23,819 --> 00:03:27,099 elementary particles, but it turns out that everything is formed 67 00:03:27,099 --> 00:03:31,029 by three different types of particles that are called electrons, neutrinos 68 00:03:31,029 --> 00:03:32,619 and quarks. 69 00:03:32,619 --> 00:03:36,989 And the physics that I make consists of , first discovering this, 70 00:03:36,989 --> 00:03:40,889 and then discovering how these elementary particles interact among 71 00:03:40,889 --> 00:03:42,729 them. 72 00:03:42,729 --> 00:03:45,189 Matter is formed by 73 00:03:45,189 --> 00:03:48,029 protons, and protons are also formed by quarks 74 00:03:48,029 --> 00:03:50,339 and the matter is believed to be stable 75 00:03:50,339 --> 00:03:52,969 but it could be that it disintegrated. 76 00:03:52,969 --> 00:03:55,099 And if the matter disintegrated, 77 00:03:55,099 --> 00:03:56,889 in pure energy, 78 00:03:56,889 --> 00:04:00,469 then I think this would be something very important. 79 00:04:00,469 --> 00:04:03,859 I did a work on this, one of the first ones, 80 00:04:03,859 --> 00:04:07,829 but unfortunately the matter didn't want to disintegrate. 81 00:04:07,829 --> 00:04:10,459 And then when they did the experiments 82 00:04:11,529 --> 00:04:15,359 huge experiments with thousands of tons of detectors 83 00:04:15,359 --> 00:04:18,059 and so on, it turned out that the matter didn't disintegrate. 84 00:04:18,059 --> 00:04:19,629 Thus, this work 85 00:04:20,989 --> 00:04:24,690 that at one stage everyone quoted, then everybody stopped quoting it, 86 00:04:24,690 --> 00:04:25,969 and it stopped being interesting. 87 00:04:25,969 --> 00:04:28,759 But I still think that it is a very interesting work 88 00:04:28,759 --> 00:04:29,990 because 89 00:04:29,990 --> 00:04:34,949 one cannot always be right. 90 00:04:34,949 --> 00:04:38,479 There are some people, like unfortunately many of the politicians in our country, 91 00:04:38,479 --> 00:04:41,039 who believe that the country is not interested in science. 92 00:04:41,039 --> 00:04:42,860 I think this is false. 93 00:04:42,860 --> 00:04:47,360 But we scientists tend to believe that the country is very interested in science, and this is also 94 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:48,699 false. 95 00:04:48,699 --> 00:04:51,029 I think it is a matter of fashion. 96 00:04:51,029 --> 00:04:55,090 Suddenly something becomes fashionable in science, 97 00:04:55,090 --> 00:04:58,360 recently cloning and genome, 98 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:00,270 and people are very curious about 99 00:05:00,270 --> 00:05:01,939 cloning and genome. 100 00:05:01,939 --> 00:05:05,959 And then it will stop being fashionable, and something else will become trendy, and people 101 00:05:05,959 --> 00:05:07,029 will change. 102 00:05:07,029 --> 00:05:09,779 But I believe that there is an interest in science. 103 00:05:09,779 --> 00:05:13,610 And I think that we, as scientists, have the duty, 104 00:05:13,610 --> 00:05:17,559 not so much of making science, but undoubtedly important 105 00:05:17,559 --> 00:05:22,430 of trying to approach the audience, let say the external world. 106 00:05:22,430 --> 00:05:24,240 Get out from the ivory tower 107 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:25,660 and get closer to the external world.