1. Science and Technology of Sustainable Energy PHYSICS 108/108G 2009 PHYSICS 108/108G 2009

2. Introduction I Assoc. Prof. Peter Wills Rm 629, Physics Tel: ext 88889 p.wills@auckland.ac.nz Assoc. Prof. Peter Wills Rm 629, Physics Tel: ext 88889 p.wills@auckland.ac.nz

3. Introduction Before – Then – Now – After 1. From Nothing to Something 2. From Something to This 3. From This to What? Before – Then – Now – After 1. From Nothing to Something 2. From Something to This 3. From This to What?

4. Matter The earliest Greek philosophers all came from one small area on the Ionic coast of Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes lived in the prosperous trading port of Miletus, less than 50 kilometres from Heraclitus' city, Ephesus. These philosophers all tried to answer the central question: what was the underlying "stuff" of the universe.

5. Thales, 624-546 BC Thales is considered the father of Greek science, mathematics, and philosophy. For Thales the primary substance was water. Thales also used astronomical records to predict an eclipse in 585 BC

6. Aristotle [Metaphysics 983] Most of the first philosophers thought that principles in the form of matter were the only principles of things. For they say that the element and first principle of the things that exist is that from which they all are and from which they first come into being and into which they are finally destroyed, its substance remaining and its properties changing.

7. Energy If you were to ask a physicist today “What is everything made of?” The answer would be ENERGY If you were to ask a physicist today “What is everything made of?” The answer would be ENERGY

8. Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, (b. near Nelson, New Zealand, Aug. 30, 1871, d. Oct. 19, 1937), perhaps more than any other scientist, formed modern-day views concerning the nature of matter. Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. It could be said that he invented the very language to describe the theoretical concept of the atom.

9. Rutherford

11. Einstein: E = mc 2

12. The atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima, 8.15am 6 August 1945 The atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima, 8.15am 6 August 1945

13. Physical Mythology The Big Bang. The beginning of time and space when a huge amount of energy appears out of nothing. The Big Bang. The beginning of time and space when a huge amount of energy appears out of nothing.

14. Modern science The basis of the Big Bang mythology is our understanding of the laws of physics, everything that has been discovered through the changing tide of science in the last 2500 years, especially, and increasingly, since the time of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.

15. Newtonian mechanics

16. Inertia and gravity The laws of physics are universal and do not depend on your frame of reference (provided it is “inertial”). The same force that causes an apple to fall to earth keeps the moon in its orbit around the earth The laws of physics are universal and do not depend on your frame of reference (provided it is “inertial”). The same force that causes an apple to fall to earth keeps the moon in its orbit around the earth

17. Thermodynamics Mechanical energy and heat are quantitatively equivalent to one another BUT You can never get completely back to where you started Mechanical energy and heat are quantitatively equivalent to one another BUT You can never get completely back to where you started

18. Joule

19. Boltzmann

20. Maxwell – electromagnetism

21. Quantum theory

22. SchrödingerSchrödinger’s cat

23. Fundamental(?) particles CERN LHC

24. General relativity

25. Evolution of galaxies, stars and planets

26. The early earth

27. Increasingly complex chemistry

28. Complex food webs

29. Self-sustaining systems

30. Darwin and phylogeny

31. Sporadic Extinctions

32. Distribution of extinctions

33. Sustainability Why? What? For whom? How? Why? What? For whom? How?