KAILUA-KONA — Some awards demand attention, even from supposedly jaded high school students.
Such as the Nobel Prize, when one of the laureates visited the Kealakehe High School library Wednesday to talk with teenagers about science and the future.
“I think everyone has a desire to ask questions and answer questions,” said Klaus von Klitzing, who earned the 1985 Nobel Prize in physics for discovering one of the fundamental rules of the universe, on what will keep young minds driven to his field. “This is the essence of science, ja?”
The German physicist’s discovery, named the Von Klitzing Constant, helps explain the electrical resistance of objects. The breakthrough opened up new research fields that saw developments in computers, semiconductors and nanotechnology — science, engineering and technology conducted at the molecular level.
The discovery also changes how humanity will weigh things, by redefining the kilogram.
The kilogram is based on a chunk of metal stored on the outskirts of Paris.
“If this kilogram disappears, no one knows what a kilogram is,” said von Klitzing, of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany.
In 2018, the world will switch to a measurement based on the Von Klitzing Constant and Planck Constant. The Planck Constant is a measurement of energy over distance.
But, the physicist said, that switch won’t turn everyone’s world upside down.
“In the daily life, nothing will change,” he said.
He said it’s part of a continual program to base measurement systems on the laws of the universe, rather than things like the distance of the Earth’s poles to the equator.
He traced that idea back to a statement by scientist Max Planck in 1899, that all measurements “necessarily retain their significance for all times and all cultures, even alien and non-human ones.”
The award wasn’t the end, he said, although the dinner was excellent.
“What happens after the Nobel Prize?” he asked.
For him, it meant more research into the areas opened up by the discovery.
It also meant buying a house outside Stuttgart with the money that came with it.
Von Klitzing’s talk included questions from students and faculty.
A student asked how he’d gotten into the field.
Von Klitzing said he enjoyed math, but when he got into pure math at the college level, it was dry and disconnected. So he moved to physics.
“In physics you can apply math to all sorts of subjects,” he said, adding that young minds should be introduced to the field at an early age.
He’s scheduled to visit Konawaena High School at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
The event was arranged by Edward Shapiro, a Russo-American scientist, engineer and inventor.
He believes it’s important to spread the inspiration of Nobel laureates.
In his native Russia, he and his team translated all the Nobel speeches by laureates, creating a 60 volume collection.
When he was in the United States he considered doing the same in English, but could not find funding.
“I don’t need books. I have people,” he realized, and began feeling out laureates.
He sends birthday cards every year to Nobel laureates through his group, Nobel Laureates School Visits. He hopes they will join the program. Some reply, he said, some do not.
Von Klitzing was one of those who replied, volunteering that he would be in Waikoloa for an industry conference.
Shapiro told the crowd in his opening remarks that all Nobel laureates are curious, love to learn, have civic courage and scientific integrity, and are diligent, working as long as needed.
“He is outrageous in his love of science and people,” Shapiro said.