ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Suzie Sheehy - Physicist
Dr. Suzie Sheehy uses accelerator physics to help reinvent technology for applications in medicine, energy and beyond.

Why you should listen

Dr. Suzie Sheehy designs particle accelerators. She's fascinated by using accelerator physics to help us reinvent technology for applications in areas such as medicine and energy. Her research projects have ranged from the design of new cancer treatment accelerators to building a scaled-down experiment that models particle beams -- answering fundamental questions about the physics of beams that are beyond reach of computer simulations.

Sheehy is currently a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she also teaches graduate-level accelerator physics. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne in her native Australia (BSc Hons 2006) and DPhil at the University of Oxford in the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science (2010). She has held fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 (Brunel fellow 2010-2013) as well as her current Royal Society Fellowship.

Alongside her research, Sheehy is a prolific public speaker, presenter and science communicator, for which she has received a number of awards including the British Science Association Lord Kelvin Award, Institute of Physics HEPP Group Science in Society Award and the University of Oxford Vice Chancellors Civic Award. She is an expert TV presenter for Impossible Engineering on Discovery Channel and has cowritten and delivered live headline shows for tens of thousands of students at the Big Bang Fair alongside well known BBC TV presenters. She regularly presents public and schools lectures around the UK and further afield at major science festivals and venues like the Royal Institution.

More profile about the speaker
Suzie Sheehy | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxSydney

Suzie Sheehy: The case for curiosity-driven research

Suzie Sheehy: Defendendo a pesquisa motivada pela curiosidade

Filmed:
1,736,184 views

Pesquisas científicas aparentemente inúteis podem levar a descobertas incríveis, diz a física Suzie Sheehy. Em uma palestra e exposição tecnológica, ela mostra quantas de nossas tecnologias modernas estão ligadas a experimentos centenários, motivados pela curiosidade, e defende uma dedicação maior para que se possa atingir um entendimento mais profundo sobre o mundo.
- Physicist
Dr. Suzie Sheehy uses accelerator physics to help reinvent technology for applications in medicine, energy and beyond. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
In the late 19th century,
scientists were trying to solve a mystery.
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No final do século 19, os cientistas
tentavam resolver um mistério.
00:18
They found that if they had
a vacuum tube like this one
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Descobriram que se tivessem
um tubo a vácuo como este aqui
00:21
and applied a high voltage across it,
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e aplicassem uma alta tensão sobre ele,
00:24
something strange happened.
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alguma coisa estranha acontecia.
00:36
They called them cathode rays.
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Os cientistas os chamaram
de raios catódicos.
00:39
But the question was:
What were they made of?
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Mas a pergunta era:
de que eles eram feitos?
00:42
In England, the 19th century
physicist, J.J. Thompson,
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Na Inglaterra, o físico
do século 19 J.J. Thompson,
00:46
conducted experiments using
magnets and electricity, like this.
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conduziu experimentos usando
ímãs e eletricidade, deste modo.
00:57
And he came to an incredible revelation.
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E chegou a uma revelação incrível.
01:00
These rays were made
of negatively charged particles
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Estes raios eram feitos de partículas
negativamente carregadas
01:04
around 2,000 times lighter
than the hydrogen atom,
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aproximadamente 2 mil vezes mais leves
do que o átomo de hidrogênio,
01:08
the smallest thing they knew.
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a coisa mais pequena que conheciam.
01:10
So Thompson had discovered
the first subatomic particle,
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Thompson tinha descoberto
a primeira partícula subatômica,
01:14
which we now call electrons.
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o que chamamos hoje de elétrons.
01:17
Now, at the time, this seemed to be
a completely impractical discovery.
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Naquele tempo, isto parecia ser
uma descoberta completamente inútil.
01:21
I mean, Thompson didn't think
there were any applications of electrons.
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Thompson não pensava que existiria
alguma aplicação para os elétrons.
01:25
Around his lab in Cambridge,
he used to like to propose a toast:
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No laboratório dele em Cambridge,
ele gostava de propor um brinde:
01:29
"To the electron.
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"Ao elétron. Que ele jamais
seja útil a ninguém".
01:31
May it never be of use to anybody."
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01:33
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
01:36
He was strongly in favor of doing research
out of sheer curiosity,
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Ele era totalmente favorável à realização
de pesquisas por pura curiosidade,
01:40
to arrive at a deeper
understanding of the world.
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para se chegar a um entendimento
mais profundo do mundo.
01:43
And what he found
did cause a revolution in science.
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E o que ele descobriu provocou,
de fato, uma revolução na ciência.
01:47
But it also caused a second,
unexpected revolution in technology.
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Mas também causou uma outra revolução
inesperada no mundo da tecnologia.
01:53
Today, I'd like to make a case
for curiosity-driven research,
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Hoje, gostaria de defender
a pesquisa motivada pela curiosidade,
01:57
because without it,
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por que sem ela,
01:59
none of the technologies
I'll talk about today
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nenhuma das tecnologias das quais falarei
02:01
would have been possible.
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seriam possíveis.
02:04
Now, what Thompson found here
has actually changed our view of reality.
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O que Thompson descobriu aqui
mudou nossa visão sobre a realidade.
02:08
I mean, I think I'm standing on a stage,
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Eu acho que estou de pé em um palco,
e vocês acham que estão
sentados em uma cadeira.
02:11
and you think you're sitting in a seat.
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02:13
But that's just the electrons in your body
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Mas isso são só os elétrons no seu corpo
02:15
pushing back against
the electrons in the seat,
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empurrando os elétrons da cadeira,
02:18
opposing the force of gravity.
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contra a força da gravidade.
02:21
You're not even really touching the seat.
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Vocês não estão nem tocando o assento.
02:24
You're hovering ever so slightly above it.
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Estão flutuando um pouco acima dele.
02:29
But in many ways, our modern society
was actually built on this discovery.
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De muitas formas, nossa sociedade moderna
se ergueu com base nessa descoberta.
02:33
I mean, these tubes
were the start of electronics.
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Estes tubos foram o começo da eletrônica.
02:35
And then for many years,
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E então por vários anos,
02:37
most of us actually had one of these,
if you remember, in your living room,
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a maioria de nós tinha
um destes em nossa sala,
02:40
in cathode ray tube televisions.
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em televisões com tubo de raios catódicos.
02:43
But -- I mean, how impoverished
would our lives be
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Mas o quão empobrecida seria a nossa vida
02:46
if the only invention that had come
from here was the television?
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se a única invenção que tivesse surgido
daqui fosse a televisão?
02:50
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:52
Thankfully, this tube was just a start,
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Felizmente, este tubo foi só o começo,
02:55
because something else happens
when the electrons here
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porque outra coisa acontece
quando os elétrons daqui
02:57
hit the piece of metal inside the tube.
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atingem o pedaço de metal dentro do tubo.
03:00
Let me show you.
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Deixem-me lhes mostrar.
03:04
Pop this one back on.
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Ligo isto novamente.
03:07
So as the electrons
screech to a halt inside the metal,
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Enquanto os elétrons berram
até parar dentro do metal,
03:10
their energy gets thrown out again
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a energia deles é jogada para fora de novo
03:12
in a form of high-energy light,
which we call X-rays.
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na forma de luz de alta energia,
o que chamamos de raios-X.
03:16
(Buzzing)
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(Zumbido)
03:19
(Buzzing)
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(Zumbido)
03:21
And within 15 years
of discovering the electron,
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No prazo de 15 anos
após a descoberta do elétron,
03:24
these X-rays were being used
to make images inside the human body,
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estes raios-X eram usados para fazer
imagens dentro do corpo humano,
03:29
helping soldiers' lives
being saved by surgeons,
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ajudando cirurgiões
a salvar vidas de soldados,
03:33
who could then find pieces of bullets
and shrapnel inside their bodies.
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quando encontravam pedaços de balas
e estilhaços dentro do corpo deles.
03:38
But there's no way we could have
come up with that technology
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Mas não teríamos como inventar
essa tecnologia
03:41
by asking scientists to build
better surgical probes.
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pedindo aos cientistas para criarem
sondas cirúrgicas melhores.
03:45
Only research done out of sheer curiosity,
with no application in mind,
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Somente a pesquisa realizada por pura
curiosidade, sem aplicação em mente,
03:50
could have given us the discovery
of the electron and X-rays.
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poderia nos ter levado à descoberta
do elétron e dos raios-X.
03:54
Now, this tube also threw open the gates
for our understanding of the universe
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Este tubo também abriu as portas
para nosso entendimento do Universo
04:00
and the field of particle physics,
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e do campo da física de partículas,
04:02
because it's also the first,
very simple particle accelerator.
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por que ele também é o primeiro
acelerador de partículas.
04:07
Now, I'm an accelerator physicist,
so I design particle accelerators,
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Sou física de aceleradores,
projeto aceleradores de partículas,
04:11
and I try and understand how beams behave.
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e tento entender como
os feixes de luz se comportam.
04:15
And my field's a bit unusual,
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E o meu campo é um pouco incomum,
04:16
because it crosses between
curiosity-driven research
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porque ele mistura a pesquisa
motivada pela curiosidade
04:20
and technology with
real-world applications.
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e tecnologias com aplicações reais.
04:24
But it's the combination
of those two things
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Mas é a combinação de duas coisas
04:26
that gets me really excited
about what I do.
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que me deixam muito animada
sobre aquilo que faço.
04:30
Now, over the last 100 years,
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Nos últimos 100 anos,
04:32
there have been far too many examples
for me to list them all.
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tivemos vários exemplos
e não vou conseguir listar todos.
04:35
But I want to share with you just a few.
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Mas quero compartilhar com vocês alguns.
04:37
In 1928, a physicist named Paul Dirac
found something strange in his equations.
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Em 1928, um físico chamado Paul Dirac
viu algo estranho com as equações dele.
04:43
And he predicted, based purely
on mathematical insight,
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E previu, baseando-se puramente
em insights matemáticos,
04:48
that there ought to be
a second kind of matter,
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que deveria existir
um segundo tipo de matéria,
04:51
the opposite to normal matter,
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o oposto da matéria normal,
04:53
that literally annihilates
when it comes in contact:
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que literalmente aniquila
quando entra em contato:
04:57
antimatter.
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a antimatéria.
04:59
I mean, the idea sounded ridiculous.
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A ideia parecia ridícula.
05:02
But within four years, they'd found it.
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Mas dentro de quatro anos, eles a acharam.
05:04
And nowadays, we use it
every day in hospitals,
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E hoje, usamos isso
todos os dias em hospitais,
05:07
in positron emission tomography,
or PET scans, used for detecting disease.
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em tomografias por emissão de positrões,
ou em TEPs, usadas para detectar doenças.
05:13
Or, take these X-rays.
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Vejam estes raios-X.
05:15
If you can get these electrons
up to a higher energy,
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Se conseguir levar estes elétrons
a uma energia superior,
05:18
so about 1,000 times higher
that this tube,
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aproximadamente mil vezes
superior àquela neste tubo,
05:21
the X-rays that those produce
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os raios-X que estes produzem
05:24
can actually deliver enough
ionizing radiation to kill human cells.
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podem entregar radiação ionizada
suficiente para matar células humanas.
05:28
And if you can shape and direct
those X-rays where you want them to go,
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Se puder moldar e direcionar
estes raios-X para onde quer que seja,
05:32
that allows us to do an incredible thing:
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isso nos permite fazer uma coisa incrível:
05:35
to treat cancer without drugs or surgery,
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tratar o câncer sem drogas ou cirurgia,
05:38
which we call radiotherapy.
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o que chamamos de radioterapia.
05:40
In countries like Australia and the UK,
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Em países como Austrália e no Reino Unido,
05:43
around half of all cancer patients
are treated using radiotherapy.
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aproximadamente metade dos pacientes
com câncer são tratados com radioterapia.
05:47
And so, electron accelerators
are actually standard equipment
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Então, os aceleradores de elétrons
são equipamentos padrão
05:51
in most hospitals.
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na maioria dos hospitais.
05:53
Or, a little closer to home:
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Um exemplo mais próximo de casa:
05:56
if you have a smartphone or a computer --
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se vocês têm um smartphone
ou um computador,
05:58
and this is TEDx, so you've got
both with you right now, right?
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e isso é o TEDx, então vocês têm
ambos agora mesmo, certo?
06:03
Well, inside those devices
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Dentro destes aparelhos
06:06
are chips that are made
by implanting single ions into silicon,
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temos chips produzidos através
da implantação de íons no silício,
06:10
in a process called ion implantation.
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em um processo chamado implantação de íon.
06:13
And that uses a particle accelerator.
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E isso usa um acelerador de partículas.
06:18
Without curiosity-driven research, though,
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Sem a pesquisa motivada pela curiosidade,
06:22
none of these things would exist at all.
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nenhuma destas coisas existiria.
06:27
So, over the years, we really learned
to explore inside the atom.
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Ao longo dos anos, realmente aprendemos
a explorar dentro do átomo.
06:33
And to do that, we had to learn
to develop particle accelerators.
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E para fazer isso, tivemos que aprender
a desenvolver aceleradores de partículas.
06:37
The first ones we developed
let us split the atom.
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Os primeiros que desenvolvemos
nos permitiram dividir o átomo.
06:41
And then we got to higher
and higher energies;
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E então fomos a energias cada vez maiores;
06:45
we created circular accelerators
that let us delve into the nucleus
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criamos aceleradores circulares
que nos permitem analisar o núcleo
06:49
and then create new elements, even.
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e então criar novos elementos.
06:53
And at that point, we were no longer
just exploring inside the atom.
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E naquele momento, não estávamos
somente explorando o interior do átomo.
06:58
We'd actually learned
how to control these particles.
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Tínhamos aprendido
a controlar estas partículas.
07:01
We'd learned how to interact
with our world
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Tínhamos aprendido
a interagir com nosso mundo
07:03
on a scale that's too small
for humans to see or touch
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em uma escala pequena demais
para as pessoas verem, tocarem
07:08
or even sense that it's there.
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ou até mesmo sentirem que isto está ali.
07:12
And then we built larger
and larger accelerators,
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E então construímos
aceleradores cada vez maiores,
07:16
because we were curious
about the nature of the universe.
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porque estávamos curiosos
sobre a natureza do Universo.
07:19
As we went deeper and deeper,
new particles started popping up.
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Enquanto nos aprofundávamos,
novas partículas começaram a aparecer.
07:24
Eventually, we got to huge
ring-like machines
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Por fim, chegamos a enormes
máquinas em formato de anel
07:27
that take two beams of particles
in opposite directions,
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que pegam dois feixes
de partículas em direções opostas,
apertam-nas até ficarem menores
que a espessura do fio de cabelo
07:31
squeeze them down
to less than the width of a hair
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07:33
and smash them together.
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e esmagam-nas juntas.
07:35
And then, using Einstein's E=mc2,
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E então, usando "E=mc2" de Einstein,
07:38
you can take all of that energy
and convert it into new matter,
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pode-se pegar toda esta energia
e convertê-la em uma nova matéria,
07:42
new particles which we rip
from the very fabric of the universe.
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novas partículas que arrancamos
da própria estrutura do Universo.
07:48
Nowadays, there are
about 35,000 accelerators in the world,
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Nos dias de hoje, existem aproximadamente
35 mil aceleradores no mundo,
07:53
not including televisions.
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sem incluir as televisões.
07:55
And inside each one of these
incredible machines,
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E dentro de cada uma
dessas máquinas incríveis,
07:59
there are hundreds and billions
of tiny particles,
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existem centenas e bilhões
de partículas minúsculas,
08:02
dancing and swirling in systems
that are more complex
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dançando e circulando em sistemas
que são mais complexos
08:06
than the formation of galaxies.
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do que a formação de galáxias.
08:08
You guys, I can't even begin to explain
how incredible it is
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Não posso nem mesmo começar
a explicar o quão incrível é o fato
08:12
that we can do this.
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de que podemos fazer isso.
08:14
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
08:16
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
08:23
So I want to encourage you
to invest your time and energy
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Quero encorajá-los a investir
o tempo e a energia de vocês
08:27
in people that do
curiosity-driven research.
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em pessoas que fazem pesquisas
motivadas pela curiosidade.
08:31
It was Jonathan Swift who once said,
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Foi Jonathan Swift quem disse uma vez:
08:34
"Vision is the art
of seeing the invisible."
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"Visão é a arte de ver o invisível".
08:38
And over a century ago,
J.J. Thompson did just that,
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E há mais de um século,
J.J. Thompson fez justamente isso,
08:41
when he pulled back the veil
on the subatomic world.
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quando desencobriu o véu
do mundo subatômico.
08:45
And now we need to invest
in curiosity-driven research,
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E agora temos que investir
em pesquisas motivadas pela curiosidade,
08:49
because we have so many
challenges that we face.
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porque enfrentamos muitos desafios.
08:52
And we need patience;
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E precisamos de paciência;
08:54
we need to give scientists the time,
the space and the means
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precisamos dar aos cientistas
o tempo, o espaço e os meios
08:58
to continue their quest,
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para continuarem a jornada deles,
09:00
because history tells us
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porque a história nos conta
09:02
that if we can remain
curious and open-minded
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que se permanecermos curiosos e abertos
09:05
about the outcomes of research,
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sobre os resultados de pesquisas,
09:08
the more world-changing
our discoveries will be.
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mais capazes de mudar o mundo
nossas descobertas serão.
09:11
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
09:12
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Thales Castro
Reviewed by Maricene Crus

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Suzie Sheehy - Physicist
Dr. Suzie Sheehy uses accelerator physics to help reinvent technology for applications in medicine, energy and beyond.

Why you should listen

Dr. Suzie Sheehy designs particle accelerators. She's fascinated by using accelerator physics to help us reinvent technology for applications in areas such as medicine and energy. Her research projects have ranged from the design of new cancer treatment accelerators to building a scaled-down experiment that models particle beams -- answering fundamental questions about the physics of beams that are beyond reach of computer simulations.

Sheehy is currently a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she also teaches graduate-level accelerator physics. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne in her native Australia (BSc Hons 2006) and DPhil at the University of Oxford in the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science (2010). She has held fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 (Brunel fellow 2010-2013) as well as her current Royal Society Fellowship.

Alongside her research, Sheehy is a prolific public speaker, presenter and science communicator, for which she has received a number of awards including the British Science Association Lord Kelvin Award, Institute of Physics HEPP Group Science in Society Award and the University of Oxford Vice Chancellors Civic Award. She is an expert TV presenter for Impossible Engineering on Discovery Channel and has cowritten and delivered live headline shows for tens of thousands of students at the Big Bang Fair alongside well known BBC TV presenters. She regularly presents public and schools lectures around the UK and further afield at major science festivals and venues like the Royal Institution.

More profile about the speaker
Suzie Sheehy | Speaker | TED.com