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People, good afternoon, good, no, it's good morning, good afternoon and good evening.

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Wherever you are in this beautiful, wonderful world, I'm your host, John Sandyford, aka

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Jam Sandyford, and this is the Sunside Kingdom Show, the place where we highlight individuals

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hailing from the Dutch Caribbean that are true role models in whatever it is that they

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chose to pursue.

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Today we have with us a very special guest.

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We met actually just a few weeks ago, and as I was asking and trying to inquire about

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role models hailing from the Dutch Caribbean, beautiful island of Bonaire, that turquoise

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sea, the best diving spots in the world, it was unanimous that I had to interview this

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guy.

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And once I heard what he's up to, I thought, damn, I didn't thought I was going to meet

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someone that was actually busy in this field.

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So today we have with us Dylan van Arnemond, have that correct?

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All right.

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A passionate astroparticle physicist.

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So some of you may have to Google what that means, but he'll explain it in a while.

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Born from Bonaire and Amsterdam, making significant contributions as a PhD candidate at the Dutch

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National Institute for Subatomic Physics.

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Damn.

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Yeah.

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That's some stuff that I only see in the movies, man.

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He's a young CERN scientist actively involved in the ATLAS experiment with a mission to

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increase diversity in science by inspiring underrepresented communities.

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And you know, that's all what we're here for, right?

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Mainly Caribbean people, that science is awesome and there's a need for diversity in the field.

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Welcome to the Sunside Kingdom Show.

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All right.

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Let's dive into early childhood.

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Where did you grow up specifically?

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So I grew up, so technically I was born in the Netherlands.

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Yeah.

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But when I was about four or five, I actually moved back to Bonaire where my father is from.

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Yeah.

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So I don't really have any memories living in the Netherlands, honestly.

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So I would say I just fully grew up on Bonaire.

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Yeah.

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And where's your mom from?

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So my mom is from the Netherlands.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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So I'm technically half Dutch, half Bonairean, but I really mostly identify as just full

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Bonairean, especially culturally.

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Yeah.

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Most definitely.

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Yeah, I could imagine, especially if you've been there since four years old and you...

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Once you spend significant amount of time on the islands, you're just going to be identified

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as an islander.

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Yeah.

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The island fully shaped who I am today, for sure.

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Yeah.

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Awesome.

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So born in Amsterdam, grew up in Bonaire.

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So what was that like in the early days growing up on Bonaire?

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Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a different experience from what I hear from my friends

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and colleagues here in Europe now, I think, because Bonaire is a very tiny island.

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Yeah.

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And especially back then, I think we had a population between 12 and 15,000 people or

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something.

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So it's a very, very close knit type community.

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Everybody knows each other, which has pros and it has cons, of course.

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But I'm sure that many Caribbean people can relate to this.

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It's not a Bonaire specific thing.

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Yeah, for sure.

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But also, I did notice, for example, if I compare it to some cousins that I had in the

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Netherlands, that the sort of things that we can do is definitely very different in

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terms of as a kid.

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Yeah.

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So for example, if we had nothing to do, we would either go play on the streets or we would

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go to the beach or something like that.

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We didn't really have toy stores, for example.

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So we were really focused on enjoying the island.

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Creativity, actually.

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Creativity.

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And actively coming up with ways to combat boredom.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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So did you guys climb trees and battle with sticks?

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Battling with sticks.

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I remember playing baseball in the forests, just using random sticks and throwing rocks

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at each other.

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Sounds like real Caribbean stuff.

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Yeah.

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Awesome.

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So during childhood, were there any specific moments that you can remember that maybe started

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to trigger the interest in science?

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I think this is going to sound like a big promo for Bonaire, but nature really plays

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a very big role in the identity of Bonaire, in my opinion, at least.

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And because of that, I really saw nature everywhere.

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So something that I would really love to do is go to our national park, where it's basically

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a whole nature reserve.

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And this is where I sort of fell in love with the idea of nature and things developing.

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So I learned, for example, a lot about geology just by walking around in that park, looking

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at the structures, and then also not only looking at the ground, but then looking up

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into the sky and seeing the stars, and then looking in front of me and seeing the waves.

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And so all of these different things all really connected me to nature.

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And I had this sort of intrinsic feeling that I wanted to understand all of it.

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And I think being on Bonaire really helped me with that as well.

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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That's awesome.

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And I think comparatively, so I know many people in the Netherlands or maybe even in

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the US, England, wherever they're watching this from that haven't fully experienced the

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Caribbean context, they may not understand how the six islands are connected, but they're

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also very different and sort of unique in their own way.

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And Bonaire, Saba, and Cintastatius are still, well, up to a few years ago, still pretty

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much untouched.

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Yes.

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So a lot of the nature was and is still very much highly preserved in comparison with Aruba

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or Curaçao or Saint Martin even, where there are spots that are still reserved, but there

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also has been a lot of development.

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So I could imagine that the amount of nature interaction was on a higher level growing

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up in Bonaire.

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Yeah, definitely.

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Definitely.

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Bonaire is also known for its dive in beautiful underwater nature.

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So have you also spent some time diving?

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So I'm actually one of the few people who doesn't dive.

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I love snorkeling a lot.

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I love looking at the colors and the fish and I love being in the water, but I've never

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been deeper than three or four meters.

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That's as much as my body can handle.

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But I hope to be able to dive in the future.

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It's definitely something on my bucket list.

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Oh, awesome.

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So we touched on those early interactions with nature that sort of sparked the interest.

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So what was high school like?

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Did you then also study physics and all the science packages?

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Yeah, most definitely.

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So I think when I started high school, I was about 12 and then I had no idea what I wanted

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to do.

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I actually thought I would go more into history or something.

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But then it wasn't until the second year of secondary school that I really realized that

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mathematics is a lot of fun.

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And then I was like, okay, I want to do math or I want to do something related to math.

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And then a couple of years after that, I found out that you can use math to describe nature.

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And this is called physics.

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And that's when my love for physics started and it only grew since then.

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That's interesting because that initial love and wanting to understand things was born

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earlier.

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And then at some point there was a love for mathematics that grew.

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And then at some point they connected like, oh my God, these two actually connect.

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And that's this thing called physics.

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So then you went in the footsteps of Mr. Einstein and others, Isaac Newton and all of those

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before him.

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The giants.

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The giants.

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Yeah.

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I also studied physics in high school.

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I didn't go as deep as obviously you went, but I know the basics.

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Did you enjoy it?

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I did enjoy certain aspects of it.

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I really love the Newton's laws.

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Like for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction is something that you just

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see in not only in nature, but just in human interactions on a daily basis.

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So if you spew out negative energy, you're almost certain to get back that negative energy.

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And once you're sending out positivity, then you're more likely to receive back positivity

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and it's interesting how that dynamic goes.

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So tell us some more about how the interest then was, how it grew deeper to basically

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lead from high school interest and love and passion to moving on to bigger things.

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So I think I must've been around 15 or 16 maybe when I really fell in love with astronomy

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as well.

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And then my father told me about this thing called quantum mechanics, which basically

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doesn't describe astronomy at all.

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It describes the very smallest, the particles and the atoms and things that were made out

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of.

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And at the time, I thought that there was somehow a link between how the planets rotate

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around the sun and how an electron, for example, rotates around the core of an atom.

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And so I thought, oh, so this way I can look at stars and I can look at the smallest and

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I can use the same ideas and maybe I'll come up with something new.

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And it turned out that this is a very, very oversimplified vision of physics, but this

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made me really want to understand it because I was like, well, what is this link between

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the stars and the particles?

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And then it was a happy coincidence, I think, that in 2012, when I was in the middle of

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high school, that the Higgs particle was detected at CERN where I work now.

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And this is the first time that I really heard the term particle physics.

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And all I knew about this is that they use magnets to do a bunch of cool things and you

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can discover things and find things and play around.

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And I was like, okay, now I know for sure this is what I want to do.

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And then the first thing I did is I looked up which universities in the Netherlands can

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I do this at.

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And how old were you then?

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I think I was about 16 or so.

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And in which year were you then?

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What did you do?

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Havel?

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I did VBO.

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And so you're in VBO what?

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I was in VBO four or five, I think.

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So I already knew at the start of VBO that I want to do something physics related, but

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definitely in VBO five I was like, yes, particle physics, this is the coolest.

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So how long ago was that?

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So this was about 2012, 2013.

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Okay so about 12 years ago.

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Because I'm going to relate it right now to something very comical, the actually comic

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book stuff.

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You know the Flash?

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I do.

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Have you seen the series?

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I haven't actually.

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The last couple seasons have been pretty trash, but the first couple seasons were pretty good.

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And there's a particle accelerator in there.

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And the particle accelerator is used a lot in the plot of the series, but without giving

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too much away.

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One of the Flash's enemies, which is Reverse Flash, needed to regain his powers by using

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the quantum, not the particle accelerator.

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So for those that want to have a bit more of an understanding of what he does, but not

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fully 100%, watch the Flash.

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Or also, you know, Into the Spider-Verse?

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The Collider actually in the beginning, in the first movie, is based off of one of the

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Colliders that we have.

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So it looks like the exact same model even.

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So it's inspiring a lot of comic books.

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So it's inspired by then, most likely.

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Okay, so Into the Spider-Verse is one, the Flash is another one.

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So if you're going Marvel, Into the Spider-Verse, DC, the Flash.

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Awesome.

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So you mentioned earlier that your dad taught mathematics and what else?

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And computer science.

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Mathematics and computer science.

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So along the way, in those early years of Discovery, he also played a major role in

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helping shape and guide.

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Yeah, I think it was actually, it was really good teamwork between both of my parents because

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my mom was more linguist and humanity based.

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But she really sort of stimulated my curiosity.

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And then my father was a bit more technical.

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So then he stimulated the more mathematics.

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And so then the curiosity plus the technical bit combined together to form the physics.

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Oh, nice, nice.

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Awesome.

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And besides your dad and your mom, were there other quote unquote mentors in your life that

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helped guide you along this path?

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Yeah, I mean, definitely the teachers or some of the teachers that I had in high school,

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for sure.

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It's actually really cool.

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The physics teacher that was president on Bonaire at the time in the high school, he

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had a PhD in string theory, which is sort of the top of the line, most physics thing

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that you can imagine.

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And so getting just regular beginner level physics from a string theorist was amazing,

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because he knew everything.

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He knew all the background information that you needed, everything, so that he definitely

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was a huge, huge help.

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So besides just the regular classes and lessons, would you also go and ask him a bunch of additional

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questions?

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Yeah, yeah.

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And he at some point, he sent me a link to this website where I could follow a sort of

246
00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:40,840
online astronomy course.

247
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:42,920
And then we did that at the same time at some point.

248
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,600
And we were like, oh, did you look at today's module?

249
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:47,600
Very nerdy stuff.

250
00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:52,840
So you got to completely nerd out with your string theorist teacher.

251
00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,140
So what brought him to Bonaire?

252
00:14:55,140 --> 00:14:56,560
I don't really know.

253
00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:58,640
And it's really unfortunate because-

254
00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:00,720
Because I'm just assuming that he's not from Bonaire.

255
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:01,720
Yeah, indeed.

256
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:03,760
Yeah, yeah, he's a Dutch man.

257
00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:08,560
Maner Halson, shout out if he's watching or listening.

258
00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:15,120
But yeah, I think he arrived about a year or two before I started physics, started physics

259
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:18,200
in high school, so before I entered the Bofenbao.

260
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,080
And then he also left, I think, two years after me.

261
00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:25,800
So for me, it was like the ideal timing, but unfortunately, he left after me.

262
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:33,240
I'm shaking my head now because as I'm listening to your story, I know usually those that are

263
00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:46,200
very deep into physics and science may not believe in coincidences and serendipity and

264
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,120
everything happens for a reason.

265
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,720
But that definitely sounds like one of those situations.

266
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:53,560
It happens for a reason.

267
00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:55,240
Could be, yeah.

268
00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,600
But then yeah, it's a shame though, because I got lucky.

269
00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:02,220
But that means that maybe the people like one or two years after me missed out, which

270
00:16:02,220 --> 00:16:04,600
is a little bit of a shame, I think.

271
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,560
I don't really know what the current state is of the physics teachers there now.

272
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,200
But yeah, I think that Maner Halson was really, really great.

273
00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:16,280
So I think it's sad that he left, unfortunately.

274
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:17,280
Unfortunately.

275
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:23,880
And besides Maner Halson, are there any other mentors that you can think of right now?

276
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:29,880
Not a specific mentor, but I think just the general environment was already very stimulating

277
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:31,240
for me.

278
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:36,400
I think people from Maner are always trying to root for go and do your best.

279
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,840
And then they always say, go and come back.

280
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:43,660
The second part, I'm not so sure about at the moment.

281
00:16:43,660 --> 00:16:45,200
But at least go and do your back.

282
00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:46,200
You really feel that.

283
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,800
You really feel like when you're leaving that people are sort of, you do leave, maybe you

284
00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:55,600
step on the plane by yourself, but you feel sort of the island pushing you, but not pushing

285
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:58,320
you away, but sort of helping you.

286
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:05,200
Helping you to make that jump to go out there into the big open world and discover what

287
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:07,200
you need to discover.

288
00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:14,440
Well, I mean, I've also been here now for 20 years.

289
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,520
That time flies by.

290
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:22,240
So I believe that you can give back even without moving back.

291
00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:28,080
And especially in the modern age with media and all these different mediums that we have

292
00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:33,640
to our disposal, there's lots of ways that we can still connect back to home and give

293
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:36,600
back without physically having to be there.

294
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:44,200
And sometimes it's good that you have your ambassadors all around the world.

295
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:50,220
So what would you say, what is the importance of having mentors actually?

296
00:17:50,220 --> 00:17:56,080
I think first of all, it's somebody who believes in you so that you know that your dreams are

297
00:17:56,080 --> 00:18:00,660
actually possible, that it's not like a crazy fantasy and you're just daydreaming and never

298
00:18:00,660 --> 00:18:02,160
going to succeed.

299
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:03,900
So I think that's the first thing.

300
00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:04,900
And I think secondly-

301
00:18:04,900 --> 00:18:10,520
Because where there are a lot of those moments where you may feel as a teenager that, oh,

302
00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:18,640
these are just crazy ideas, and then you would get confirmation.

303
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,040
My head was going for bevesting.

304
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:27,560
That you would get confirmation from your quote unquote mentors that keep going on.

305
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:28,560
Definitely.

306
00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:33,160
And it's just even very small things where if you maybe say, if you give off the impression

307
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:38,800
that you don't know what you're doing, that for example, your teacher would be like, oh,

308
00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:41,540
yeah, no, but I think you're on the right path.

309
00:18:41,540 --> 00:18:45,620
And just that little small sentence, I think that really does a lot.

310
00:18:45,620 --> 00:18:51,000
And especially if it keeps happening, I think it's a very valuable thing for sure.

311
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:57,300
So then maybe let's jump to the flip side of it because I'm unpacking some other stuff

312
00:18:57,300 --> 00:19:00,240
here today.

313
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:06,400
So were there also teachers that maybe were a bit more discouraging rather than encouraging?

314
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:07,400
Not to me.

315
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:09,560
We don't have to name any names.

316
00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:15,520
Not to me, but I have seen it happen to my classmates, especially people who had language

317
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,240
issues, for example, because that's the whole thing on Bonaire.

318
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:20,160
We don't speak Dutch.

319
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:22,720
We do, but we don't speak Dutch with each other.

320
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,640
We speak Dutch mostly with teachers or in the government or something.

321
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:27,680
So you spoke Dutch with your mom at home?

322
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:28,680
Yeah.

323
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:29,680
Okay.

324
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,800
So that gave you an advantage over the average.

325
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:32,800
That definitely helped.

326
00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:37,360
But I had a lot of friends, also people who come from South America, for example, who

327
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:39,900
still had to get used to the Dutch language.

328
00:19:39,900 --> 00:19:44,800
And I've seen and I've heard stories and I've seen it happen where teachers are just like,

329
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,400
oh, yeah, no, your Dutch is not good enough.

330
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,720
Maybe you should just find something else to do.

331
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,920
And then, yeah, so unfortunately that also happened.

332
00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:57,280
I don't know what the state is of things now, but at least in my time, this was definitely

333
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,280
a thing that was happening.

334
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:02,400
Yeah, I've seen that happen in my time as well.

335
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:09,160
I just wanted to touch on it because your story seems to have a few of these key figures

336
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,920
that were constant in your life that could constantly give you that encouragement.

337
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:18,720
But I know not everyone has the same experience.

338
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:23,520
And for those that might be listening that haven't had that experience, just know that,

339
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,760
well, I'll say it, we'll say it, keep going.

340
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:28,760
For sure.

341
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,000
Yeah, most definitely.

342
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,080
So let's get into the college time.

343
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:43,440
So when 18, when you came to the Netherlands, and what was that path like and what led to

344
00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:50,040
where you are today in CERN, which you'll have to unpack in a bit for the viewers, because

345
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,600
I don't think the average person knows about CERN.

346
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:56,520
Well, I'm happy to explain as much as I can.

347
00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:05,280
Yeah, so I moved to Amsterdam in July 2015, and I had just turned 18.

348
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,720
So I was really freshly an adult.

349
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,720
Now I'm 26, and I don't think 18 year olds, I don't know if they're really adults, but

350
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,600
I thought I was a true adult.

351
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:14,600
We all did.

352
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:15,600
Yeah.

353
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,840
I also look back like 18 year olds.

354
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:21,880
You can put this out there, editor.

355
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:23,880
Y'all don't know shit.

356
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:24,960
Exactly.

357
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,160
You feel you know everything, but you don't.

358
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:29,880
You really think you do, but you definitely...

359
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:30,880
Yeah.

360
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:31,880
Yeah.

361
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:32,880
It's just beginning.

362
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:33,880
Yeah.

363
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,720
So I was fresh, pipsqueak in the Netherlands.

364
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,080
And then thankfully, my older brother was already there for a while.

365
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,200
He had been there for two years.

366
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:44,880
And we lived very close to each other.

367
00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:45,880
I said I moved to Amsterdam.

368
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:48,240
It's not technically true for people who live in Amsterdam.

369
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:53,200
I lived in Diemen, which for Amsterdam people, that's a real difference.

370
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,280
For the rest of us, that's all Amsterdam.

371
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:56,280
Yeah.

372
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,600
It's literally like I would walk for two minutes and then I'm in Amsterdam.

373
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:01,120
But yeah, we lived super close to each other.

374
00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:02,120
So that was really nice.

375
00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,080
So we really had that sort of connection.

376
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,320
I really didn't feel very alone because of that.

377
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:12,200
And we had a very big Caribbean community around there too, a lot of people from St.

378
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,320
Martin as well, which was really nice.

379
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,880
That was actually my first real exposure actually to people from St. Martin.

380
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:19,880
I could imagine.

381
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:20,880
Yeah.

382
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:22,920
And then I started my bachelor's.

383
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,280
I had no idea what I was getting into.

384
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:30,520
So I was very excited, but I really didn't know what it was going to be like.

385
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,280
And in the beginning, it was definitely, I had to get used to it.

386
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,040
The first year was a lot of work.

387
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:40,600
We had classes from nine in the morning up until late in the day.

388
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:44,160
And just the whole structure of the way everything worked was different from high school.

389
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:49,760
I knew it was going to be different, but I didn't know what it was going to be.

390
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:55,240
And then eventually I moved on to the second year and the third year.

391
00:22:55,240 --> 00:23:00,240
And by the third year, things had changed because it got a lot more international.

392
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:05,520
So the bachelor's that I did had a Dutch name, Natuur en Stedekunde.

393
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:07,760
And the first two years are in Dutch.

394
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,600
And then the third year is fully in English, which allowed for a lot of more international

395
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,680
students to come and join in on the courses.

396
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:15,880
Because you did university.

397
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,880
And the first two years, how many years was the bachelor's?

398
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:19,880
Three.

399
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:20,880
Three years.

400
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:25,480
So the first two were fully in Dutch and then the final year was international.

401
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:26,480
Yeah.

402
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,560
And I think that's when things really got different.

403
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:35,560
Because I noticed in the first year, it was a bit difficult for me to really feel at home

404
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,040
with the rest of the students.

405
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,920
So because I think a lot of Caribbean folks can relate.

406
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:43,160
Yeah.

407
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:49,320
It's really coming here as a person from the Caribbean who already speaks Dutch was very

408
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:54,160
strange because the Dutch that I spoke, I spoke at either at home with my parents or

409
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,000
at school with teachers.

410
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,800
So my Dutch was fine, but it was really formal.

411
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,960
And I wasn't used to speaking with young people in Dutch.

412
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:04,520
And speaking in slang.

413
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:05,520
Exactly.

414
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:06,520
Exactly.

415
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:07,520
What are you saying?

416
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:08,520
Exactly.

417
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:09,520
Yeah, exactly.

418
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:10,560
So I would talk to my peers.

419
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:17,200
I would talk to people my age, but I would feel like I'm talking to older people, adults.

420
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:21,680
And that made me feel a little bit uncomfortable actually to the point that I didn't really

421
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,160
interact as much.

422
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:29,640
I would only do practical interactions where it's like, oh, what was the homework?

423
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:30,920
More like work based.

424
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:31,920
Yeah.

425
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,280
It was more business, not pleasure type of situation.

426
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:36,280
Yeah.

427
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,000
And that's why I think in the third year it really changed because this is when I got

428
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,280
more exposed to international people and I could speak English and I feel much more comfortable

429
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,920
speaking English than speaking Dutch.

430
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,160
And then I really feel like life had started.

431
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:51,160
Nice.

432
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:55,200
I think a lot of us can also relate to that.

433
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,400
Once you start to find your tribes and your tribes don't even have to be like a hundred

434
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:06,120
percent from the islands, but just I think also the dynamic once you're away from home

435
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:11,960
and there's many other people that are quote unquote away from their home, then you sort

436
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,760
of find this new home together.

437
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:14,760
Exactly.

438
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:15,760
In this new space.

439
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:16,760
Exactly.

440
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:21,560
And then you start to look out for each other in a different way.

441
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,160
It's a beautiful thing to see that transition happen.

442
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,160
So for anyone listening that's now in that first or second year where it doesn't feel

443
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:30,880
there's hope.

444
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:31,880
Yeah.

445
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,880
You'll get there.

446
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:42,480
So the third year things change.

447
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:47,640
So let's after the bachelor's then there's master's obviously.

448
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:49,080
So what did you master in?

449
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:53,680
So my master's now instead of Naturae and Stedicum became physics and astronomy.

450
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,920
This was a fully English program.

451
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,640
But essentially it's kind of like a direct translation, right?

452
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:02,640
Yeah.

453
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:03,640
The names of the studies.

454
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,120
I also went from the University of Amsterdam to the University of Amsterdam.

455
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:09,360
So it was a pretty seamless transition, thankfully.

456
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:13,760
And also a lot of the same professors, the exact same lecture halls and all these sorts

457
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:14,760
of things.

458
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:16,760
So it was just the courses got more hardcore.

459
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:17,760
Yeah.

460
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:18,760
Yeah.

461
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,120
So define hardcore.

462
00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:27,960
So now we would have giant homework assignments, for example, after every lecture.

463
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:30,960
What is a giant homework assignment?

464
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:37,600
So I remember when I was doing general relativity, which is the theory of gravity and black holes

465
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,160
and all of these sorts of things.

466
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,840
This is the hardcore physics.

467
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:43,640
I remember I handed in a piece of homework.

468
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,640
You're a real scientist, man.

469
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:47,640
Oh yeah.

470
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:48,640
For sure.

471
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:53,160
But I handed in a piece of homework that was like 20 pages of handwritten notes.

472
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:58,200
And I feel very bad for whoever had to check that because my handwriting is not the best.

473
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,440
And 20 pages of that.

474
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:01,440
And then every week.

475
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:02,440
Every week?

476
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:03,440
Yeah.

477
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:04,440
Wow.

478
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:05,440
Yeah.

479
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:06,440
That was crazy.

480
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,440
So what can you tell us about black holes?

481
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,040
What do you want to know about black holes?

482
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:14,240
I can tell you almost everything, I think.

483
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,240
Oh damn.

484
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,760
I'm not that versed in black holes.

485
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:20,160
So I can walk you through.

486
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:25,440
So basically a black hole is one of the final steps of the life of a star.

487
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:26,440
Oh yeah.

488
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:27,440
It's a dying star.

489
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:29,560
It's a star that has died already, actually.

490
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:35,280
So at some point, the star just like our sun, at some point it will run out of fuel because

491
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,400
it's continuously burning fuel that's also the light that we feel that we get on earth.

492
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:41,460
But at some point it runs out of this fuel.

493
00:27:41,460 --> 00:27:43,160
And then there are a few things that can happen.

494
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:48,080
Either it sort of just peacefully dies out, it sort of expands and then cools down, or

495
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,280
then this won't happen to our sun.

496
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,840
How do you know it won't happen to our sun?

497
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:55,840
It's hope.

498
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:56,840
No, no.

499
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:58,840
You can tell because it only happens to very big stars.

500
00:27:58,840 --> 00:27:59,840
Okay.

501
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:01,360
Also our sun is not very big.

502
00:28:01,360 --> 00:28:02,800
Our sun is pretty tiny, actually.

503
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:03,800
Oh wow.

504
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:04,800
Yeah.

505
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,000
So speaking, it's not that cool.

506
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,880
It's not, it ain't it.

507
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:17,160
I did see one of those maybe Instagram posts or something where they were comparing the

508
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:19,280
size of the planets.

509
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,840
And then you had our sun that was looking pretty big relative to the planets in our

510
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:29,560
galaxy and then it expanded into planets that you probably know that I never heard of.

511
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,040
And they just got huge and huge.

512
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:34,160
Stars can become gigantic.

513
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,840
And so when these gigantic stars die, it gets a lot more violent.

514
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:42,640
So our star will just sort of cool at some point and get very calm and then just phase

515
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,620
out, fizzle out, nothing will happen.

516
00:28:45,620 --> 00:28:51,440
But giant stars at some point they will violently explode and then turn into a black hole.

517
00:28:51,440 --> 00:29:00,120
And a black hole essentially is just a very heavy thing that will just continuously attract

518
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,420
things through gravity.

519
00:29:02,420 --> 00:29:09,520
But once something is beyond a certain point near this object, it can no longer escape.

520
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:11,000
And then it gets sucked in.

521
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:12,480
It gets sucked in.

522
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:17,040
And we actually don't know what happens after it crosses this point.

523
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,080
And that's why it's called a black hole.

524
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:20,080
Yes.

525
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:21,080
Yeah.

526
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:22,080
Yeah.

527
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:23,080
And then, yeah.

528
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:28,840
So an explanation like this would be 20 pages of math, essentially.

529
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:35,320
Oh, I actually have a crazy question for you.

530
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:42,120
So have you heard of the theories of the Simpsons predicting things?

531
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:43,120
Oh, yeah.

532
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:44,120
Yeah.

533
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:45,120
I've heard of this.

534
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:51,400
So have you heard of the one that in an episode a few years back before, I believe it, was

535
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,120
it discovered at CERN?

536
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:57,400
Homer actually wrote the God particle on the chalkboard?

537
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:58,400
It's funny.

538
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:00,480
My cousin actually sent this to me yesterday.

539
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,520
He sent me like a TikTok with this.

540
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,080
And I was like, what is going on?

541
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,080
How did that?

542
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:07,080
Yeah.

543
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:08,080
Yeah.

544
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,560
So Homer is a genius, I guess.

545
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,240
But do you recognize the formula?

546
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:15,240
Yeah.

547
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,200
I think it was real physics.

548
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:18,200
Yeah.

549
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:19,200
Yeah.

550
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,880
So no explanation for that as yet.

551
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:27,840
Maybe Homer went through a black hole and came up the other side.

552
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:28,840
All right.

553
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:33,840
So you wrapped up your master's.

554
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:42,200
And after master's, there's the next step of becoming a PhD candidate, right?

555
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:46,560
Could you maybe go into a little bit more details there for...

556
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:53,720
Because I'm also not sure if the average person also truly understands what is a PhD and why

557
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:55,720
would you even want to pursue one.

558
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:56,720
Yeah.

559
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:57,720
So could you touch on that maybe?

560
00:30:57,720 --> 00:30:59,040
No, that's a good question.

561
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,360
So essentially, when you're doing a PhD, you're becoming an expert at something.

562
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,960
You're becoming the expert at a very, very specific thing.

563
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:07,960
Yeah.

564
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:08,960
Yeah.

565
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,960
So essentially, I mean, in practice, what it is, is you become a sort of mix between

566
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,820
a student and a researcher who gets paid, at least in the Netherlands.

567
00:31:17,820 --> 00:31:21,740
So it feels very similar to studying, but you're doing actual work.

568
00:31:21,740 --> 00:31:25,840
So you're doing research, but you're still in training.

569
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,520
And the reason why you would want to do this is because, yeah, you want to become the expert

570
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,800
in something and then eventually you can continue your career in academia if you want to keep

571
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,480
researching specific topics.

572
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:37,480
Yeah.

573
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:41,480
So that's in a nutshell, a PhD.

574
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,400
And you're currently doing one.

575
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,180
How far along are you?

576
00:31:46,180 --> 00:31:47,720
How much more is there to go?

577
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,320
So I am in year three out of four.

578
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:55,020
So I'm actually approaching the end and I'm starting to feel it already.

579
00:31:55,020 --> 00:31:59,720
So essentially, at the end of your PhD, you write this giant thesis, which is, at least

580
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:00,720
in the Netherlands.

581
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:01,720
How giant is giant?

582
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:07,980
So you write a sort of book that's between 150 to 300 pages or so, where you basically

583
00:32:07,980 --> 00:32:12,840
describe everything that there is to know about your subject and then very specifically

584
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,880
what you've researched and your results and everything that you found and what you can

585
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,280
do with it in the future.

586
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,680
And what are you researching for your PhD?

587
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,720
So I'm doing experimental particle physics.

588
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:26,720
So particle physics.

589
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,000
Unpack that for us.

590
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,520
Particle physics is the study of particles and particles are basically the building blocks

591
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:34,840
of the universe.

592
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:41,080
So I study the very smallest things and it's experimental because I'm, so you can also

593
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,360
do theoretical, which means that you're just making predictions and doing math, pure math

594
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:46,360
mostly.

595
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:47,560
But I'm doing experimental.

596
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:52,120
So I'm actually trying to see what comes out of the math and see if we can see it in our

597
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:53,120
real world.

598
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:59,440
That goes back to that wanting to understand nature where you can touch and feel it and

599
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:00,920
make all these connections.

600
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:01,920
Exactly.

601
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:03,600
I'm not just doing the theory alone.

602
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,720
I have to see this come to life.

603
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:06,720
Exactly.

604
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:07,720
Yeah.

605
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:09,400
And so the place where I do this, thank you.

606
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:15,840
The place where I do this is at CERN, which is the European Council for Nuclear Research,

607
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,960
which is basically this giant international collaboration.

608
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:24,680
I think it consists of dozens of countries on earth where we basically come together

609
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,840
to all try to answer questions about these particles.

610
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:32,500
And we have this giant machine called the Large Hadron Collider, which Homer apparently

611
00:33:32,500 --> 00:33:33,500
also works on.

612
00:33:33,500 --> 00:33:39,160
So Homer worked on it, but in the Spider-Verse...

613
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,920
In the Spider-Verse, they have a copy of it.

614
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:42,920
Kingpin.

615
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:43,920
Yeah.

616
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:44,920
Kingpin had one made.

617
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:45,920
Yeah.

618
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:46,920
Exactly.

619
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:53,760
And he traveled to another universe to meet his family or to steal his family that was

620
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,920
taken away from him in this universe.

621
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,040
So are you guys traveling to other universes?

622
00:33:58,040 --> 00:33:59,040
No.

623
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,160
We're not allowed to answer that.

624
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:02,160
It's classified.

625
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:03,160
It's classified.

626
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:04,160
No, no.

627
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:11,280
I can assure you we're not doing anything suspicious, which is what a suspicious person

628
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:12,280
would say.

629
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:13,280
No, no.

630
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:18,840
But we're definitely just...I mean, we're just trying to figure out what's going on.

631
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,280
Basically, we're just trying to see what's up.

632
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,320
How long does CERN exist?

633
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:31,120
I think it was established in the 1950s somewhere, which is actually...I think it's really interesting

634
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:37,680
because one of the main goals of CERN is this science for peace idea, which basically means

635
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:42,560
we want to bring people from different countries together to stop fighting so that we can work

636
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:46,640
on something that's good for humanity, which is really interesting.

637
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,920
If you think about Europe in the 1950s, for example, they were all trying to kill each

638
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:51,920
other in the 1940s.

639
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:52,920
In the 1940s.

640
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:53,920
Yeah.

641
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,720
And then 10 years later, now they have this nice grand project where now they're all working

642
00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:59,080
together.

643
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:04,360
So I think this is actually a really nice model for the world, essentially, because

644
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:09,500
now we're really...I think we're on all continents except for Antarctica, although there are

645
00:35:09,500 --> 00:35:11,720
some physics experiments on Antarctica, which is really cool.

646
00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:20,400
Yeah, I was about to say we've seen multiple reports and stuff that there's interesting

647
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:21,880
stuff happening in Antarctica.

648
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:22,880
Definitely.

649
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:23,880
Yeah.

650
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,880
Antarctica is definitely a unique place where you can do a lot of cool stuff.

651
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:33,240
But for now, our headquarters, the headquarters of CERN is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and

652
00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:39,320
we have this giant machine where we smash particles against each other.

653
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:49,880
So I've seen that the smashing of particles happens in a diameter of what, 27 kilometers

654
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:50,880
or something?

655
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:51,880
Yeah.

656
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,200
And they're moving...are they moving at the speed of light?

657
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:56,200
Almost the speed of light.

658
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:57,200
Almost the speed of light.

659
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,200
As close as we can get to the speed of light.

660
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,600
And then smashing these particles into each other.

661
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:07,560
So what type of energy explodes in such a moment?

662
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:08,560
Yeah.

663
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:13,720
So to get very technical, maybe for people doing high school right now, they might recognize.

664
00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:22,280
So the energies we reach is 13.6 tera electron volts, which I mean, yeah, in terms of normal

665
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,680
speak this doesn't mean anything, but it's in terms of a single particle, this is an

666
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:28,840
extreme amount of energy.

667
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:30,520
Tera electron volts?

668
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:31,520
Yeah.

669
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:32,520
Okay.

670
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,720
So do we have any electron volts in just regular everyday life?

671
00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:39,160
Is that like the 120, 220?

672
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,640
So yeah, so essentially this is another version of joule.

673
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:47,080
So you know, if you have a light bulb that's 50 joules per second, for example.

674
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:52,880
So I think, I don't know from the top of my head, but it's comparable to, for example,

675
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,600
a baseball thrown by a pitcher.

676
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:02,000
But then a baseball is a really big object consists of a lot of particles.

677
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,680
So that energy is distributed, but it's the amount of energy that that baseball would

678
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:10,820
have but focus on one single particle instead of the hundreds of billions.

679
00:37:10,820 --> 00:37:13,200
So it's actually for one single particle, this is a lot of energy.

680
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:16,240
So the baseball has hundreds of billions of particles?

681
00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:17,240
Yeah.

682
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:20,680
And then the energy that that would have focus on one single particle.

683
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:21,680
Yeah.

684
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:22,680
Okay.

685
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:23,680
Yeah.

686
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,960
So it's a totally different energy scale than we get in our daily lives.

687
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:31,040
And the reason why we do this is because we want to, when we smash these particles against

688
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:38,000
each other at these giants, heavy speeds or high speeds, we want to break them apart.

689
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:42,600
So we want to see if we can really ramble the proton hard enough so that it falls apart

690
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:47,320
and then we can really study the insides of protons.

691
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:54,960
So break this down again for the science dummies in the room, aka me.

692
00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:02,680
Well, I know we have, because we actually use this theory in design as well, atoms,

693
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:06,920
molecules, organisms, et cetera.

694
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:12,640
But the protons and neutrons that that is within an atom.

695
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:13,640
Yeah.

696
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:14,640
Yeah.

697
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:18,880
So if we start from sort of our regular experience, so you have humans, and then if you zoom into

698
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,040
a human, you see cells, which forms biology.

699
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:26,160
And if you zoom into a cell, you see molecules, which forms chemistry.

700
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,240
And if you zoom into molecules, you get atoms.

701
00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:33,600
And now you're getting close to the fundamental structure.

702
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:38,820
So if you zoom into an atom, you see that you have protons and neutrons.

703
00:38:38,820 --> 00:38:45,600
And then if you zoom into that, this is sort of the exploration territory inside of protons

704
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:46,600
and inside of neutrons.

705
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:53,640
So this is the inside of the protons and neutrons is sort of the black hole that is still undiscovered

706
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:54,640
field.

707
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:55,640
In a sense.

708
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:56,640
Yeah.

709
00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:00,840
That's where a lot of the experimentation is happening to understand what is happening

710
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:03,200
at that sub particle level.

711
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:04,200
Yeah.

712
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:05,200
Or subatomic level.

713
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:06,200
Subatomic level.

714
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:07,200
Yeah.

715
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:08,200
Okay.

716
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:09,200
Yeah.

717
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:10,200
Yeah.

718
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:11,200
Hey, I'm learning some stuff.

719
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:12,200
Nice.

720
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:13,200
Awesome.

721
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:18,440
So what would you say has been your most exciting discoveries or breakthroughs throughout your

722
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,240
career thus far?

723
00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:22,640
That I've made personally or that I've just witnessed?

724
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:23,640
Both.

725
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:24,840
Let's start with you personally.

726
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:25,840
Okay.

727
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,620
Personally, I think just finding out.

728
00:39:29,620 --> 00:39:35,240
So one really crazy thing I think is the theory of relativity, which is something that Einstein

729
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:42,560
came up with a bit more than 100 years ago, which all has to do with time and space.

730
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:43,560
Yeah.

731
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:51,760
And essentially, one thing that I found out eventually is that time is not really as understandable

732
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:59,760
as we think it is because time can move very fast if you're in a very specific situation

733
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:03,440
or it can move very, very slow if you're in a different situation.

734
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:08,880
And it's funny because I think a lot of people have felt that throughout their lives at different

735
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,160
points like, yo, time is moving fast.

736
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:12,160
Yeah.

737
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:13,760
And things are just going slow.

738
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:14,760
Yeah.

739
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:21,680
But then the general knowledge that we have on time, no time just moves in that way.

740
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:22,680
Yeah.

741
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:28,480
So what you mentioned is more of a, I think, psychological thing, but it's actually a little

742
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:29,480
bit comparable.

743
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:34,200
So if, for example, we were to both start a timer on our watches at the same time, and

744
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:39,760
then I fly into a spaceship and I move very close to the speed of light, and then I talk

745
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:44,320
to you, and then I stop and I talk to you afterwards, or I don't even stop, but I communicate

746
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,320
with you somehow and I'm still moving very fast.

747
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:50,840
And I tell you, okay, for me, I've been in this spaceship for about 10 seconds, then

748
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,400
you will tell me like, no, this hasn't been 10 seconds.

749
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,200
It's been five years.

750
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:56,200
Oh.

751
00:40:56,200 --> 00:41:01,640
So it turns out that if you're moving very quick, time slows down for you, which has

752
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:06,760
really, really strange consequences if you think about what that means for the universe,

753
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,360
that time is not really a fixed thing, it's relative.

754
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:15,160
And I think this is why it's also called the theory of relativity.

755
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:19,640
And this for me was a really mind blowing thing because it, yeah, just the whole idea

756
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:23,760
of what time is was totally flipped for me.

757
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:31,360
Because what you described now, I have seen in different sort of science fiction movies.

758
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:41,960
So I guess that's where that theory comes from, that they apply there when super interesting.

759
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:48,800
So that's one of your personal breakthroughs and then one that you've witnessed.

760
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:52,080
I think the discovery of the Higgs particle.

761
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,880
So I was in high school when it happened, but my supervisor, for example, and a lot

762
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:01,160
of people that I work with today are people who were actively involved in discovering

763
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:03,120
this particle.

764
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:08,560
And it was such an amazing thing because thousands of people worked together to find this thing.

765
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:12,120
And it was predicted in the 1960s and they actually managed to find it.

766
00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:13,120
Oh, wow.

767
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:14,120
Yeah.

768
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:17,120
And they all have their own story of, yeah, where were you during the discovery?

769
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:22,560
And that was just so amazing to see that something that you just predict, some people just wrote

770
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:27,840
something down on a piece of paper once and then about 60 years later and a couple billion

771
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,480
euros later, you actually find.

772
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:36,720
Don't forget the billions of euros.

773
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:41,080
So we spoke about the 1950s.

774
00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:43,920
That CERN started in the 1950s.

775
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:48,400
CERN is, what's the acronym stand for?

776
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:54,880
So the translation in English would be the European Council for Nuclear Research.

777
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:56,600
For nuclear research.

778
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:01,920
So there were some other nuclear events that took place in the 50s.

779
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:08,960
Christopher Nolan, one of my favorite directors, recently won, finally won his first Best Picture

780
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,000
Oscar for this movie.

781
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,700
And for those that haven't guessed it yet, we're talking about Oppenheimer.

782
00:43:16,700 --> 00:43:24,200
So as a physicist working at CERN, what were your personal thoughts about it and what were

783
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:32,960
sort of the community colleague, collegial thoughts about the movie?

784
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:35,400
I really, really liked Oppenheimer.

785
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:41,600
I think, I mean, yeah, I think you're a little bit of a comic book nerd or fan.

786
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:49,560
I call it amongst my friends, I call it like the Avengers of physicists.

787
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:54,200
It's so awesome because the movie has all the characters in it are real historical people

788
00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:55,320
that I've been reading about.

789
00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:00,200
I've been listening, reading their theories, working with their actual formulas, all of

790
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:01,200
these things.

791
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:04,320
So these are people that I've been hearing about for the past couple of years.

792
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:08,640
And then to like see them on the big screen now and then also see the personalities that

793
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:10,140
I heard that they were.

794
00:44:10,140 --> 00:44:12,040
And I just thought it was really awesome.

795
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:14,840
I really, really loved that movie.

796
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,040
You know what just hit me?

797
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:21,000
They actually went and got an Avenger to put in the movie.

798
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:22,000
Which one?

799
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,000
Robert Downey Jr. Tony Stark.

800
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:28,080
Oh yeah, right.

801
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,080
Yeah.

802
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:30,080
Yeah.

803
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:33,720
But was he playing a, he was playing a physicist, right?

804
00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:34,720
Just not a good one.

805
00:44:34,720 --> 00:44:35,720
No, he was like a congressman or something.

806
00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:36,720
Oh, a congressman.

807
00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:37,720
Okay.

808
00:44:37,720 --> 00:44:38,720
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

809
00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:39,720
Something like some government man.

810
00:44:39,720 --> 00:44:40,720
Yeah, some government man.

811
00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:46,080
Those government men.

812
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,760
So they didn't want to make him an actual physicist Avenger.

813
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,400
He just got to be on the sidelines.

814
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,120
Too much overlap between the worlds.

815
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:54,120
True, true, true, true.

816
00:44:54,120 --> 00:45:03,680
That might have caused the, what was the hydro collision, cause a black hole in the space

817
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:04,680
time continuum?

818
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:08,920
Yeah, really mess up the universe.

819
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,440
So what was like the collegial discussion?

820
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:13,600
So the discussion amongst your colleagues?

821
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:18,240
Yeah, I mean, when it came, before it came out, we were all like, we were waiting for

822
00:45:18,240 --> 00:45:19,240
it.

823
00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:20,240
We were like, oh, how's it going to be?

824
00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:21,600
Cause obviously we were all going to watch it.

825
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:23,480
And then it was in the summer, so this was perfect.

826
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:24,800
We all had like tiny breaks.

827
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:29,080
We all split and then we reconvened at some point and we were like, okay, did you watch

828
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:30,080
it already?

829
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:31,080
Or are we going to watch it together?

830
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:32,640
Or like, what's, what's going to happen?

831
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:37,200
And obviously this is, it was mandatory almost for us to watch it because it feels like it's

832
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:38,200
about us.

833
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:39,200
Yeah.

834
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:40,200
Because these are physicists.

835
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,040
I mean, yeah, they're our predecessors.

836
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:47,040
So essentially the Manhattan project, you know, the project to build the atomic bomb

837
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:54,600
is actually the big, the first big collaboration between giant physicists from all around the

838
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:55,600
world from, yeah.

839
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:59,520
Well, in this case it was mostly centered around the U S because of the war and stuff.

840
00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:03,620
You can't really do international things so well, but at least, yeah, all these famous

841
00:46:03,620 --> 00:46:06,200
physicists coming together to do a physics project.

842
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,080
This was the first time that it happened at this scale.

843
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,040
But Oppenheimer, what is his background?

844
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:13,960
Because he's not, so he's a, he was a theoretical physicist.

845
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:14,960
Yeah.

846
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:20,680
I mean, a background as nationality, an American, an American, a hundred percent.

847
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:24,480
Well maybe, I mean, probably down the line somewhere, his ancestors.

848
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:30,560
But I think he was just born, I think in the U S because weren't there any physicists with

849
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,880
like a European backgrounds also on the Manhattan project?

850
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:34,880
Yeah.

851
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:38,560
So these are people who had immigrated or actually had fled Europe.

852
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:43,480
I think there were a couple of Italian people like Enrico Fermi, for example, who was in

853
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:44,480
our field.

854
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:45,480
He's extremely famous.

855
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:47,360
There's even a whole lab named after him.

856
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,880
So he's Italian, for example.

857
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:51,720
And he was also part of the Manhattan project.

858
00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:52,720
Yeah.

859
00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:55,320
So I guess it was international, but not in the same sense that governments are working

860
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:56,320
together, but it's.

861
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:57,320
Yeah.

862
00:46:57,320 --> 00:46:58,320
Because it was different times.

863
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,000
Governments were fighting against each other at the time.

864
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,720
Let's hope we don't enter that type of zone again.

865
00:47:03,720 --> 00:47:04,720
Exactly.

866
00:47:04,720 --> 00:47:05,720
Yeah.

867
00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:06,720
Yeah.

868
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:08,120
But that's what, but so, so CERN is kind of the successor of this.

869
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:09,120
Yeah.

870
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:10,120
I mean, okay.

871
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:11,560
The Manhattan project was to build weapons.

872
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:12,560
Yeah.

873
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:14,760
Thankfully we've moved away from that now and now we're building.

874
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:19,840
I mean, CERN has nothing to do with weapons, but it's the same sort of idea of this international

875
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:23,400
collaboration of all these great minds coming together.

876
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:24,400
Coming together.

877
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:25,400
Yeah.

878
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:26,400
Exactly.

879
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:28,800
So we really, at least when I was watching the movie, I could really recognize a lot

880
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:29,800
as well.

881
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:33,760
So I recognized what happens if you put a bunch of physicists together in the same room

882
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:35,800
and the types of discussions that you would get.

883
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,840
So these are similar discussions that you're having today.

884
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:39,840
Yeah.

885
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:40,840
For sure.

886
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:41,840
Almost a hundred years later.

887
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:42,840
Yeah, for sure.

888
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,480
And also the ego clashes that happen sometimes.

889
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:47,880
All of that I think is very, very true to nature.

890
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:53,520
So were there any specific characters in the movie that you feel you relate to a bit more?

891
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:58,520
I think, well, it might sound a bit weird, but actually some parts of Oppenheimer himself

892
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:00,120
I could relate to.

893
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:04,160
Because in the movie, something that he focused on at some point that he said he wanted to

894
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:06,680
bring physics to a place that he loves.

895
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:11,440
He wanted to build a lab in, in this case it was New Mexico because he really likes

896
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,120
the environment there.

897
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:17,000
And when he said that, that actually really resonated with me because I actually, I would

898
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,240
love to bring physics to the place that I love as well, which is Bonaire.

899
00:48:21,240 --> 00:48:25,200
So I would love to make some kind of physics project on Bonaire.

900
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:28,800
I mean, obviously nothing to do with weapons, especially no testing of weapons.

901
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:29,800
For peace.

902
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:30,800
Yeah.

903
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:31,800
Peace for purposes.

904
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,520
So if we're making a giant physics lab on Bonaire or something, I think that would be

905
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:35,520
really amazing.

906
00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:36,520
Awesome.

907
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:42,400
So if we're looking into the crystal ball of the future, you're 26 right now.

908
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:46,560
What would the 36 year old Dylan be doing?

909
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:53,520
So I think 36 year old Dylan, so 26 year old Dylan wants 36 year old Dylan to be, I would

910
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:54,880
like to be a professor.

911
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:55,880
Okay.

912
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:56,880
Yeah.

913
00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:03,120
I would also really teach the next generation and I'd also like to very actively be involved

914
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:04,880
in research still.

915
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:05,880
Okay.

916
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:12,220
So it's kind of like that combination of being a professor, teaching the next generation,

917
00:49:12,220 --> 00:49:18,160
but also still heavily involved in research where you can help create the next breakthrough.

918
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:19,160
Exactly.

919
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:23,240
Because that's also very much a thing within your field, right?

920
00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:24,240
Most definitely.

921
00:49:24,240 --> 00:49:25,240
Yeah.

922
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:26,240
Yeah.

923
00:49:26,240 --> 00:49:27,760
I'm concerned.

924
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:31,000
So I definitely want to contribute more to that.

925
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:36,800
And something else that 26 year old Dylan wants 36 year old Dylan to do is also hopefully

926
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:40,160
be a professor to other Caribbean people.

927
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:46,480
Because there is quite a lack of Caribbean people or even people of color in general,

928
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:48,240
I think, in my field.

929
00:49:48,240 --> 00:49:49,240
Yeah.

930
00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:52,560
And I would really love it if that changed.

931
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:58,280
So when we talk about being a professor, then you do mean at university level.

932
00:49:58,280 --> 00:49:59,280
Yeah.

933
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:00,280
Okay.

934
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:01,280
Yeah.

935
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:02,280
Yeah.

936
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:08,560
Because it did dawn on me that you said it's a pity that the teacher left.

937
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:12,960
It was like, hey, there's a potential opening.

938
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:13,960
But I understand.

939
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:20,480
You want to also be working on research simultaneously and that would be a lot more difficult from

940
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,200
base on the Caribbean, but maybe there's some summer projects.

941
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:24,200
Who knows?

942
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:25,200
Yeah.

943
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:28,880
I mean, I would definitely be very interested to do some projects going back to the islands

944
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:34,080
and including them a lot more in discussions and in learning and summer schools or something,

945
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:35,480
summer camps maybe even.

946
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:37,320
I think that would be really, really cool.

947
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:38,320
Yeah.

948
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:39,320
Yeah.

949
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:40,320
Yeah, for sure.

950
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:50,200
So you mentioned that you're also an advocate for spreading the word about the awesomeness

951
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:55,120
of science, physics, et cetera, amongst Caribbean people.

952
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,480
Could you give me some examples of that?

953
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:02,120
So I really like to go to schools, high schools.

954
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:04,320
I did it last December when I was on Bonaire.

955
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:10,440
I passed by my old high school and then I basically tell people about physics.

956
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:14,960
I show them some really cool pictures and I show them how our machine works and all

957
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:16,240
these sorts of things.

958
00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:19,520
And then I walk them through how to get there, basically.

959
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:22,600
How do you do a career in something like this?

960
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:27,200
So yeah, I think talking to young people is one of the very important things to do in

961
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:28,460
that regard.

962
00:51:28,460 --> 00:51:35,080
So it would be pretty awesome if 36 year old Dylan has these stories of people coming up

963
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:40,640
to him years later and saying, that time he came to my high school, this is why I'm here

964
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:44,800
now working on the next black hole discovery.

965
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:47,480
That would be amazing.

966
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,120
That's truly the dream, honestly.

967
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:54,200
Just put that out there in the universe.

968
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:59,840
So this actually segues into one of my classical questions.

969
00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:07,320
What advice would you give 18 year old Dylan looking back at where you're at today?

970
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:13,400
I think number one, I would just say in Papua Nitu, I would say, sigilucha.

971
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:14,400
Sigilucha.

972
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:15,880
What does sigilucha mean?

973
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:16,880
Keep going.

974
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:17,880
Keep going.

975
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:18,880
Keep fighting.

976
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:19,880
Keep going.

977
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:20,880
Keep going.

978
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:21,880
Keep going.

979
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:22,880
Keep going.

980
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:23,880
Keep going.

981
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:24,880
Keep going.

982
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:25,880
Keep going.

983
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:26,880
Keep going.

984
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:27,880
Keep going.

985
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:28,880
You're going to get your motivation because eventually you'll get where you want to be.

986
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:29,880
Yeah.

987
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:30,880
Yeah.

988
00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:31,880
I think, I don't know, an 18 year old me, I don't think I would have expected, I don't

989
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:32,880
think I expected to be where I am now.

990
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:33,880
I'm honestly, yeah.

991
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:34,880
I could imagine.

992
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:35,880
Impressed myself.

993
00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:47,480
Because being at CERN, is there any other, has there been any other Dutch Caribbean based

994
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:53,360
scientists, physicists that has worked there before?

995
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,360
As far as I know, no.

996
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:56,360
I don't think so.

997
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:57,360
No shit.

998
00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:58,600
I've been looking for them.

999
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,800
I haven't found them.

1000
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:03,360
So I think I might be the first one.

1001
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:04,360
Yeah.

1002
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:07,880
And if not the first, then definitely one of the very, very few.

1003
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:08,880
Yeah.

1004
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:09,880
Yeah.

1005
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:10,880
Yeah.

1006
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:11,880
But hopefully not the last.

1007
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:12,880
Hopefully not the last.

1008
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:14,520
You're inspiring the next generation.

1009
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:15,520
Exactly.

1010
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:16,520
Yeah.

1011
00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:17,520
Yeah.

1012
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:23,040
So if we look at this other viewpoint, right?

1013
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:34,560
By being one of the first, or the first Dutch Caribbean based physicists at CERN currently,

1014
00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:41,640
how do you think your Caribbean background has sort of influenced the way that you work?

1015
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:45,160
I really love that question.

1016
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:52,160
I think, so something that I really notice when I compare myself to my more European

1017
00:53:52,160 --> 00:53:57,280
colleagues is I have a very strong sense of community.

1018
00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:59,960
And I think this is just something I grew up with.

1019
00:53:59,960 --> 00:54:05,760
We always have this thing where, even if we're not related, we still feel like family and

1020
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:10,220
we really look out for each other and we help each other and we make sure that nobody gets

1021
00:54:10,220 --> 00:54:11,600
left behind.

1022
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:16,040
I feel like I miss that a little bit in Europe.

1023
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:20,880
And I think, and I noticed this also when I'm working in teams at CERN, that I tend

1024
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:25,840
to try to sort of group people together and really help the team working aspects a lot

1025
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:28,200
better.

1026
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:33,240
And I think that, yeah, becoming from the Caribbean is the reason why I do that.

1027
00:54:33,240 --> 00:54:34,240
Oh, wow.

1028
00:54:34,240 --> 00:54:35,240
Yeah.

1029
00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:36,240
Awesome.

1030
00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:39,840
Have you ever heard the term emotional intelligence?

1031
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:45,200
So yeah, we have the IQ, but there's also the EQ.

1032
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:52,640
And I've said it many times that I believe we from the Caribbean, we tend to have a higher

1033
00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:59,480
EQ than, let's say, the average due to this smaller community aspect.

1034
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:00,480
I can see that.

1035
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,000
Yeah, I can see that for sure.

1036
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:08,440
I think we really have a lot more sympathy and the empathy for each other.

1037
00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:14,960
And this is definitely, yeah, I can totally see what you're saying.

1038
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:23,840
Could you share any particular example of where your EQ played a significant role in

1039
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:28,880
solving a challenge in those environments?

1040
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:34,600
So I think so often, I mean, so since I'm working in a giant collaboration, I have about

1041
00:55:34,600 --> 00:55:40,280
3,000 direct colleagues, more or less doing the same thing.

1042
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:43,880
So you have about one quarter of Bonaire.

1043
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:44,880
Yeah.

1044
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:45,880
Yeah.

1045
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,880
But you're used to that.

1046
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:49,880
Honestly, yeah.

1047
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:52,880
Small island communities like that.

1048
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:53,880
Yeah.

1049
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:59,240
CERN does feel like a little bit of an island in that sense.

1050
00:55:59,240 --> 00:56:03,160
It's 27 square kilometers.

1051
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:12,080
Yeah, no, but because of this, so essentially working together is extremely important, especially

1052
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:15,360
if you're this many people, because you need to make sure everything's working correctly

1053
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:18,560
and also everybody has their own goals.

1054
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:25,320
And thankfully, we do split up into smaller teams, of course, because there's one giant

1055
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:26,320
team of 3,000.

1056
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,280
It's just not possible.

1057
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:37,480
But I do actively try to assemble teams and I do look at the different skills and strengths

1058
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:42,240
and also weaknesses of people that I work with so I can be like, okay, I tried to delegate

1059
00:56:42,240 --> 00:56:43,240
a little bit.

1060
00:56:43,240 --> 00:56:47,000
I think you might be better suited here and then maybe you can work on this.

1061
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:48,960
You can look at that.

1062
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:52,360
And I think that that's where my EQ really comes into play.

1063
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:53,680
Oh, nice.

1064
00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:59,840
So are you in a bit of a leadership position or this is just more the natural progression

1065
00:56:59,840 --> 00:57:00,840
due to the EQ?

1066
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:01,840
Exactly, yeah.

1067
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:05,440
And picking up the torch that no one else wants to pick up?

1068
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:10,760
I think I tend to take the initiative on these sorts of things.

1069
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:14,360
I just really like to see people working together and getting along.

1070
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:19,240
And I found out that that's not everybody has that opinion.

1071
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:28,360
Yeah, it's always interesting to see how those Caribbean superpowers emerge in the big wide

1072
00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:30,360
open world.

1073
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:31,840
Awesome, man.

1074
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:35,520
Dylan, it's been a joy and a pleasure talking to you.

1075
00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:36,520
Likewise.

1076
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:41,840
I felt like I've brushed up on my physics a little bit.

1077
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:43,200
Amazing.

1078
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:45,720
Learned some new interesting things along the way.

1079
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:46,720
Nice.

1080
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:51,800
Any more specifics that you would like to share with the people listening, watching?

1081
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:57,160
Well, if you're more interested in physics and certain things, particles, black holes,

1082
00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:02,840
stars, the universe, I actually have an Instagram page, which I've opened recently.

1083
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:08,560
It's at Dylan DeBose on and I have one video up already, but I'm going to make a couple

1084
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:14,440
more where I really show sort of the ins and outs of CERN and more cool facts.

1085
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:18,400
So for example, maybe a more in-depth explanation on what black holes are and these sorts of

1086
00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:19,400
things.

1087
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:24,360
Yeah, so have a follow and keep an eye out because cool things are coming.

1088
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:25,360
Awesome.

1089
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:30,080
So we'll make sure to put that link right here and in the description below.

1090
00:58:30,080 --> 00:58:31,480
Yes, please.

1091
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:36,040
And yeah, who knows, maybe in a couple of years time we'll be back here or somewhere

1092
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:46,400
else chatting up on what is actually in those neutrons and protons in the subatomic particles.

1093
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:49,640
Yes, the subatomic particle level.

1094
00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:50,640
Yes.

1095
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:53,760
Yeah, I'd be totally down.

1096
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:55,640
All right.

1097
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:56,640
Thanks Emili for coming.

1098
00:58:56,640 --> 00:58:57,640
Yes.

1099
00:58:57,640 --> 00:58:58,640
Pleasure having you.

1100
00:58:58,640 --> 00:58:59,640
Thank you very much for having me.

1101
00:58:59,640 --> 00:59:03,320
And for the folks at home, well, you know what to do.

1102
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:10,560
Like subscribe, subscribe if you haven't subscribed yet and place a comment below.

1103
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:16,320
Like is there any particular questions that I may have missed?

1104
00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:20,760
If you want to see more about Dylan, we will include all of his links in the description

1105
00:59:20,760 --> 00:59:22,000
below.

1106
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:25,780
And yeah, another awesome one, man.

1107
00:59:25,780 --> 00:59:33,640
We have someone from the Dutch Caribbean doing subatomic particle research.

1108
00:59:33,640 --> 00:59:38,120
Like can you imagine?

1109
00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:39,920
Clap it up for the Dutch Caribbean.

1110
00:59:39,920 --> 00:59:41,920
Yes, for sure.

1111
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:42,920
Awesome.

1112
00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:43,920
Thank you.

1113
00:59:43,920 --> 00:59:44,920
All right.

1114
00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:45,920
See you in the next one.

1115
00:59:45,920 --> 01:00:11,400
Bless.