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Planck Meets Fleming
by So yesterday at Pinewood Studios they announced the name of the upcoming second James Bond film in the new series that (excellently, in my opinion) re-envisions the Bond movie universe. Last year's first one was "Casino Royale", you may recall. Did you hear what the next one will be called?
No, really. You can hear a bit about it (and the Ian Fleming short story it is based on - in which "the smallest unit of human compassion that two people can have" is discussed) on NPR here. What an amusing collision of physics and mainstream culture.
This just begs me to speculate, in two movements:
Shouldn't this smallest unit of human compassion, this quantum of solace, which is presumably a bosonic particle (as the photon is for light), have a name? Any ideas/suggestions? Solacon? Compasson? Empathon? I bet you can do better.... answers in the comments.
Last year in New York I took part in a shoot for King magazine where a group of mostly entertainment and fashion people (and ...er... yours truly) all dressed up and played around on a casino set with the standard-issue roulette wheels, blackjack tables, mysterious-looking beautiful women, and so forth. The theme was Casino Royale, you see. You can read about it here and here. So while it might have been thought by some to be a stretch for the magazine to include a physicist amongst those featured (and of course I think it was creative and laudable that they did - see my thoughts), now it's all perfectly poised for a physicist to join in a shoot with such a Bond theme. Me and the Tux are looking forward to 2009*... Physicists out there: I suggest you do the same (Tux, Ballgown, Little Black Dress, etc, as appropriate).
-cvj
*Or the months soon after the film's release, anyway.
(Cross posted to Asymptotia.)
Tags: james bond, quantum
3 Comments
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January 26, 2008 11:46 AM
JK
Well, the simplest name for your smallest particle, based on the etymology given, would be a 'bondon,' which once Bond finds yet another Bond girl to meet
The chemistry/physics would go something along the line of bond+bondgirl+> bond(bondon)bondgirl.
With the dissolution of the relationship (aka 'creditroll'), the new break-up results in a
bondo - (-n) -> girl + bond(bond), which is the sequel following the breakup.
January 26, 2008 6:23 PM
cvj
Well, that's good, but a "bondon" would suggest a quantum of bond. That's interesting in and of itself, but this is a quantum of solace we're looking for.
Best,
-cvj
January 31, 2008 9:37 AM
Phil
It's really too bad that "emoticon" is already taken, or else it would be an ideal name for emotional quanta :-)
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