Last Blast for Physics Wiz

Jun 25, 01:38 PM

Current Headlines: By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News

For 28 years, nearly every University of Utah student who took a physics course with a lab demonstration -- and that number stretches into multiple thousands -- has seen the work of Zigmund "Zig" Peacock.

Peacock, 63, whose title is "lecture lab demonstration specialist," is retiring. He gave his farewell demonstration Friday night at the U.'s James Fletcher Building, sharing for one final time his grasp of how things work -- and his ability to make physics happen right in front of one with flasks, oxygen tanks, heaters, Bunsen burners and a plethora of more exotic laboratory equipment.

"These are the toys and gadgets we use to illustrate the essential ideas," said Sidney Rudolph, research professor and director of lab development for the university's physics department. "That's Zig's home."

The collection of lab gear he has helped collect fills about 2,000 square feet of storage space. It goes from a carpenter shop to a metal shop and includes a range of scientific equipment that he repairs, upgrades and maintains. "Or he will build things from scratch," Rudolph said.

Sometimes physics lecturers will come up with ideas for demonstrations and ask Peacock to design gear. Or maybe he will come up with items on his own. A former president of the Physics Instructional Resource Association, he shares ideas with the community of physics demonstrators, contacting them through e-mail.

Besides expertise in setting up and performing lab demos, Peacock is known for his warmth. As Rudolph said, "He's always had almost a grandfatherly-ness about him."

That personality has been at the forefront of the many demonstrations he has carried out for schools, youth groups, and physics conventions. His has been the "public face for the excitement and wonder of science," he added.

His experiments may use a Tesla coil to transmit electricity through the air, or a device to fire a ping-pong ball through pop cans.

For examples of Peacock's interests, check out his personal Web page by clicking on his name at physics.utah.edu/people/staff.html. There are photos of him fishing ("Fishing isn't a hobby, a hobby is something you do in your spare time!!!" reads the page's heading), doing a lab demo for grade-school students and playing "the sprinkler pipe didjeridu."

Peacock said he has had many former grade-school students show up at the U. and tell him they remember a demonstration he did for their school's sixth grade. Now they are physics students "or they're pre-meds or whatever," he said.

He especially enjoyed meeting the great names of science at the Speaking of the Frontiers of Science lecture series, he said, "We averaged about two, three Nobel Prize winners a year."

Among the illustrious were Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel for elementary particles research; Hans Bethe, expert on stellar dynamics; Edward Teller, helped the first atomic bomb; and James Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered DNA.

"Watson was a groaner, where Crick was just the dynamo -- very lively person, very enjoyable to be around and listen to," Peacock remembered.

It's amazing, he added, "for a kid who grew up in the poor part of England to think I've actually met and rubbed shoulders ... with some of the great men and women in science."

He arrived in the United States in 1967 when he was 23. He had always been interested in the way things work, and while he had done well in chemistry, he had never thought to take physics in school.

Physics, he said, seemed sort of intimidating. "To some extent, it still does."

Nearly three decades ago, a friend applied for a job as a lab demonstrator at the U. and did not land it. But he told Peacock it seemed like the right kind of job for him. "You ought to go up and take it," he friend advised.

He applied, and Peacock had found a calling.

One of the demonstrations that remains amusing to this day was the time he was showing how soda and vinegar can propel a small rocket. Laughing, he recalled how the "back-spray hit the instructor" -- on his trouser front.

"He kidded, he didn't make it to the bathroom," Peacock said. "At this point, the students were on the floor howling with laughter."

The professor took that rare misfire without a complaint. In fact, that wasn't unusual.

"It's been really enjoyable working with pretty much all of the faculty here," Peacock said. "Students have been wonderful over the years. It's students that make this job worth a lot."

A replacement has been trained and may turn out to be just as friendly, capable and durable as Peacock. But we'll have to wait until 2035 to know for sure.

E-mail: bau@desnews.com

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