# The Cavendish warren

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-cavendish-lab-warren
- Themes: science, Cambridge, wonder, history
- Life situations: student life, science

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

As a young Cambridge student he enters the Cavendish Laboratory warren — alleys, rooms, history including J.J. Thomson discovering the electron.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Caendish laboratory, and it was just an amazing experience going in this this old laboratory where so much stuff had happened. It was a warren of alleys and little rooms where someone in one of those rooms was inventing the time machine and no one knew what they were doing. These old professors no one had seen someone was inventing a laser or and had all this incredible history behind it. JJ Thompson had discovered the electron

## Teaching point

Wonder hides in the corridors where electrons were found.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

At Cambridge, Ajahn Brahm explored the Cavendish Laboratory, where the electron was discovered and the atom split. Its tea room had laminate tables where physicists scribbled equations over cream buns while friends corrected them. Breakthroughs came from that sharing. Gather, share ideas, accept correction, and things grow.

## Source

- [Ultimate Truth and Reality | Ajahn Brahm | 1 Dec 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTtMR-KEHXw) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 16:32 to 17:09: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTtMR-KEHXw&t=992s