presents a series of lectures, demonstrations, and films
WHAT PHYSICISTS DO
Physics is what physicists do late at night
SEVENTY-SEVENTH SERIES
SPRING 2009
| Mondays at 4:00 p.m. | Darwin 103 | Coffee at 3:30 p.m. |
| FEB 2 | KEPLER’S HUNT FOR HABITABLE PLANETS |
| Dr. Natalie Batalha of San José State University and NASA Ames Research Center will describe the science objectives of NASA’s Kepler Mission, scheduled to launch in March, and will also highlight some of the job opportunities that exist for physics majors in the space sciences. [Available on DVD in the SSU Library.] | |
| FEB 9 | THE CONVERGENCE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ASTROPHYSICS: THE LHC/FERMI ERA |
| Dr. Michael Dine of the University of California, Santa Cruz will explain the relation of some of the big questions in cosmology and particle physics and how the Large Hadron Collider currently being commissioned at CERN and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may address them. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] [slides] | |
| FEB 23 | THE LIGHT, THE DARK, AND THE HOT GAS: DISSECTING GALAXY CLUSTERS |
| Dr. Anja von der Linden of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Stanford University will explain how multi-wavelength observations of galaxy clusters can reveal the properties of dark matter, and how they can constrain cosmological parameters. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAR 2 | ULTRASHORT PULSE LASERS IN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS |
| Dr. Michael M. Mielke of Raydiance, Inc. will describe how ultrashort pulse lasers work, what they can uniquely do, and where they are gaining traction as enabling tools for new processes. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAR 9 | IMAGING WITH X-RAY LASERS |
| Dr. Stefano Marchesini of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe how novel x-ray sources will be used for high resolution three dimensional tomographic imaging required for developing nanoscience and nanotechnology. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAR 16 | NANOMECHANICS: WHY THE STRENGTH OF A MATERIAL IS RELATED TO ITS SIZE |
| Dr. Andrew Minor of the University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will show results from mechanical testing experiments inside a transmission electron microscope, where we can observe the fundamental mechanisms of deformation in materials at nanoscale dimensions. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAR 23 | EXPLORING THE EXTREME UNIVERSE WITH FERMI |
| Dr. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University will describe recent discoveries from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which is observing black holes, exploding stars and more! [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAR 30 | ENERGY RESEARCH IN DENMARK |
| Jeremy Hieb (’03) of the University of California, Santa Cruz and Zero Motorcycles will discuss renewable energy research in Denmark–including wind, solar, bioenergy, electric vehicles, hydrogen micro-grids, and smart grids for a sustainable biosphere. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| APR 6 | WHISPERS IN THE DARK |
| Dr. Jodi Cooley of Stanford University will tell us how a group of physicists from the U.S. and Canada are searching for dark matter by listening for faint whispers of their interactions in the CDMS detector located in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| APR 20 | COSMIC COLLIDERS |
| Dr. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of the University of California, Santa Cruz will show how observations of the interplay between black holes, neutron stars and other objects in dense stellar systems allow us to draw firm conclusions about the properties of these extreme forms of matter. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| APR 27 | THE ACOUSTICS OF BAROQUE BASSOONS |
| Dr. Bryant Hichwa of Sonoma State University will describe the physical acoustics of 250-year-old bassoons and show that mathematical models based on examination of museum bassoons reveal interesting societal cultural differences. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
| MAY 4 | THIRTY-NINE YEARS OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY |
| Dr. Joseph S. Tenn of Sonoma State University will conclude his career with some reflections on his activities and the changes he has seen. [Available on DVD in the SSU library.] | |
