Looking at 20th Century Art Through the Eyes of a Physicist
Prof. Walter Lewin
Wed Jan 14, 02-04:00pm, 6-120
No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Single session event
I will talk about the pioneering and revolutionary developments in art during the first quarter of the 20th century which changed the way we look at ourselves and at the world. I have also arranged for visits (no charge)to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) and Fogg Art museum. You will experience the excitement and thrill of standing face-to-face with original works of art from that radical period. This is not a talk about Physics and Art, it's only about Art! If you plan to attend, e-mail me and state whether you want to go to the MFA or Fogg Art, or both. Your choice of dates:
MFA: Fri Jan 16, 2-4 PM & Tues Jan 20, 2-4 PM
Fogg Art: Fri Jan 23, 10 AM-12 PM, and Mon Jan 26, 2-4 PM
MUSEUM VISITS LIMITED TO 25 PEOPLE
Contact: Prof. Walter Lewin, 37-627, 253-4282, lewin@mit.edu
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Physics aLectures for the General MIT Community: Detecting Gravitational Waves With Interferometers
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala
Thu Jan 8, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
What are gravitational-waves? Are they radiated by astrophysical objects? How do we detect them? Can we use them to learn more about the cosmos? The answers to these and other questions will be presented along with a virtual tour of gravitational-wave observatories and a discussion of the principles of gravitational-wave generation and detection. Part of the Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community series.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community: 2Precision Physics with an Ion Balance - Does E=mc2?
Prof. Dave Pritchard
Mon Jan 12, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Our new single ion balance for trapped ions improves atomic mass measurement accuracy to ~ 10-11. We have discovered a correction to the cyclotron resonance formula, recalibrated the x-ray wavelength scale, found the mass of fundamental particles, may replace the artifact kilogram with an atomic mass standard, realized a new route to determining the fine structure constant, performed a precise test of E=mc2, and made the best measurement of the dipole moment of any charged molecule.Part of the Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community series.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@mit.edu
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Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community: 3Cosmic Inflation and the Accelerating Universe
Prof. Alan Guth
Thu Jan 15, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Inflationary cosmology offers possible explanations for many features of our universe, including its uniformity, its mass density, and the faint ripples that are now being observed in the cosmic background radiation. The recently discovered acceleration of the universe has radically altered our picture of the universe, but has also helped to confirm the basic predictions of inflation. Part of the Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community series.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community: 4String Theory: From Vibrating Strings to a Unified Theory of Physics
Prof. Barton Zwiebach
Wed Jan 21, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
We will explain what is a relativistic string and how it
differs from an ordinary string. Then, we will discuss in detail how physicists expect to obtain all the known elementary particles as vibrations of open strings suspended between configurations of D-branes.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community: 5MITQuantum Information-Computation at the Atomic Scale
Prof. Isaac Chuang
Fri Jan 23, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Information is physical, and computation obeys physical laws. Ones and zeros must be represented in physical media to be stored and processed. Increasingly, as we edge towards the limits of semiconductor technology, we reach a new regime where classical physics gives way to quantum, and phenomena like entanglement and quantum coherence become available as new resources. How can such resources be utilized for information technology, and with what physical systems? Part of the Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community series.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community: 6Are We Really Made of Quarks?
Prof. Jerome Friedman
Mon Jan 26, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
The quark model, which embodied a radically new view of the structure of matter, was fiercely debated and rejected by most of the physics community. Its ultimate acceptance took well over a decade and occurred only after inescapable and compelling experimental evidence, but free quarks have never been observed. This talk will describe how physicists came to this seemingly strange conclusion and discuss the implications of such a picture on our concept of matter. Part of the Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community series.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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Physics in Business-the Adventures of Two Course 8 Graduates in the Free Market
Jeff Trester and Jeff Evenson
Wed Jan 28, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Compare the different career paths of two men who graduated MIT in 1988 with degrees in physics. Jeff Trester is Co-Founder and Co-chief Executive Officer of PriceScan.com Inc. Founded in 1997, PriceScan.com uses "shopping bot" technology to allow on-line shoppers to compare product and price information. Jeff Evenson is a Partner in the Boston office of McKinsey & Company. He is a leader of McKinsey's High Tech practice and his clients include companies in communications equipment, semiconductors, electronic and optical materials, flat panel displays and the subset of drug discovery tools that result from effectively combining biology, physics and chemistry.
Contact: Maria Springer, 4-352, x3-4461, maria@MIT.EDU
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The Feynman Films
Markos Hankin
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Prereq: None
This series of films by Richard Feynman is open to the MIT community.
Contact: Markos Hankin, 4-309, 253-4844, mhankin@mit.edu
The Law of Gravitation
Markos Hankin
Mon Jan 5, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
The Best Mind Since Einstein
Markos Hankin
Wed Jan 7, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
The Relation of Mathematics to Physics
Markos Hankin
Thu Jan 8, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
The Great Conservation Principles
Markos Hankin
Mon Jan 12, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
Symmetry in Physical Law
Markos Hankin
Wed Jan 14, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
The Last Journey of a Genius
Markos Hankin
Thu Jan 15, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
Take the World from Another Point of View
Markos Hankin
Wed Jan 21, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
The Distinction of Past and Future
Markos Hankin
Fri Jan 23, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
Probability and Uncertainty
Markos Hankin
Mon Jan 26, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
Seeking New Laws
Markos Hankin
Wed Jan 28, 12-01:30pm, 6-120
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