PIRSA:C04001 - Perimeter Institute Public Lecture Series
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Perimeter Institute brings great thinkers from around the world to Canada to share their ideas on a wide variety of interesting and topical subjects. These lectures and debates are aimed at non-specialists. No mathematical or scientific knowledge is necessary or assumed. Each event is explicitly tailored for the general public and everyone is welcome to attend.
Organizer(s): John Matlock
Collection URL: http://pirsa.org/C04001
The Stability of the Solar System
Abstract: For over three hundred years, physicists and mathematicians have been trying to understand how stable the Earth really is. Could gravitational forces from other planets lead to drastic changes in Earths orbit? Will we collide with other planets or be ejected into interstellar space?
Date: 02/06/2004 - 7:00 pm
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Proofs and Pictures: The Role of Visualization in Mathematical and Scientific Reasoning
Abstract: Do you have to see it to believe it? James Robert Brown, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, will discuss the highly interesting but controversial topic of the legitimate role of visual thinking in mathematics and science. Examples of picture proofs and thought experiments will be ...
read moreDate: 03/11/2004 - 7:00 pm
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Harnessing the Quantum World
Abstract: Are you ready for this upgrade? The very foundation of computer science is changing. As Moore's Law draws to a close, rules of quantum physics are taking over. Learn how leading researchers are using counterintuitive effects, such as superposition, in their quest to build ultra-powerful quantum comp...
read moreDate: 02/12/2004 - 4:20 pm
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The Florentine Heretic? Galileo, the church and the cosmos
Abstract: Galileos campaign on behalf of the modern view of the solar system is one of the most dramatic events in the history of relations between Christianity and science endlessly portrayed as a battle between theological interests and scientific freedom. But this traditional story is filled with fact...
read moreDate: 05/01/2005 - 4:05 pm
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The Black Hole Wars
Abstract: The strange paradoxes and puzzles of the quantum behaviour of black holes and the things that fall into them led to a spirited battle of ideas between Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind and other scientists. Resolving the debate may change our entire understanding of space, time, matter and informati...
read moreDate: 02/02/2005 - 6:30 pm
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From Einstein to Quantum Information
Abstract: Anton Zeilinger, a renowned physicist who successfully teleported light particles, will explain how quantum properties are used today to process and transmit information.
Date: 02/03/2005 - 7:00 pm
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The Quest for Supersymmetry
Abstract: Edward Witten is one of the worlds preeminent string theorists. Among his many accomplishments, he is widely known for showing how five different variations of string theory all belong within a single framework. His awards range from a MacArthur 'genius grant' to the Fields Medal - the highest hon...
read moreDate: 06/04/2005 - 7:00 pm
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Audience Night
Abstract: The final part of the 04-05 Public Events series turns the spotlight on you. Its your chance to ask a panel of Perimeter researchers for their thoughts on a wide variety of scientific topics.
Date: 01/06/2005 - 7:00 pm
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Einstein - Relativity and Beyond
Abstract: Einsteins profound ideas about relativity and the quantum have provided generations of people with some of the most thought-provoking concepts ever proposed about the wonders and mysteries of our universe. This lively panel discussion will examine Einsteins enormous contributions to our understa...
read moreDate: 12/08/2005 - 12:35 pm
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The Big Bang
Abstract: Simon Singh grew up in Somerset, and completed his undergraduate work at Imperial College London, and his Ph.D. at Cambridge University and CERN. He has worked with the BBCs Science Department since 1990. In 1996, Singh directed the award-winning documentary Fermats Last Theorem. The documen...
read moreDate: 02/11/2005 - 7:00 pm
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The Drug Trial: You Be the Judge
Abstract: How do you advise a scientist who says she has information that could be vital to the event health but shes been told to keep it a secret? In this talk Dr. Shuchman will discuss the dramatic act of blowing the whistle in science. Drawing on the extensive information in her best-selling book includ...
read moreDate: 07/12/2005 - 7:00 pm
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Are You Conscious?
Abstract: The scientific approach to consciousness is a relatively new pursuit, but it has already revealed some startling facts about the cavalcade of feelings, images and thoughts that stream through our heads every waking moment. Jay Ingram will present some of the most surprising of these in a talk based ...
read moreDate: 04/01/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Mission to Mars: Still Roving on the Red Planet
Abstract: An expected 90 day robotic odyssey on Mars has stretched into a two year scientific marathon. Dr. Grant, a geologist with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, helped pick the landing sites and works on day-to-day operations of the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers. Youll see the latest photos, ...
read moreDate: 01/02/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Programming the Universe
Speaker(s):
Seth Lloyd - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Abstract: The universe computes: every atom, electron, and elementary particle registers bits of information, and every time two particles collide those bits are flipped and processed. By hacking the computational power of the universe, we can build quantum computers which store and process information at...
read moreDate: 19/04/2006 - 7:00 pm
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The Search for Miss Leavitt
Abstract: Inside Harvard College Observatory in 1904, a young woman named Henrietta Swan Leavitt sat hunched over a stack of glass photographic plates, patiently counting stars. The images had been taken by a telescope high in the Peruvian Andes, and Miss Leavitt was given the tedious chore of measuring the b...
read moreDate: 03/05/2006 - 7:00 pm
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A Night with Nobel - The Origin of Mass and the Feebleness of Gravity
Speaker(s):
Frank Wilczek - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Abstract: Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 asserts that energy and mass are different aspects of the same reality. It is usually associated with the idea that small amounts of mass can be converted into large amounts of energy. For fundamental physics, however, the more important idea is just the opposite. Re...
read moreDate: 06/06/2006 - 7:00 pm
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The Quantum and the Cosmos
Abstract: Long before the emergence of planets, stars, or galaxies, the universe consisted of an exploding quantum soup of elementary particles. Encoded in this formless, shapeless soup were seeds of cosmic structure, which over billions of years grew into the beautiful and complex universe we observe tod...
read moreDate: 07/06/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Faster than the Speed of Light - Could the laws of physics change?
Abstract: The laws of physics are usually meant to be set in stone; variability is not usually part of physics. Yet contradicting Einstein's tenet of the constancy of the speed of light raises nothing less than that possibility. I will discuss some of the more dramatic implications of a varying speed of light...
read moreDate: 23/06/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Impossible Crystals
Abstract: This is a story of how the impossible became possible. How, for centuries, scientists were absolutely sure that solids (as well as decorative patterns like tiling and quilts) could only have certain symmetries - such as square, hexagonal and triangular - and that most symmetries, including five-fold...
read moreDate: 06/09/2006 - 7:00 am
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A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines: Limits of Truth and Mind
Abstract: From Levins recent book comes a strange if true story of coded secrets, psychotic delusions, mathematics, and war. This story of greatness and weakness, of genius and delusion, circulates around the parallel lives of Kurt Gödel, the greatest logician of many centuries, and Alan Turing, the extrao...
read moreDate: 04/10/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Time and Motion
Abstract: Newton's first law of motion - and the very meaning of inertia - has been described as either completely obvious (D'Alembert) or a 'logician's nightmare' (ex-editor of the American Journal of Physics). Sometimes the simplest things in physics are the most subtle. The first law will be described in h...
read moreDate: 01/11/2006 - 7:00 pm
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From here to eternity: Global warming in geologic time
Abstract: Using results from models of the atmosphere/ocean/sediment carbon cycle, the impacts of fossil-fuel CO2 release will be examined including the effect on climate many thousands of years into the future, rather than for just a few centuries as commonly claimed. Prof. Archer will explain how aspects...
read moreDate: 06/12/2006 - 7:00 pm
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Fundamental Physics in 2010
Abstract: Will big questions be answered when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) switches on in 2007? What will scientists find? Where might the research lead? Nima Arkani-Hamed, a noted particle theorist, is a Professor of Physics at Harvard University. He investigates a number of mysteries and interactions in ...
read moreDate: 07/02/2007 - 7:00 pm
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Life, the Universe, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
Abstract: Hollywood movies about aliens abound, but do they really exist? The real scientific search for evidence of life, and particularly intelligent life, elsewhere in the cosmos is just as exciting as the reel version, and a lot more logical. So far, there is life-as-we-know-it to guide our specul...
read moreDate: 07/03/2007 - 7:00 pm
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Quantum Cryptography: A Tale of Secrets Hidden and Revealed Through the Laws of Physics
Abstract: Sensitive information can be valuable to others - from your personal credit card numbers to state and military secrets. Throughout history, sophisticated codes have been developed in an attempt to keep important data from prying eyes. But now, new technologies are emerging based on the surprising la...
read moreDate: 04/04/2007 - 7:00 pm
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Death of the Dinos: Giant Impacts and Biological Crises
Abstract: Sixty-five million years ago dinosaurs ruled the warm Cretaceous Earth. Without warning, this world was swept away forever by the impact of an asteroid about 15 km in diameter, leaving a huge scar now called the Chicxulub crater in Yucatan, Mexico. This catastrophe set the stage for the ascendance o...
read moreDate: 06/06/2007 - 7:00 pm
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From Einstein's Intuition to Quantum Bits
Speaker(s):
Alain Aspect - Institut d'Optique Graduate School
Abstract: Many experts are convinced that large scale, practical implementations of quantum information systems hold great promise for society, much as the laser and the transistor have already revolutionized the world. This stems from a long history of research that included an intense, raging battle of epic...
read moreDate: 03/10/2007 - 7:00 pm
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The Large Hadron Collider - World's Most Powerful Microscope
Abstract: International researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in Geneva, Switzerland, will soon embark on one of science's greatest adventures. With its very high energy, previously seen only in cosmic rays, the particle collider will probe the inner structure of matter at distances ten times smalle...
read moreDate: 07/11/2007 - 7:00 pm
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The Physics of Information: From Entanglement to Black Holes
Abstract: Do ideas about information and reality inspire fruitful new approaches to the hardest problems of modern physics? What can we learn about the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the beginning of the universe and our understanding of black holes by thinking about the very essence of information? The answ...
read moreDate: 05/12/2007 - 7:00 pm
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Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldy Privatizing Space
Abstract: In the second space age, human spaceflight is no longer the domain of governments. Dream-chasing entrepreneurs and clever engineers are aggressively blazing new trails into the heavens and preparing the world for an era of space tourism, ultra fast point-to-point earth travel and even orbiting h...
read moreDate: 06/02/2008 - 7:00 pm
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What Banged?
Speaker(s):
Neil Turok - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Abstract: The evidence that the universe emerged 14 billion years ago from an event called 'the big bang' is overwhelming. Yet the cause of this event remains deeply mysterious. In the conventional picture, the 'initial singularity' is unexplained. It is simply assumed that the universe somehow sprang into ex...
read moreDate: 05/03/2008 - 7:00 pm
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Science Fiction and Reality
Abstract: In the recent past, rapid scientific and technological developments have had tremendous impact on human society. Notably, the personal computer, internet and mobile telephones changed the world and shrank our planet. These developments are vastly different from the forecasts by science fiction autho...
read moreDate: 07/05/2008 - 7:00 am
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Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: The coolest stuff in the universe
Abstract: At the beginning of the 20th century Einstein published three revolutionary ideas that changed forever how we view Nature. At the beginning of the 21st century Einstein's thinking is shaping one of the key scientific and technological wonders of contemporary life: atomic clocks, the best timekeepers...
read moreDate: 04/06/2008 - 7:00 am
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Anticipating A New Golden Age
Speaker(s):
Frank Wilczek - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Abstract: Our present Core Theory of matter (aka “standard model”) was born in the 1970s, a Golden Age for fundamental physics. To date it has passed every experimental test, extending – by many orders of magnitude – to higher energies, shorter distances, and greater precision than were available in t...
read moreDate: 05/11/2008 - 7:00 pm
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