Public Lectures

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. Researchers want to explain how mass itself arises, by explaining it in terms of more basic concepts. In this lecture targeted for a general audience, Prof. Wilczek will explain how this goal can, to a remarkable extent, be achieved. He will also discuss some of the consequences - an explanation of why gravity is so feeble - and suggestions for new physical phenomena at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. Prof. Wilczek is a distinguished scientist and lecturer. He is the author of Fantastic Realities: 49 Mind Journeys and a trip to Stockholm and co-author of Longing for the Harmonies. In addition to many distinguished memberships and affiliations, he is a member of Perimeter Institute’s Scientific Advisory Committee.

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 brightness of thousands of tiny lights, something that would now be done by machine. Her job title was \'computer,\' but during the next few years she rose above her station as a tabulator of data and discovered a new law, one that would change forever our view of the universe. George Johnson, the author of Miss Leavitt\'s Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe, writes about science for The New York Times from Santa Fe, New Mexico and is winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award. His other books include A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer, Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order and Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics. He is co-director of the Santa Fe Science-Writing Workshop and can be reached on the Web at talaya.net. A graduate of the University of New Mexico and American University, his first reporting job was covering the police beat for the Albuquerque Journal. Miss Leavitt\'s Stars, George Johnson, Leavitt, astronomy, cephoid, Magellanic cloud

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 the level of atoms and electrons. This computational capacity underlies the generation of complex systems, and provides insight into the origin of life and its future. Seth Lloyd is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the author of \'Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos\' which asks the startling question \'Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer?\'. Programming the Universe, Seth Lloyd, capacitor, information processing, Big Bang, quantum computer, quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality, Schrodinger, complex universe, algorithmic, decode

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. You’ll see the latest photos, learn what Martian mysteries have been uncovered and find out how scientists plan to push the limits of future robots in space. Dr. John A. Grant, III joined the Smithsonian in the fall of 2000 as a Geologist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum. He has been a member of the Science Team for the Mars Exploration Rovers since 2002, is one of six Science Operations Working Group Chairs and is co-leading site selection activities for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission to Mars. Since 2001, Dr. Grant has served as a Co-Investigator on the High Resolution Camera (HiRISE), which is being flown on the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, currently on its way to Mars. In addition, he is leading development of a ground-penetrating radar for possible future deployment on a Mars rover and conducts fundamental research related to the history of geologic processes on the Earth and Mars. He has been interested in Mars ever since reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles as a child. Dr. Grant earned his bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and received his master’s in geology at the University of Rhode Island and his doctorate in geology at Brown University. He maintains a strong connection to the classroom and has held several professorial and teaching posts at both Rhode Island College and SUNY College at Buffalo. He has authored or contributed to numerous articles in many professional journals, including Science, Geology, Geomorphology, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. Mission to Mars, John A Grant, Mars, exploration, red planet, NASA, Spirit Rover, hematite, geology, air and space, outcrop, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,

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 on his best-selling book, Theatre of the Mind. Jay Ingram is the author of several bestselling books, including The Science of Everyday Life, The Barmaid’s Brain and The Velocity of Honey. He is producer and co-host of the Discovery Channel’s award-winning show Daily Planet, and also contributes a weekly science column to the Toronto Star. He holds two ACTRAs, the Royal Society of Canada McNeil Medal, the Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute, the Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion and three Canadian Science Writers Awards. Are you Conscious?, Jay Ingram, conscious, unconscious, change blindness, inattentional blindness, childhood amnesia

How do you advise a scientist who says she has information that could be vital to the event health but she’s 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 including interviews with whistleblowers, surveys of scientists and public testimony - and adding new material that isn’t in the book –Shuchman will outline the benefits of scientific whistleblowing over the past 40 years. Then she will describe its aftermath. In case after case, Shuchman will give audience members the information and ask their opinions of what should have happened. Miriam Shuchman is a psychiatrist with a background in medical ethics, who teaches at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her features on ethics and psychiatry have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail, as well as on CBC Radio and National Public Radio in the United States. Her articles on medical whistleblowers have appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. Shuchman trained in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and studied ethics at Dartmouth College. Her book, “The Drug Trial”, tells the full story of the Olivieri affair, Canada’s biggest science scandal, and exposes problems that should concern us all in the systems of scientific research, corporate financing and peer review. Drug trial, Miriam Shuchman, whistle blowers, Sissela Bok, Nancy Olivieri, David Kern, Cesare Maltoni, Justine Sergent, moral, responsibility, indefensible, scientists

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 BBC’s Science Department since 1990. In 1996, Singh directed the award-winning documentary “Fermat’s Last Theorem”. The documentary was also nominated for an Emmy under the American title “The Proof”. He is the author of three books, most recently, the “Big Bang”, a history of cosmology. big bang, Simon Singh, cosmology, universe, galaxies, Hubble, Doppler effect, steady state universe, microwaves, radio astronomy

Einstein’s 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 Einstein’s enormous contributions to our understanding. Relativity, Smolin, Stachel, Moffat, Einstein, relativity theory, revolutionary, quantum, Planck, unified field theory, social impact, scientific revolution, physics, history

The final part of the 04-05 Public Events series turns the spotlight on you. It’s your chance to ask a panel of Perimeter researchers for their thoughts on a wide variety of scientific topics. Heisenberg, uncertainty principle, discrete theory, space-time, Thiemann, quantum, relativity, special relativity, quantum theory, Emerson, coherent superpostions, Shrodinger, Sorkin, clock, Freidel, gravity, Romelsberger, Burgess, Einstein, string theory, quantum entanglement

Edward Witten is one of the world’s 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 honour in the world of mathematics. Professor Witten will examine key discoveries made by physicists in the 20th century such as the detection of antimatter. He will then describe how many of today’s leading scientists are working at the high energy frontier of elementary particle accelerators in their quest to uncover the quantum structures of space and time. supersymmetry, Edward Witten, particle physics, quantum mechanics, waves, Rutherford, antimatter, antiparticle, quantum uncertainty principle, accelerator, space-time

Anton Zeilinger, a renowned physicist who successfully teleported light particles, will explain how quantum properties are used today to process and transmit information. Anton Zeilinger, Einstein, quantum information, quantum physics, entanglement, cryptography, quantum mechanics, teleportation, quantum computer