Is all matter in the universe actually composed of inconceivabley tiny filiments of vibrating energy? One of the most exciting scientific adventures of all time is the search for the ultimate nature of physical reality, a hunt that in the past century has yielded relativity and quantum mechanics, two theories that radically altered our picture of space, time, gravity, and the fundamental building blocks of matter. The latest theory in that venture is called Superstring Theory - and it seeks to resolve some of the surprising discrepancies between relativity and quantum mechanics.
Ithaca College has joined up with the Ithaca Visitors Bureau to feature a presentation on superstring theory by Dr. S. James Gates, Jr., on Monday, February 19, 2007. The Visitors Bureau is featuring the Café as a highlighted event in its annual Winter Recess teachers festival, February 17-24. Details are online at http://www.ithacalovesteachers.com/.
While teaching, pursuing research, and writing scientific papers over the past two decades, Dr. Gates has also presented more than 100 public talks on string theory, honing a set of visual aids designed to convey to a lay audience the difficult mathematical ideas that underlie this subject.
The Physics Café is a campus-wide lecture series sponsored by the Physics Department of Ithaca College. The idea is to grab and hold the attention of science and non-science majors by offering talks on exciting and accessible current topics in physics. Past Café lectures have featured the time-warping properties of black holes, the exploration of planet Mars, the communication of elephants, and remote sensing of archaeological sites. The talks are presented in a café environment, where coffee is served and students and physicists can informally discuss new ideas.
The Physics Café regularly draws between 100 and 250 students from IC, so together with the 200-300 teachers from the Bureau event, we expect to attract a total audience of around 300 to 550 people.
Each talk in the Physics Café series is presented by a world-class expert. These speakers are known for their abilities to communicate with non-scientific audiences, and have won awards for their efforts to engage the public in our search for a physical understanding of the Universe.
The lecture is free and open to the public. There are no pre-requisites! No requirements!Everyone is welcome! Starbucks coffee (caffeinated and decaf.) will be served, along with cookies and biscuits. An informal talk-back session with the speaker will immediately follow the presentation.
For more information on our speaker, please see Dr. Gates at the University of Maryland.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20070212133949610