University of Michigan News Service – UM News

Saturday Morning Physics returns for spring season

ANN ARBOR—Saturday Morning Physics, the popular University of Michigan series of multimedia physics lectures for general audiences, will present its six-week spring series beginning March 2.

The talks, which attract hundreds of attendees from middle school students to retirees, are popular because the topics are presented in easy-to-understand, non-technical terms, illustrated with multimedia technology and live demonstrations.

All lectures will be held Saturdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m., in 170 Dennison Hall, 501 East University, on the U-M’s Central Campus. Coffee and refreshments will be served. All lectures are free and open to the public. High school students are especially encouraged to attend, but the passionately curious of all ages are welcome.

“I gave a lecture last spring and was absolutely bowled over when more than 300 people turned up on a snowy morning in March to learn about fractals,” said series coordinator Prof. Leonard Sander. “When I was offered the chance to organize this program, I jumped at it. We have a very innovative program this time. All the talks are physics related, but they will show the range of topics that hard scientists can cover.”Lectures scheduled for the spring series are:

• Sanders will discuss the German and Soviet A-Bomb programs during and after World War II, including the role played by the scientists and the intelligence services of the various countries.

• March 9: “Epidemics, the Internet, and the Six Degrees of Separation: The Physics of Networks,” Mark Newman, professor of physics, Santa Fe Institute. This talk will involved how things (people, organizations, computers) are connected, how the network of these connections affects our society and our lives, and what physics and mathematics call tell us about it.

• March 16: “Why is There Science in Fiction?” Eric Rabkin, professor of English language and literature. There is science in fiction for as many reasons as there is science in our lives: admiration for the learned, indulgence of archetypal fantasies, fear of the realized power of the mind, and many, many more. We see science in fictions of all sorts: books, movies, ads, and even public policy. This presentation will try to open these issues for public discussion.

• March 23: “Our Place in the Cosmos,” August Evrard, professor of physics. We live in the neighborhood of a typical star that revolves in the disk of a normal galaxy that is enshrouded in a halo of mysterious dark matter. Our Milky Way halo is a bead within a vast cosmic web of dark matter that stretches the breadth of the known universe. This lecture will provide cosmologists’ current answer to the fundamental questions, “Where are we?” and “How did we get here?”

• Just what does it mean to look at an atom? This lecture will describe a simple model for atoms and how they can be observed by scanning tunneling microscopy. It will cover the basic principles of operation and discuss several applications from current research topics.

• April 20: “A Physicist’s View of Turbulence,” Charlie Doering, professor of mathematics. We are all familiar with various aspects of turbulent fluid flows, from stirring cream into a cup of coffee to bumpy rides in jet airlines. From a 21st century physicist’s viewpoint, the fundamental characteristic of turbulence is the chaotic “energy cascade” process, giving rise to the enhanced mixing and transport efficiency of turbulent flows. The aim of this lecture is to explain some of the basic ideas behind modern research in the physics of turbulence.

Saturday Morning PhysicsLeonard SanderMark NewmanEric RabkinAugust EvrardmathematicsNews and Information Services