Events at Physics |
Events During the Week of November 2nd through November 8th, 2008
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- No Strings Attached: Investigating Plasma Convection and Transport in the Levitated Dipole Experiment
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 1227 Engineering Hall
- Speaker: Dr Darren Garnier, MIT and Columbia University
- String Theory Seminar
- Conformal Collider Physics
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Diego Hoffman, Princeton
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- Conversations with the Silent Majority in Soil Microbial Communities
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (Refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Jo Handelsman, Bacteriology
- Abstract: The soil is the richest environment on Earth. It contains the highest diversity and density of life forms of any habitat, with more than one billion bacterial cells per gram. The chemical diversity is also unparalleled, providing a pharmaceutical cornucopia that has been exploited by humans. For example, most of the antibiotics used in modern medicine are derived from bacteria that reside in soil. The complexity of soil microbial communities makes their analysis challenging and an accurate census thus far impossible. My lab's work is directed toward describing the biological and chemical diversity in soil using diverse techniques. In this talk, I will cover molecular analyses as well as statistical analyses that use great books as a metaphor for soil communities.
- Astronomy Colloquium
- The Dirt on Dust: An X-ray Perspective
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 6515 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Professor Julia Lee, Harvard University
- Abstract: The compositional make-up of interstellar dust and the relative abundances of chemical elements in astrophysical environments are not well understood, despite good progress. Since dust is a primary repository of the interstellar medium, and is responsible for the chemical evolution of stars, planets, and life itself, it has a profound effect on many areas of astrophysical research from cosmology to star and planet formation. High spectral resolution X-ray instruments on powerful X-ray satellites (e.g. Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku) pointed through dust and gas at bright black hole and neutron star systems can be used to study dust and intervening material in unique ways. With the new subfield of High Energy Condensed Matter Astrophysics as its goal, I will discuss a new technique for determining dust composition and depletion using X-rays, initial progress, and future prospects.<br>
- Host: Professor Sebastian Heinz
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
- High Energy Seminar
- New measurement of the K+ -> pi+ nu nubar Branching Ratio
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Zhe Wang, BNL
- Host: Matt Herndon
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Short baseline disappearance experiments at Fermilab
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Kendall Mahn, Columbia University
- Host: Stefan Westerhoff
- Graduate Introductory Seminar
- String Theory Intro Seminar
- Time: 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
- Place: 2223 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: String Theory Group, Physics Department
- Abstract: Introductory Seminar for first year Grad Students (others welcome)
- Host: String Theory Group
Friday, November 7th, 2008
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Gravitational Waves and Multimessenger Astrophysics - an Experimenter's Point of View
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Szabolcs Marka, Columbia University
- Host: Westerhoff