Global Warming Revisited
Because of the following statement from the American Physical Society: “The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, s....
More details | Watch nowNMR in Biology, Chemistry and Medicine
For the discovery of the physics phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952. NMR has then been used in a wide range of fundamental studies in physics, and in the 1960....
More details | Watch nowCatalysis at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity
This lecture addresses the question if spatio-temporal self-organisation of matter which is so characteristic for living systems can also be verified with a simple inorganic reaction in which the observed phenomena of complexity can be traced back to....
More details | Watch nowPhysical perspective on cytoplasmic streaming
Professor Ray Goldstein FRS is the Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems at the University of Cambridge. Here he describes a biological example of topological inversion, with relevance to engineering problems in human technology.
More details | Watch nowPart 1: Selective Microwave Heating Design and Theory
In part one of this three part series, FSU chemist Dr. Gregory Dudley, puts forth the controversy that surrounds microwave chemistry research, he outlines physical theory of microwave chemistry, and discusses the research teams central design hypothe....
More details | Watch nowNatural Selection and the Future of Life
In his lecture Professor Christian Rene de DuvŽ gives a rough overview on the history of life starting about 3.5 billion years ago with the first cells up to the appearance of the first primates 70 million years ago, and he states that all organisms....
More details | Watch nowInfections in the Etiology of Human Cancers
During the past century a number of chemical and physical risk factors for human cancers have been identified. Only relatively recently, mainly during the past 30 years, infectious agents have been identified as important human carcinogens. Besides....
More details | Watch nowWhich Way For Physics?
This talk describes a new approach to the problem of characterising physical reality, one with the potential to fill in gaps in the conventional understanding of nature. It is based on a different view from the usual one of structure at the finest l....
More details | Watch nowThe Impact of Big Science on Astrophysics
The Chandra and Hubble Telescopes are in space and each costs (through operations) several billion dollars. VLT is on the ground but over 20 years of operations will also cost in excess of a billion. They all fall therefore in the category of what ....
More details | Watch nowThe Development of Particle Physics
Particle physics mainly developed after World War II. It has its roots in the first half of the previous century, when it became clear that all matter is made up from atoms, and the atoms in turn were found to contain a nucleus surrounded by electro....
More details | Watch nowThe Optical Frequency Comb – a Really Versatile Tool
The Optical Frequency Comb concept and technology exploded in 1999-2000 from the synthesis of advances in independent fields of Laser Stabilization, UltraFast Lasers, and NonLinear Optical Fibers. The Comb was developed first as a method for optical....
More details | Watch nowStructural Biology and its Translation into Practice and Business: My Experience
As a student in the early 1960s, I had the privilege to attend winter seminars organized by my mentor, W. Hoppe, and by M. Perutz, which took place in a small guesthouse in the Bavarian-Austrian Alps. The entire community of a handful of protein cry....
More details | Watch nowThe Big Challenges
During the entire 20th century, physical sciences have advanced to such a degree that we can extrapolate how they can be applied, even in a fairly distant future. Even if we leave open the (likely) possibility of spectacular new discoveries and inv....
More details | Watch nowThe Development of Particle Physics
Particle physics mainly developed after World War II. It has its roots in the first half of the previous century, when it became clear that all matter is made up from atoms, and the atoms in turn were found to contain a nucleus surrounded by electro....
More details | Watch nowCatalysis at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity
Catalysis by solid surfaces is, among others, of importance for the chemical industry (e.g. the Haber-Bosch process) as well as for environmental chemistry (car exhaust catalyst). Surface physical techniques enable investigation of the underlying e....
More details | Watch nowControlling Photons in a Box and Exploring the Quantum to Classical Boundary
The founders of quantum theory assumed in 'thought experiments' that they were manipulating isolated quantum systems, obeying the counterintuitive laws which they had just discovered. Technological advances have recently turned these virtual experi....
More details | Watch nowPowering the Future
Some seeds of what to do in the climate/energy controversy are contained in what will be. In this talk I shall ask everyone to jump over contemporary politics and make a mental journey to a time, several centuries from now, when nobody uses carbon-....
More details | Watch nowFive Decades of Lasers, Six Decades of Progress, and a Proposed Space Experiment to test Einstein’s Assumptions
Even though this is the 51st year of the Laser, progress in its control and application in precision measurements is still accelerating. The Optical Frequency Comb technology exploded in 1999-2000 from the synthesis of advances in independent field....
More details | Watch nowThe edges of the universe: black holes, horizons and strings
The visible universe has edges, known as event horizons, which surround a black hole or a region of space speeding away faster than light. Event horizons are governed by a strikingly simple set of quantum laws which imply that black holes are at on....
More details | Watch nowThe last 2 million years of human evolution
Human evolution can be divided into two main phases. Evidence points strongly to Africa as the major centre for the genetic, physical and behavioural origins of humans, but new discoveries are prompting a rethink of some aspects of our evolutionary o....
More details | Watch nowCrystallographic electron microscopy
Born in Lithuania, Aaron Klug, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1982, tells us about his early life and education growing up in Durban, South Africa. He developed an early interest in physiology and anatomy but did not find his teacher very inspiring and ga....
More details | Watch nowRam Rao
Prof. C.N.R. Rao was born and brought up in Bangalore, India where he developed his interest in science. He studied for his Ph.D at Purdue University in the US but returned to India to continue his career. He has had numerous visiting positions abroa....
More details | Watch nowFun growing new materials and exploring their properties and applications
We have synthesized different alkali metal peroxychromates and K3NbO8 doped with K3CrO8crystals based on rare oxidation state of Chromium (V).We have studied their spectroscopic properties using EPR and pulsed EPR. Coherent spin manipulation on Cr+5 ....
More details | Watch nowPowering the Planet
Dan Nocera of MIT gives a review of the world's current power demand and projects it forward to 2030. By using readily available data he shows that providing the increase needed is remarkably difficult given the need to restrict the production of ca....
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