Events
May
| Event Location: Connect via Zoom | Speaker: David Morrissey (TRIUMF)
Cosmic strings are macroscopic, approximately one-dimensional objects that arise in many theories of new fundamental physics. If they are created in the early universe after inflation, they form a network of horizon-length long strings and smaller closed loops.
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May
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Brent Seales (U Kentucky)
Abstract
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May
| Event Location: Zoom link in description | Speaker: David Tománek, Michigan State University
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66400573212?pwd=U2txNjdnazcrMjJ4L2FZMWtXOFc2dz09
Meeting ID: 664 0057 3212
Passcode: 139139
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May
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Pieter Cullis (UBC)
I graduated from the UBC Physics Department with a PhD in solid state physics in 1972. In this talk I will relate an improbable journey from ESR studies of phosphorus-doped silicon at 4°K to enabling the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The story begins with a move to the Biochemistry Department at Oxford University as a Postdoctoral Fellow to use NMR to study the functional roles of lipids in biological membranes. This required the use of simplified “model membrane” vesicular systems consisting of well-defined lipid species.
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May
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Jean-Luc Margot (UCLA)
Earth-based radar observations in 2006–2020 enabled the first measurement of the spin precession rate and moment of inertia of Venus. The observations also showed that the spin period of the solid planet changes by tens of minutes. The length-of-day variations are due to variations in atmospheric angular momentum transferred to the solid planet. Some of the variations appear to follow the diurnal cycle.
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June
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Sidney Nagel (U Chicago)
It is a well-known and indisputable fact that materials age and deform over time, which often leads to detrimental degradation. In contrast to this view, I will seek to embrace aging and develop it as a methodology to create desired and novel functionality in matter. The central idea is that a material retains a memory of the external stimuli to which it was exposed during its preparation history and, in reaction to those applied cues, can be directed to evolve desired behaviors not easily found otherwise.
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June
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Peter Mohr (NIST)
The International System of Units (SI) underwent a revolutionary change on May 20, 2019. In October 2017, the International Committee on Weights and Measures met at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris and recommended a new definition of the SI such that a particular set of constants would have certain values when expressed in the new SI units. In particular, the SI is now defined by the statement:
The International System of Units, the SI, is the system of units in which
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