SEMINARS

Time：Oct 9（Wed）4:00 pm
Where：N415 Physics Building
Title：Toroidal and Poloidal Alfven Waves and Field Line Resonances

Time：Sep 12（Thu）3:30 pm
Where：N415 Physics Building
Title：Substorm energy storage and release processes

Time：Sep 14（Fri） 2:00 pm
Where：M212 Physics Building
Speaker：Prof. Juan G. Roederer University of Alaska-Fairbanks

There are some facts of nature on which physics is based that normally are not discussed in class, but which any beginning student should also learn, even if only in rudimentary fashion. For instance, what does "physical reality" mean? What is a “physical body”? What are "models" in physics? What is "information"? What happens in the human brain when it suddenly "understands" something in physics? Most people would argue that such questions should be left to philosophers or neurobiologists. However, being very relevant to today’s physics, I believe that they should be addressed in regular university physics courses. I will show how some anti-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics can be used as examples to illustrate the fundamental role of certain concepts from other disciplines as integral components of physics itself.