2020
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Friday, May 8, 2020 https://bard.zoom.us/j/206020411 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Superposition is one of the most intriguing aspects of quantum mechanics, and one of the most successful physical theories ever invented. Light has been the vehicle for many demonstrations of the mysteries of quantum mechanics, especially superposition. Yet that leaves photons a mystery in themselves: being here and there, particle and wave, extended in space, but when detected, whole. Experiments with light offer new ways to think about quantum mechanics but also new ways to think about photons, even if we end up more confused than when we started. https://tinyurl.com/yaakp5fb Please see the schedule of upcoming talks as well as previously recorded talks at https://physics.bard.edu/newsroom/. |
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Friday, May 1, 2020 https://bard.zoom.us/j/206020411 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Starting from the well known facts about quantum mechanics I will introduce the concept of modular (quantum) spacetime that underlies general quantum non-locality that is consistent with causality. Next, I will discuss a realization of quantum spacetime in quantum field theory via the new concept of ``metaparticles''. Finally, I will discuss dynamical quantum spacetime in quantum gravity, and present a new understanding of dark matter and dark energy in this new formulation of quantum gravity. https://tinyurl.com/yat8hv7q |
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Friday, April 24, 2020 https://bard.zoom.us/j/206020411 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Matthew Deady, a disenchanted French-horn player moonlighting as a physicist, described the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (QM) as elevating epistemology to ontology. A schmancy way of saying there’s no fundamental thing being described by the measurements of… well… fundamental things. Einstein termed such notions poppycock (not actual quote) and suggested QM’s probabilistic description papered over underlying deterministic “hidden variables” that we haven’t figured out how to measure. Now when anybody mentions hidden variables in polite company, somebody murmurs, “John Bell said they don’t exist.” All chortle uncomfortably and the conversation is dropped. Physicists are not the only ones who probe the fabric of reality. Papyrologists—readers of papyri—too find themselves charged with the task of constructing our shared reality. We will enter this parallel discussion through an interesting side-door presented by the Gothic language. (Yes, that’s a thing.) Supposed chemist Hilton Weiss would urge you to avoid this talk, but seriously, who listens to that guy? Come join the discussion! https://tinyurl.com/yaz77abu Please see the schedule of upcoming talks as well as previously recorded talks at https://physics.bard.edu/newsroom/. |
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Friday, April 17, 2020 Mathematics Program https://bard.zoom.us/j/206020411 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 The answers we find are directly related to the questions we ask and the world we live in. This talk will explore just how wrong science has been in the past and how wrong it might be now. It will also address how science fits into a liberal arts education and how consequences matter. References will be made to Plato, Aristotle, Oresme, Kepler, Hume, Einstein, Schrödinger, Bohm, Watson, and Doudna (among others). A recording of the talk can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ycjscqee |
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Thursday, April 16, 2020 https://meet.google.com/azc-hvgc-cus 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Join us for a conversation on virtual learning and internships in math and the sciences. |
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Friday, April 3, 2020 https://bard.zoom.us/j/206020411 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 With numbers dominating the headlines, our weekly physics seminar will look at some nuances of the data, projections, and visualizations that are being generated to inform scientists, the public, and policy makers about the current pandemic. In addition to examining the challenging nature and inevitable uncertainties for those tracking, modeling, or acting during a fast-developing crisis, this talk will also touch on methods for making often unfathomable numbers in the news more intuitive. Video of the talk Additional Resources: Numbers John's Hopkins https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html GitHub NYTimes Database https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data Buzzfeed on Death Underreporting https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/coronavirus-update-dead-covid19-doctors-hospitals Guardian on UK Death Count https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/covid-19-deaths-outside-hospitals-to-be-included-in-uk-tally-for-first-time Business Insider on North Korea Deaths https://www.businessinsider.com/almost-200-north-korean-soldiers-died-coronavirus-2020- Vox on Case Fatality Rate https://www.vox.com/2020/4/1/21203198/coronavirus-deaths-us-italy-china-south-korea Imperial College COVID-19 Estimates Paper https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033357v1 Modeling Dutchess County Cases https://t.ly/2VjgR SIR Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nLfCbAzgo https://www.geogebra.org/m/nbjfjtpv Imperial College COVID-19 Projection Paper https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf FiveThirtyEight Expert Projections https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/infectious-disease-experts-dont-know-how-bad-the-coronavirus-is-going-to-get-either/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/experts-say-the-coronavirus-outlook-has-worsened-but-the-trajectory-is-still-unclear/ Visualizing NY Times Country & State Log Plots https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/coronavirus-deaths-by-country.html Gothamist NY County Plots https://gothamist.com/news/coronavirus-statistics-tracking-epidemic-new-york Case-Deaths Log-Log Plots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54XLXg4fYsc https://observablehq.com/@yy/covid-19-confirmed-vs-new-cases?collection=@yy/covid-19 CDC COVID-19 Weekly Report https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6912e2-H.pdf |
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Friday, March 20, 2020
Jose Perillan, Vassar College
Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 The stories scientists tell are not just mythologies or poorly researched histories to be judged inferior by historians of science and brushed aside as Whiggish accounts of the scientific past. These myth-histories are a unique species of narrative, fundamentally different from scholarly historical accounts. In the concept of myth-history, the hyphen is critical, for it bridges narrative modes. In communicating their science, scientists tend to use these hybrid narratives for important rhetorical purposes. Myth-histories, like those you might find in textbooks and popularizations of science, employ history as a rough scaffolding. They also filter out unwanted historical details, emphasize mythological tropes, and perpetuate essentialist images of ideal science built upon the shoulders of scientific heroes. The stories scientists tell undoubtedly deliver value, coherence, and inspiration to scientific communities but they also bear unintended consequences that must be brought to light. |
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Friday, March 13, 2020 Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Leila Makdisi ’09 will discuss how scientific practices and thought are applied in informal settings through her work as an educator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. |
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Friday, March 6, 2020 Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Mathematics as a discipline has relied on symbolic abstractions and symbol manipulations for the last few centuries, shaped by static surfaces (such as paper) as the dominant medium of communication. Algebra as a tool to manipulate symbols has been widely used to deal with mathematical abstractions so far. In this work, I demonstrate how the embodied, constructionist, and explainable elements of basic mathematics curricula (such as counting, grouping, sets, shapes etc.) can be combined with symbolic algebra and programming concepts to create a novel and powerful drawing language that leverages embodied interactions to do mathematics. Compared to symbolic abstractions, I will argue (via user studies with scientists and children) that this representation is more suitable for human perception and understanding of mathematics. I will describe three unique brushes (iconic element brush, list brush, function brush) and two key design ideas (fused representations and abstraction layers) that make up this embodied interaction framework.Moving beyond paper and 2D screens, I will demonstrate how other embodied mediums of communication such as human gestures and body postures can be used to define programmable actions, and drive interactions for storytelling, presentations, and information visualization. All of such design principles can be utilized to redesign the "front-end" of mathematics and programming, taking into account embodied cognition and how humans learn and think. The implications of these frameworks in the context of Artificial Intelligence, mixed reality devices, and next generation computing will be discussed. If time permits, I will also discuss how my liberal arts training at Bard prepared me to work in the uncomfortable zones of interdisciplinary research, combining a few seemingly disparate fields. Nazmus Saquib designs interactive technology and wearable sensors, and is always looking for ways to merge powerful ideas from different fields. Significant projects include the invention of drawing-based mathematics, gesture-based storytelling in augmented reality, shoe-based sensor network helping social learning for children, and simulation software for particle accelerators. His works have been featured on NHK World TV and Edsurge and in the Boston Globe, and funded by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and Omidyar Network, among others, for startup ventures. Saquib studied physics and liberal arts at Bard College, scientific computing and applied math (MS) at the University of Utah, and media arts and sciences (MS) at the MIT Media Lab, and is currently a PhD candidate at MIT. |
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Friday, February 28, 2020 Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 The way in which stars form nearly always leads them to spin. It is widely believed that all black holes form out of these stars, and hence should also be spinning. However, the incredible gravitational wave measurements of the last five years suggest that there could be many black holes that do not spin. How do you create such black holes? Where do they come from? Are they qualitatively different aside from their low spins? These and related questions make up the black hole spin puzzle. I will explain how the birth of black holes in the early universe may provide a resolution to the black hole spin puzzle. My collaborators and I recently won a Buchalter Cosmology Prize for this work. Pizza will be served! |
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Friday, February 21, 2020 Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Rachel Spitz-Becker ’12 is a maker and restorer of fine instruments in New York City. She will discuss her unusual career path after receiving degrees from Bard in cello performance and physics, and reflect on the influence of a Bard education on her training and work in this unconventional field. Other topics will include the current state of research in stringed instrument acoustics and the shifting attitudes in the violin-making world toward scientific inquiry. She will also show examples of her current work executing complex restorations of historical instruments, and in the construction of new violins, violas, and cellos. |
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Thursday, February 13, 2020 Olin, Room 102 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 This talk will describe some of the archeological evidence for astronomical knowledge in ancient Egypt and discuss the challenges of understanding (up to) 4,500-year-old texts, objects, and monuments. What did the ancient Egyptians know about astronomy? To what uses did they put this knowledge? And how much can we learn from a fragmentary archeological record? Sarah Symons is an associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Science, McMaster University, Ontario. She studies the history of astronomy in ancient Egypt, with particular interests in timekeeping and astronomical maps, and is also director of the William J. McCallion Planetarium in Hamilton, Ontario. She is coeditor (with Bard’s Kassandra Miller) of Down to the Hour, a recently published book on ancient and classical timekeeping. |
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Friday, February 7, 2020 Speaker: Shuo Zhang, Bard College Hegeman 107 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Pizza will be served! Abstract One of the most unique phenomena in the center of our Milky Way galaxy is the existence of numerous thin and long filaments that produce radio and X-ray emission. Recent observations suggest that these filamentary structures are connected to a past outburst from the galactic center, while others argue that powerful local celestial bodies like pulsar wind nebula can explain the origin of the filament. In this talk, I am going to review our current understanding of these mysterious galactic center sources, and introduce the future plan for revealing their source nature. |
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Friday, January 31, 2020 The Physics Program invites physicists and physics enthusiasts to our Start-Of-The-Semester-Physics-Phriday-Meet-And-Greet event. This event kicks off our Spring semester Physics Phriday series with an informal gathering, pizza and a brief overview of future Physics Phriday events. |