Compton Lectures
| We cordially invite you to join us for the next series of the Arthur H. Compton Lectures. The Lectures are intended for the general public, friends of the Enrico Fermi Institute, members of the University community, and interested citizens of the Chicago area. They provide a descriptive account of some of the frontiers of present-day science. We don’t expect you to have a formal background in mathematics or science, but hope to appeal to your curiosity and to share with you some of the excitement of modern scientific research. |
| THE PHYSICS OF STUFF: WHY MATTER IS MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS |
| From the smallest ocean plankton to the largest particle accelerators, our modern life is full of a vast array of stuff of nearly infinite complexity. However, every living and non-living object on earth is made of the same well-known chemical elements that compose the periodic table, which is small enough to be published on one page of a middle-school chemistry book. The matter we interact with on a daily basis is composed of enormously large collections of individual atomic elements, and it is their microscopic interactions that define their macroscopic properties. For centuries, physical scientists have been classifying the different types of matter, from the ordinary (solid, liquid, gas) to the extraordinary (living cells, superconductors, dark matter). Amazing advances in physics in the last century have illuminated the nature of various forms of matter, as well as the phase transitions between these forms. This series of lectures will focus on the fascinating and exotic properties of everyday matter, and describe the universal framework that we physicists use to think about large complex systems. |
| In
these lectures Dr. Burton will review some of the basic ideas
underlying condensed matter physics, and ways in which we are using
this knowledge to understand complex systems from sand piles and
glasses to liquid crystals and genetic circuits. No scientific
background is required -- just bring your curiosity. We hope you can join us for the first lecture on Saturday, April 3, 2010 at 11:00 AM in Room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 South Ellis Avenue. Enter through the door at the southeast corner. The series will run each Saturday from April 3 through June 12, 2010. There will be no lecture on May 29th (Memorial Day weekend). Here is a flyer for the lecture series: ComptonBurtonFlierSpr2010.pdf ...NEWS... IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE READ!!! To our Compton Lectures Audience: I want to thank everybody involved in the lectures, especially the audience for making this so enjoyable! If you have any problems downloading materials or videos, please let me know by email: jcburton at uchicago.edu slide and handout links for week 10 available in .pdf format slide transitions are built-in to the files, unfortunately the movies are not... Check out the video!: http://comptonlectures.uchicago.edu also check out the reading list for more great physics of stuff: suggested_reading.pdf |
week 1: April 3rd “The matter we know: from the ordinary to the exotic”
week1_slides.pdf week1_handout.pdf
week 2: April 10th “Solids: crystals and symmetry”
week2_slides.pdf week2_handout.pdf
week 3: April 17th “Fluids and interfacial physics”
week3_slides.pdf week3_handout.pdf
week 4: April 24th “Phase transitions: a universal theme”
week4_slides.pdf week4_handout.pdf
week 5: May 1st “Super-stuff: quantum matter”
week5_slides.pdf week5_handout.pdf
week 6: May 8th “Disorder and Glassiness”
week6_slides.pdf week6_handout.pdf
week 7: May 15th “From the old to the new: soft matter I”
week7_slides.pdf week7_handout.pdf
week 8: May 22nd “From the old to the new: soft matter II”
week8_slides.pdf week8_handout.pdf
week 9: June 5th “Let’s put it to use: materials science past and present”
week9_slides.pdf week9_handout.pdf
week 10: June 12th “Much more than the sum of its parts: living matter and evolution”
week10_slides.pdf week10_handout.pdf
inner life of a cell - video
Justin C. Burton • James Franck Institute • University of Chicago
929 E. 57th St,
Chicago, IL 60637 • (773) 702-7204 • jcburton_at_uchicago.edu