October 26, 2004 - 7:30pm
Dr. James E. Hansen
*NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (*for identification purposes
only)
New York City, New York
"Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference" 'A Discussion of Humanity's Faustian
Climate Bargain and the Payments Coming Due'
Dr. James Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
in New York City, which is a division of Goddard Space Flight Center's
(Greenbelt, MD) Sciences and Exploration Directorate. He was trained
in physics and astronomy in the space science program of Dr. James Van
Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the properties
of clouds of Venus contributed to their identification as sulfuric acid.
Since the late 1970s, he has worked on studies and computer simulations
of the Earth's climate. Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on
climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped
raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. He was elected to
the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and, in 2001, received both
the Heinz Award for environment as well as the American Geophysical
Union's Roger Revelle Medal.
ABSTRACT
I have been told by a high government official that I should not
talk about "dangerous anthropogenic interference" with climate,
because we do not know how much humans are changing the Earth's climate
or how much change is "dangerous". Actually, we know quite
a lot. Natural regional climate fluctuations remain larger today than
human-made effects such as global warming. But data show that we are
at a point where human effects are competing with nature and the balance
is shifting.
Ominously, the data show that human effects have been minimized by
a Faustian bargain: global warming effects have been mitigated by
air pollutants that reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's
surface. This Faustian bargain has a time limit, and the payment is
now coming due.
Actions that would alleviate human distortions of nature are not
only feasible but make sense for other reasons, including our economic
well-being and national security. However, our present plan in the
United States is to wait another decade before re-examining the climate
change matter. Delay of another decade, I argue, is a colossal risk.
The scientific method, epitomized to me as a student by Prof. James
Van Allen's Department of Physics and Astronomy, has the potential
to aid the public and decision-makers in addressing the global warming
issue in ways that have multiple benefits to our environmental and
economic well being. So far, this process has been hampered, as the
global warming story reveals various dangerous interferences with
the scientific process.
Dr. Hansen's lecture will be at 7:30pm on Tuesday, October 26
in Van Allen Hall, Lecture Room 1.
View Dr. Hansen's presentation, "Dangerous
Anthropogenic Interference." (PDF file, 4MB)
March 28, 2005 - W10 John Pappajohn Business
Building, 7:30pm
Prof. Sylvester James Gates, Jr.
Center for Particle and String Theory
Department of Physics
The University of Maryland
College Park, MD
"Why Einstein Would Love Spaghetti in Fundamental Physics"
ABSTRACT
It has been 100 years since Albert Einstein wrote three manuscripts
that established new concepts in the fundamental laws of physics.
Later in his life Einstein introduced another idea that has also had
a tremendous impact on the way we view our physical world as physicists
- a unified field theory. Einstein's idea was that all the Laws of
Physics and all the forces of Nature are contained in one master force
of Nature. Just as ice, liquid water and steam are just different
manifestations of water, the different forces as we see them are just
different phases of this master field. We will explore how this idea
has matured one hundred years after Einstein's original papers into
what is now known at Superstring Theory.
Professor Gates received his B.Sc. degrees (Mathematics & Physics)
from M.I.T in 1973. His Ph.D. (1977, physics) was conferred for studies
of elementary particle physics and quantum field theory. Thus, began
his research into the topic known as "supersymmetry" with his thesis
being the first devoted to this subject at M.I.T. He was a Junior Fellow
of the Harvard Society of Fellows (1977-1980) and a at Caltech (1980-1982).
He served on the MIT faculty from (1982-1984) and then became professor
at the University of Maryland at College Park (1984-present). In July,
1998 he was named the first John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the
University of Maryland.
Prof. Gates has authored or co-authored over 120 research papers, published
in scientific journals, co-authored one book and contributed numerous
articles in others. His research, in the areas of the mathematical and
theoretical physics of supersymmetric particles, fields and strings,
covers topics such as the physics of quarks, leptons, gravity, super
and heterotic strings and unified field theories of the type first envisioned
by A. Einstein. The Washington Academy of Sciences named him as its
1999 College Science Teacher of the Year.
Prof. Gates's lecture will be at 7:30pm on Monday, March 28 in the
John Pappajohn Business Building, Room W10.
April 19, 2005 - 7:30pm
Prof. Richard D. Hichwa, Ph.D.
Departments of Radiology, Physics, and Radiation Oncology
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
"Medical Imaging with Radioactivity: A View Inside the Human Body"
Dr. Richard Hichwa is a Professor in the Departments of Radiology,
Physics and Radiation Oncology. He received his B.S. in Physics form
the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Hichwa directs the University of
Iowa Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) Imaging Center and leads
research teams that study the physiology and function of normal as well
as abnormal mammalian systems. He has co-authored more than 110 scientific
papers and 15 book chapters. His research focuses on medical uses of
radiation and radioactivity. This has included development of novel
radionuclide production schemes, fabrication of radiation detectors,
synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals, imaging of humans and animals, and
automated intelligent data analysis methods.
Prof. Hichwa's lecture will be at 7:30pm on Tuesday, April 19 in Van
Allen Hall, Lecture Room 1.
May 3, 2005 - 7:30pm
Prof. Charles M. Falco
Optical Sciences Center
University of Arizona
"The Science of Optics: The History of Art"
ABSTRACT
Recently, renowned artist David Hockney observed that certain drawings
and paintings from as early as the Renaissance seemed almost "photographic"
in detail. Following an extensive visual investigation of western
art of the past 1000 years, he made the revolutionary claim that artists
even of the prominence of van Eyck and Bellini must have used optical
aids. However, many art historians insisted there was no supporting
evidence for such a remarkable assertion. In this talk I show a wealth
of optical evidence for his claim that Hockney and I subsequently
discovered during an unusual, and remarkably-productive, collaboration
between an artist and a scientist. I also discuss the unique properties
of the "mirror lens," and some of the implications this work has for
the history of science as well as the history of art. These discoveries
convincingly demonstrate optical instruments were in use--by artists,
not scientists--nearly 200 years earlier than previously even thought
possible, and account for the remarkable transformation in the reality
of portraits that occurred early in the 15th century.
Acknowledgments: My work was done in collaboration with David
Hockney. We gratefully acknowledge David Graves (London), Ultan Guilfoyle
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Martin Kemp (Oxford University), Masud
Mansuripur (University of Arizona), Nora Pawlaczyk (University of
Arizona), José Sasián (University of Arizona), Richard
Schmidt (Los Angeles), and Lawrence Weschler (The New Yorker) for
a variety of valuable contributions to our efforts.
Charles Falco is a Professor of Optical Sciences at the University
of Arizona where he holds the UA Chair of Condensed Matter Physics.
He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Optical
Society of America, has published more than 250 scientific manuscripts
(including five with David Hockney), co-edited two books and has seven
U.S. patents, most of which are related to various physical properties
of thin film materials. However, in addition to his scientific research,
in 1998 he was co-recipient of an award from the AICA for his work as
co-curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum's "The Art of the Motorcycle"
exhibition. With over 2 million visitors thus far in New York, Chicago,
Bilbao, and the Guggenheim Las Vegas, it is by far the most successful
exhibition of industrial design ever assembled, and is the 5th most
attended museum exhibition of any kind. More recently, a collaboration
with David Hockney has resulted in widespread coverage in the popular
media, including an hour-long BBC special and a segment on CBS '60 Minutes',
and over 50 invited talks and public lectures in 9 countries, including
the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on "Optics, Optical
Instruments and Painting: The Hockney-Falco Thesis Revisited" and the
"International Conference on Measuring Art: A Scientific Revolution
in Art History."
Prof. Falco's lecture will be at 7:30pm on Tuesday, May 3 in Van Allen
Hall, Lecture Room 1.
