(no subject)
Sep. 26th, 2006 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meanfreepathIt turns out, alas, that I will not be coming to SWIL Reunion. That Saturday, the University Choir is going on its annual fall retreat to St. Paul's School, for a day of "bonding" as well as for preparing some new music. If it were just supposed to be a fun thing I might consider missing it, but I don't want to miss rehearsing especially as a very new member.
Today's rehearsal was a reading rehearsal, of basically going through a bunch of pieces we're doing in the near future without polishing too much. In an hour and a half, we read through all of Mozart's Missa Brevis in D, K. 194, his Ave verum corpus, the first and third movements of Chichester Psalms, as well as two short contemporary pieces. Singing in UChoir is going to exercise every musical muscle I have, and now I'm really quite glad I had a year of Musicianship last year with Jan Hamer.
UChoir is also tentatively going on tour to Mexico over Harvard's spring break; the director wants a yes/no from us by Sunday. Right now I'm really not sure, as I am definitely planning to start research in the spring, although going on a heavily subsidized trip to Mexico, to which I have never traveled, might be fun.
But here's the good news. It just amazes me how many really cool talks happen here at Harvard. I am completely convinced that someone here could keep himself very busy and learn a ton of science, by going to a talk or two every afternoon (and if Physics isn't doing one on any given day, some section of the department is, or the applied physicists or engineers are) and following up by reading some relevant papers and references.
Tomorrow someone in Applied Mechanics giving a talk following up on an apparently rather famous paper of Purcell's, "Life at Low Reynolds Number," applied to granular materials. One of my classmates has sort of talked me into going. Here's the abstract:
This will be followed by David Weitz's weekly Squishy Physics seminar, specifically on some aspect of soft matter, which comes with a free dinner. And after that, there's the departmental research seminar at 7:30, although there seems to be some confusion as to who's supposed to be speaking: a pair of experimentalists or a pair of theorists.
Two more very interesting talks coming up. Next week's Departmental colloquium is to be given by a deaf particle physicist on cochlear implants. I am going to be quite interested in what he has to say both about the science and the disability angle:
And... here's the big one... Pierre de Gennes is giving a talk in October!![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rose_garden -- you're probably familiar with him, as he wrote the book on Liquid Crystal theory. Today in soft matter, as an example of what you can get out of rheological measurements, Prof. Manoharan showed a few slides of a presentation on one of de Gennes's theories on polymer relaxation, called reptation. It was really, really cool. I'll fill in some details if anyone's interested.
This has me really, really excited. *squee* Of course, I still need to squeeze in things like doing homework and preparing for my classes.
Today's rehearsal was a reading rehearsal, of basically going through a bunch of pieces we're doing in the near future without polishing too much. In an hour and a half, we read through all of Mozart's Missa Brevis in D, K. 194, his Ave verum corpus, the first and third movements of Chichester Psalms, as well as two short contemporary pieces. Singing in UChoir is going to exercise every musical muscle I have, and now I'm really quite glad I had a year of Musicianship last year with Jan Hamer.
UChoir is also tentatively going on tour to Mexico over Harvard's spring break; the director wants a yes/no from us by Sunday. Right now I'm really not sure, as I am definitely planning to start research in the spring, although going on a heavily subsidized trip to Mexico, to which I have never traveled, might be fun.
But here's the good news. It just amazes me how many really cool talks happen here at Harvard. I am completely convinced that someone here could keep himself very busy and learn a ton of science, by going to a talk or two every afternoon (and if Physics isn't doing one on any given day, some section of the department is, or the applied physicists or engineers are) and following up by reading some relevant papers and references.
Tomorrow someone in Applied Mechanics giving a talk following up on an apparently rather famous paper of Purcell's, "Life at Low Reynolds Number," applied to granular materials. One of my classmates has sort of talked me into going. Here's the abstract:
Harvard University
Applied Mechanics Colloquium
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Swimming in a granular medium
Stephan Koehler
Physics Department
Emory University
Abstract:
Inspired by Purcell's fundamental investigations of swimming in viscous fluids we built a robotic granular swimmer with two rotating paddles. We investigate two types of repetitive swimming strategies, which have either one or two degrees of freedom. The strategy with one degree of freedom consists of two steps and mimics the opening and closing of Purcell's scallop. We observe that the robot using the two-step scallop stroking sequence can propel itself, which shows that unlike viscous fluids, quasi-static flows in granular media are not time reversible. The strategy with two degrees of freedom has four steps, where the rotation alternates between each paddle. The displacements using Purcell's four-step strategy are remarkably similar for granular and viscous swimming. Moreover, four-step strategies are far more effective than two-step strategies.
4:00 PM in 209 Pierce Hall
(Coffee after the Colloquium, Brooks Room, Pierce Hall 213)
This will be followed by David Weitz's weekly Squishy Physics seminar, specifically on some aspect of soft matter, which comes with a free dinner. And after that, there's the departmental research seminar at 7:30, although there seems to be some confusion as to who's supposed to be speaking: a pair of experimentalists or a pair of theorists.
Two more very interesting talks coming up. Next week's Departmental colloquium is to be given by a deaf particle physicist on cochlear implants. I am going to be quite interested in what he has to say both about the science and the disability angle:
Bringing Hearing to the Deaf, Cochlear Implants: A Technical and Personal Account, Ian Shipsey, Purdue Univ.(Jefferson 250 Tea will be served at 3:30 pm in Jefferson 450)
Oct 2, 2006
4:15p
Description Bringing Hearing to the Deaf
Cochlear Implants: a Technical and Personal Account
Cochlear implants are the first device to successfully restore neural
function. They have instigated a popular but controversial revolution
in the treatment of deafness, and they serve as a model for research in
neuroscience and biomedical engineering. In this talk the physiology of natural hearing will be reviewed from the perspective of a physicist, and the function of cochlear implants will be described in the context of historical treatments, electrical engineering, psychophysics,
clinical evaluation of efficacy and personal experience. The social
implications of cochlear implantation and the future outlook for auditory prostheses will also be discussed.
Note:
This talk will be given at the level of Scientific American.
About the speaker:
Ian Shipsey is a particle physicist. He has been profoundly deaf since
1989. Recently he heard the voice of his 11 year old daughter for the
first time, and his wife's voice for the first time in thirteen years
thanks to a cochlear implant.
And... here's the big one... Pierre de Gennes is giving a talk in October!
rose_garden -- you're probably familiar with him, as he wrote the book on Liquid Crystal theory. Today in soft matter, as an example of what you can get out of rheological measurements, Prof. Manoharan showed a few slides of a presentation on one of de Gennes's theories on polymer relaxation, called reptation. It was really, really cool. I'll fill in some details if anyone's interested.Moving Objects on a Vibrating Plate(Maxwell Dworkin Lessin Room (G115))
Oct 11, 2006
4:00p - 5:00p
Description Start simply. Imagine a coin lying on a horizontal plate. Vibrate the plate horizontally—with a short forward motion followed by a weak backward pull—and the coin drifts across the surface.
Now imagine a coin exposed to random horizontal vibrations. It too drifts, but in a completely different way. From such modest beginnings, a simple controlled vibration to a random one, P.G. de Gennes will explain the emergence of a complex macroscopic feature: Brownian motion.
He uses this elegant approach—finding common features in widely different physical systems—to understand how randomness can translate to order and to describe even the most “untidy” systems in general terms.
de Gennes, a world-renowned expert on liquid crystals, polymer physics, colloid and interface science, has been called “the Isaac Newton of our time.”
P. G. de Gennes is currently based at the Institut Curie (Paris), an interdisciplinary center and hospital on cancer research. In addition to winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991, he has received the Holweck Prize from the joint French and British Physical Society; the Ampere Prize, French Academy of Science; the gold medal from the French CNRS; the Matteuci Medal, Italian Academy; the Harvey Prize, Israel; the Wolf Prize, Israel; The Lorentz Medal, Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences; and polymer awards from both APS and ACS. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.
This has me really, really excited. *squee* Of course, I still need to squeeze in things like doing homework and preparing for my classes.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-27 03:14 am (UTC)Oh my god, you just "squee"'d.
What is the world coming to?
P.S. Don't get me wrong, I "squee!" all the time esp in my role of rabid anime fangirl. I guess it's just not an expression I associate with budding physicists.
P.P.S. In all seriousness, sounds like you're having an awesome time up in Boston. Keep it up!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-27 04:42 am (UTC)Also, the company I use is going to be coming out with a new speech processor that will have 120 channels instead of the 32 (I think) that I have now. They advertise this new processor as allowing people to appreciate music more.
Anyway, I would be very interested in anything you might learn about implants at the talk.
Also, Harvard sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-27 04:52 am (UTC)Hope the job hunt is going well -- best of luck with that.
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Date: 2006-09-27 08:21 pm (UTC)