Monday, December 22, 2008 | Science : Physics and Chemistry | print version

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New online database of Theoretical Physics lectures

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Thanks to John for the link.

See:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Outreach/Public_Lectures/View_Past_Public_Lectures/

Some new resources regarding quantum information and other areas of modern physics are now available online.

These include Prof. Raymond Laflamme of PI and IQC on "Harnessing the Quantum World" in which he shows how qubits of information can be manipulated. He also shares images that detail the potential computational horsepower that quantum computing may one day
provide.

Another talk features Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, on "From Einstein to Quantum Information" in which he recounts, in pictures, quantum teleportation experiments and how such techniques may benefit our communications technologies of the future.

Other presentations in this online series range well beyond quantum information and include Sir Roger Penrose, Oxford, on "Before the Big Bang" and Prof. Frank Wilczek, of MIT and Nobel Prize Laureate, on "Anticipating A New Golden Age".

The full catalogue of multi-media presentations are now viewable online:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Outreach/Public_Lectures/View_Past_Public_Lectures/

via Perimeter Institute and feature a unique split-screen image so that you can listen to the talk while examining all of the PowerPoint and animated images in detail.

About Perimeter Institute

Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics ( http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca ) is an independent, non-profit, scientific research and educational outreach organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The award-winning research centre provides a multi-disciplinary environment to foster research in areas of Cosmology, Particle Physics, Quantum Foundations, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Information, Superstring Theory, and related areas. The Institute, located in Waterloo, Ontario, also provides a wide array of educational outreach activities for students, teachers and members of the general public in order to share the joy of scientific research, discovery and innovation. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, Perimeter Institute continues to be a successful
example of private and public collaboration in science research and education.

See:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Outreach/Public_Lectures/View_Past_Public_Lectures/

Posted: Monday, December 22, 2008 | Permalink

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1. Comment #304848 by Naturalist1 on December 22, 2008 at 11:43 am

This series of public lectures is so great! I strongly recommend watching Dr. Bill Phillips lecture on, "Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: The coolest stuff in the universe". It was the most entertaining...in fact the most hilarious physics lecture I have ever attended...just a hoot!
Not mentioned in this article is that Perimeter recently signed Stephen Hawking to Regularly Visit Perimeter Institute as Distinguished Research Chair. We will get to go hear one of his talks!...It is such an exciting time in physics right now.

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2. Comment #304871 by rod-the-farmer on December 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm

There is a story from a few years ago, that a team of cheerleaders from Waterloo attended a U.S. competition. Their routine was quite different from the U.S. teams, and while I don't remember if they did well or not, they created a lot of interest among those who attended. Some of the U.S. parents had never heard of Waterloo, and were astonished to hear how low (comparatively) the tuition was. They were also surprised to hear how well-regarded degrees from Waterloo are in their various fields. Math in particular.

Again, I am not connected enough to know whether
or not enrollment by U.S. students increased
after this cheerleader competition.

Waterloo U. is a bit less than 200 miles east of Detroit.

http://uwaterloo.ca/

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3. Comment #304895 by ClemIsMe on December 22, 2008 at 12:43 pm

I, again, love the internet.

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4. Comment #304907 by MelM on December 22, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Yikes! There's a lecture on "The Stability of the Solar System." I've never thought of the question but I sure want to know the answer.

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5. Comment #304951 by rod-the-farmer on December 22, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Ugh. This is ugly. I get the main screen, but it won't start playing using Firefox. I gritted my teeth and tried Internet Exploder, but it has hung there downloading SOMETHING for over half an hour now. Anyone else having trouble with the suggested speech ?

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6. Comment #304955 by SamKiddoGordon on December 22, 2008 at 1:42 pm

I love being Canadian. Now I alot of watching to do.

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7. Comment #304963 by rod-the-farmer on December 22, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Ugh. I retried IE, and this time it works. I will write them (Waterloo) a note complaining that IE-specific web sites are the mark of the terminally illiterate. Down with IE specific sites !! When I find a commercial site like this, I write directly to the CEO of the company, and advise I will NEVER buy anything they sell, and advise all my friends to avoid that company and its products/services.

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8. Comment #304987 by adonais on December 22, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Wow! What an amazing collection of big names and fascinating topics, there are at least a dozen I want to watch right now. Lloyd, Zeilinger, Aspect, Penrose, Witten, Susskind, and more - this will take all day :-)

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9. Comment #305050 by robotaholic on December 22, 2008 at 3:02 pm

This is why i pay for internet- this and online papers on consciousness by chalmers, and TED of course, here,

rod-the-farmer hmm, i use opera alpha 10 and it works great for me (mabye it's that 100 on the acid3 test)

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10. Comment #305097 by memeweaver on December 22, 2008 at 3:53 pm

No problems with using Firefox 3.0 here. Some folks are a little quick to blame IE for everything...

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11. Comment #305128 by dermot on December 22, 2008 at 5:26 pm

this is a fantastic resource.......Must.Sleep.Soon

Just about to watch "Miss Leavitt's Stars"

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12. Comment #305161 by mmurray on December 22, 2008 at 6:29 pm

If you like this kind of thing there is a great one here that I sent in to this RDnet as an arcticle but which never appeared

http://www.msri.org/communications/vmath/VMathVideosSpecial/VideoSpecialInfo/3911/show_video

Summary:
Alan Alda, Emmy award-winning actor and author of bestselling memoirs, will talk on stage with mathematician
Bob Osserman (Special Projects Director at MSRI) about Alda’s lifelong interest in science. He has sought to
promote a greater understanding of science by the public, which has led him to host on PBS Scientific American
Frontiers for eleven years. Alan Alda is also an acclaimed director and writer for film and television. He has acted in many starring roles on stage, screen, and television, including that of Hawkeye Pierce on the classic TV series M*A*S*H and, more recently, as Senator Arnold Vinick on The West Wing.

MSRI has lots of other math(s) videos although many are technical.

Michael

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13. Comment #305175 by mmurray on December 22, 2008 at 7:09 pm

Has anyone had any luck viewing this stuff on a mac ? I am using Flip4Mac which makes WMV content viewable in Quicktime. But nothing is happening in Safari, Camino or FireFox. It runs in IE under the Parallels Desktop emulator using XP but that's just silly ...

Michael

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14. Comment #305184 by adonais on December 22, 2008 at 7:28 pm

The Flash works best for me in (OS X) Firefox - the Windows Media version drops the sound, for some reason.

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15. Comment #305198 by mmurray on December 22, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Ah duh there is a flash version. Hadn't noticed that other icon. It seems to run OK. Thanks - Michael

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16. Comment #305385 by defaithed on December 23, 2008 at 1:10 am

Another tech report: Works fine for me with Safari on OS X. Too bad it uses Windows Media, but Safari hands that off to QuickTime Player for me, and knowledge streams into my head.

So apparently it's not IE-only. (That said, when something *is* IE-only, I'm with rod-the-farmer: let the perpetrators know that that's just not acceptable!)

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17. Comment #305683 by ADePSP on December 23, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Just watched "Before the Big Bang: Is There Evidence For Something And If So, What?"...

All Scientists should be FORCED to become computer literate... His old school transparent slides are painful multi-coloured splats of pure confusion... I have no idea why he thinks leaving his unrecognisable hand written notes all over a slide that nobody could understand "even if there were enough time" could possibly assist the learning process...

I would also advise a decent understanding of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics before watching this as "his" explanation wasn't really good enough for what he goes into later on (if you don’t know much about it)... I had to stop the lecture and do some research myself and then continue...

Overall though, it's very interesting despite the shortfall in presentational skills...

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18. Comment #305779 by Ygern on December 23, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Superb resource!

Thank you for posting the link, and to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics for making it available to the public.

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19. Comment #305830 by Alternative Carpark on December 23, 2008 at 5:09 pm

Cool. I just learned about the Perimeter Institute last week - from a TED talk.

Damn, someone give these guys more bandwidth!

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