Oxford Physics Public Lectures

Our Universe was created in 'The Big Bang' and has been expanding ever since. Professor Schmidt describes the vital statistics of the Universe, and tries to make sense of the Universe's past, present, and future.

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 3rd morning of Theoretical Physics covering the subject of Inner Space Meets Outer Space: Covering the Connections Between Cosmology and Particle Physics

Physics Colloquium 20th November 2015 delivered by Professor Tom Ray This year marks the centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. As is well known, physicists became convinced that Einstein was right after Eddington’s and Dyson’s famous expedition to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight. Recently the speaker has found the equipment that proved critical in testing Einstein’s theory after it being lost for almost 70 years. Remarkably its discovery has led to the finding that earlier eclipse data may have been conveniently ignored. The finger of suspicion points at Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer Royal, who was trying to protect Eddington from being conscripted into the British Army during World War I.

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator program at CERN

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator program at CERN

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator programme at CERN.

Inaugural Lecture by Professor Steven Balbus looking at the history of the universe A one sentence summary of much of the history of our Universe might be that it is the formation of ever more complex and compact structure from a diffuse background. The build-up of a compact core of material from more tenuous surroundings is known as accretion, and it is a process common to much of astrophysics, from the early creation of giant clusters of galaxies to current star, planet, and black hole formation. In this Lecture, I will give a general and personal overview of accretion physics. I will discuss some of the theoretical successes the community has enjoyed in its struggle to understand accretion, together with ongoing challenges. Above all, I will try to convey a sense of the richness of accretion as a physical process, and the role it has played in enhancing a deeper understanding of many astrophysical phenomena.

The 9th Dennis Sciama Memorial Lecture, looking at chaos theory and climate change Lorenz is one of the pioneers of chaos theory. However, over 50 years before Lorenz, Poincaré discovered the sensitive dependence on initial conditions that characterises chaos. So what makes Lorenz’s contribution so important? I argue it is the discovery of the fractal invariant set in state space: the Lorenz attractor. Quite amazingly, properties of the Lorenz attractor can be shown to link the calculus of dynamical systems theory to deep and diverse areas of mathematics such as Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem and Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. But more than this, I argue that the fractal invariant set has implications for physics – not only for practical problems such as climate prediction, but also for the deepest problems of fundamental physics. In particular, I will put some meat on the bones of Penrose’s suggestion that “the correct theory of quantum gravity might be a deterministic but non-computable theory” by treating the universe as a dynamical system with fractal invariant set. The result is a novel perspective, not only on the quantum gravity programme, but also on quantum physics in general.

Halley Lecture 2013 by Professor Dr Ewine van Dishoeck on new developments in astronomy One of the most exciting developments in astronomy is the discovery of planets around stars other than our Sun. Nearly 1000 exo-planets have now been detected. But how do these planets form, and why are they so different from our own solar system? Which ingredients are available to build them? How are their parent stars formed? Thanks to powerful new telescopes, astronomers are starting to address these age-old questions scientifically. In this talk, an overview will be given of how stars and planets are born in the extremely cold and tenuous clouds between the stars in the Milky Way. These clouds also contain water and a surprisingly rich variety of organic material. How and where was the water formed that is now in our oceans on Earth? Can these organic molecules end up on new planets and form the basis for pre-biotic material and eventually life? The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), under construction in Chile and planned to be fully operational by late 2013, will be able to zoom into the planet-forming zones of disks around young stars and revolutionize this field in the near future. First exciting and surprising ALMA results will be presented.

The 8th Hintze Lecture by Professor David Charbonneau looking at investigating habitable exoplanets. The investigation of planets orbiting other stars has moved from the study of gas giants to the hunt for smaller planets that are predominantly rock and ice in composition. When such Planets are discovered in edge-on orbits, such that the planet and star undergo mutual eclipses, scientists granted the opportunity to determine directly the planetary masses and sizes. Most interestingly, we can study starlight filtered through the planetary atmosphere to deduce its chemical composition, and perhaps even search for biosignatures. The speaker will summarize the most recent results from the NASA Kepler Mission and describe two surveys intended to find the closest habitable exoplanet.

Professor Wade Allison gives a talk about his book 'Radiation and Reason; The Impact of Science on a Culture of Fear'.

On the inextricable links between physics and philosophy and the ways in which one can lead to the other - how they complement each other in answering the big questions.

Dr Christopher Palmer on the historical ties between physics and philosophy - from ancient philosophical thought through to the scientific revolution and the pioneers of modern physics.

Prof. Frank Arntzenius on whether space and time are absolute entities or simply relational properties derived from the idea of motion - an old debate between Newton and Leibniz, carried on today.

Prof. Vlatko Vedral on the mind-boggling and paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics and its consequences on modern technology - the possibilities of superfast computing and teleportation. This interview was recorded via Skype, so is of a lower audio quality than the other podcasts in this series.

Dr. David Wallace on the many-worlds theory, an explanation of the baffling results that quantum mechanics provides us with - and that there may be more worlds than just our own.

Prof. Sir Roger Penrose on the idea of artificial intelligence and whether consciousness can be replicated by a computer - a discussion of new physics which may take us closer to explaining the mind.

Delve into history with Dr Rob Johnson, Director of The Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford, as he explores a pivotal question.

A lecture by Prof Stephen Blundell, Professor of Physics – Condensed Matter - (Department of Physics and Mansfield College).

Explore the history of atomic bomb development with Dr. Georg Viehhauser, Particle Physics Research Lecturer at St John's College, Oxford.