Provost Lecture celebrating CST’s 20th anniversary with William Daniel Phillips, PhD, Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in the universe
Thursday, November 1, 2018 2 p.m. lecture | 3:30 p.m. reception
FREE
Temple University Main Campus SERC 110 A&B This will be a lively, multimedia presentation, including exciting experimental demonstrations and down-to-earth explanations about some of today’s hottest (and coolest) science. Join us after the lecture for a light reception.
Lecture abstract: At the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein changed the way we think about time. Now, early in the 21st century, the measurement of time is being revolutionized by the ability to cool a gas of atoms to temperatures millions of times lower than any naturally occurring temperature in the universe. Atomic clocks, the best timekeepers ever made, are one of the scientific and technological wonders of modern life. Such super-accurate clocks are essential to industry, commerce and science; they are the heart of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which guides cars, airplanes and hikers to their destinations. Today, the best primary atomic clocks use ultracold atoms, achieve accuracies of about one second in 300 million years and are getting better all the time, while a new generation of atomic clocks is leading us to redefine what we mean by time. Super-cold atoms, with temperatures that can reach below a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, use, and allow tests of, some of Einstein’s strangest predictions.
Contact Barbara Fles
barbara.fles@temple.edu 215-204-3378