Physics and Physicists

Former Clinton Science Advisor Neal Lane will speak on this very topic at University of Texas at Dallas this Wednesday, Sept. 23. The event is to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Issues in Science and Technology" journal.

“It is appropriate that the speaker who will mark the milestone of our 25th anniversary is a renowned physicist and university leader who took on the challenge of managing the nation’s premier physical science research agency and serving as the conduit between the scientific community and the White House,” said Kevin Finneran, editor in chief of Issues in Science and Technology. “He has devoted most of his career to the same mission as Issues: applying the insights of the science and engineering community to help solve the world’s pressing problems and achieve society’s goals.”

Sounds like a topic that would be of interest to many, especially those in the science field here in the US. If you get to attend this, I would love to hear a brief report.

Zz.

The presentations for the Plenary session for AAC08 are now available online at the AAC08 website. Click on the Agenda/Program link, and each plenary session will display the plenary program. The presentations are linked to each of the plenary talks.

Note that some of these presentations are very large files, so you may have to wait a while for the download to be completed.

Zz.

If you are in the New Haven, CT area, you might want to consider attending this series of lectures given by Freeman Dyson.

• “Science Coming to an End,” on Monday, April 14, 2008 — Dyson will explain why he does not agree with some intellectual humanist scholars, most prevalent in Europe, who believe that science was a passing fad that is fortunately now over. This is a joint Leigh Page-Tetelman lecture, sponsored by the Physics Department and Jonathan Edwards College.

• “The Mathematician as an Automaton,” on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 — Dyson will talk about some mathematicians he has known and the different kinds of thinking they do. He divides them into “birds” and “frogs.” Birds fly high and survey the landscape out to the horizon. Frogs live in the mud below and enjoy the beauty of the creatures that they meet there.

• “The Selfish Gene on Thursday,” on April 17, 2008 — Dyson will talk about the relative importance of the individual and the community in language, in law and in science. He asserts that the clash between individual and community values in all three contexts is at the root of many of our ongoing quarrels.

They all sound fascinating. If you attended any or all of these lectures, I'd love to hear a comment from you here.

Zz.