Starting 6:00 pm Tuesday 27th of May 2008, Slade Lecture Theatre, School of Physics, University of Sydney.

Physics and nuclear science and technology have a symbiotic relationship. Physics underpins much of nuclear science while nuclear techniques assist in solving some of the fundamental problems in physics. ANSTO is Australia’s centre of expertise in nuclear techniques and applications, many of which have strong links with physics. In this talk Dr Collins will describe the range of research activities undertaken by ANSTO as well as the wide range of research facilitated by the techniques that ANSTO provides for the Australian research community. While Physics is fundamental, the applications are broad - in environmental research, radiopharmaceutical development, materials engineering as well as advancing the understanding of the structure and function of materials at the atomic, molecular and nano levels.

AIP-NSW Branch Public Talks - “Multiscale Brain Dynamics: Towards a First-Cut ‘Working-Brain’ Model” - Professor Peter Robinson, University of Sydney

Starting 6:00 pm Tuesday 22th of April 2008, Slade Lecture Theatre, School of Physics, University of Sydney.

The electrical activity of the brain has been observed for over a century and is widely used to probe brain function and disorders, chiefly through the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded by electrodes on the scalp. Indirect probes like functional MRI measure activity via its metabolic effects. However, the connections between physiology and measurements have been chiefly qualitative until recently, and most uses of the EEG and fMRI have been based on phenomenological correlations. A quantitative model of brain activity is described that spans the range of physiological and anatomical scales from microscopic synapses to the whole brain. Its parameters measure quantities such as synaptic strengths, signal delays, cellular time constants, and neural ranges, and are all constrained by independent physiological measurements. Application of standard techniques from wave physics allows successful predictions to be made of a wide range
of EEG and other phenomena, including time series, spectra, evoked responses to stimuli, seizure dynamics, measurement effects, sleep dynamics, and pharmacological influences, leading toward a first-cut "working-brain" model that reproduces salient dynamics across all scales from sub-mm to the whole brain. Fitting to experimental data also enables physiological parameters to be infered in normal and abnormal conditions, a technique that is now being commercialized.

Tuesday 15thApril, 2008 at 6.30 pm in the KEITH BURROWS THEATRE at the UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

The Fundamental Constants in Physics

The fundamental constants in physics are a mystery. Nobody understands their strange values, which we determine in the experiments. In the Standard Model of Particle Physics we are dealing with 28 fundamental constants. I will discuss these constants, which are mostly mass parameters. Astrophysical measurements indicate that the fine structure constant is not a real constant, but depends on time. This would imply that also the masses of atoms change in time. Experiments in Quantum Optics can give information on such a time change.

Refreshments beforehand from 6.15

Sponsored by the Dirac Fund and the Gordon Godfrey Bequest for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics at the University of New South Wales and by the NSW Branch of the Australian Institute for Physics

AIP-NSW Branch Public Talks

Starting 5:30 pm Tuesday 25th of March 2008, Slade Lecture Theatre, School of Physics, University of Sydney:

5:30 pm "Attracting More Students to Physics" - Dr Mark Butler, Gosford High School

We regularly hear that that too few of our young people are choosing to study the technological sciences or higher level mathematics in senior high school. Why do students choose to study these subjects and why they choose not to? How have some Australian schools managed to increase participation rates in the enabling sciences? Is it really possible to make Physics and mathematics ‘cool’ at school?

This presentation will examine current issues in secondary physics education from the perspective of a practicing high school physics teacher. What physics is being taught in Australian Schools, who is teaching it and how it is being taught? Enrolment statistics, teacher qualifications and training, National Standards, the Australian Certificate of Education, and current small and large scale initiatives to attract more students and teachers to physics will be discussed.

7:00 pm "The Problem of Energy States on Metal Surfaces and How to Solve It" - Dr Marlene Read, University of New South Wales

Fundamental to understanding all electronic properties of surfaces is knowledge of the quantum electronic energy states. As devices get smaller, surface properties become more important. It has been suggested that systems such as organic molecules or alkali metal atoms adsorbed onto metal surfaces, such as sodium (Na) atomic layers on a copper (Cu) surface, could have possible applications as quantum electronic devices operating at room temperature. A detailed knowledge of the surface and interface states of these systems is needed. As a first step, methods to definitively determine all the surface states of clean metal surfaces must be developed. This includes higher-energy excited unoccupied surface energy states and resonances as well as occupied states for electrons of each spin orientation. Experimental probes include photoemission and inverse photoemission spectroscopy, target current spectroscopy, low energy electron microscopy and diffraction. Interpreting the features of the experimental data also involves the theoretical calculation of these states. Present theoretical methods do not always predict all surface states and those predicted may deviate significantly in energy from measured features.
Unoccupied higher-energy states and resonances are particularly difficult. This is, in part, because of the additional complication of substantial electron energy losses due to collisions with other electrons. A promising theoretical method which can potentially account for all surface states over their entire energy range is a scattering approach which builds up the metallic system by stacking a succession of atomic layers parallel to the surface. This method will be described and the recent results of its first application to Cu, aluminium (Al) and palladium (Pd) surfaces will be given. Comparison will be made with the results of other theoretical methods and experiment.

Superconductivity has been around for nearly 100 years. It was mostly thought of as a laboratory curiosity and yet this research area has won 6 Nobel Prizes in physics and has a very large number of scientists and engineers working in the research field. I will discuss the history of superconductivity which operates only at either “high” temperatures of minus 200 degrees Celsius (discovered 20 years old this year) and “low” temperatures of about minus 270 degrees Celsius (96 years old this year). I will explain what it is, what is understood and what is not about this exciting but baffling property of many materials when they are cooled down past a critical temperature. I will look at applications such as MRI, mineral exploration, Magnetoencephelography, transport and power distribution and use in the development to fusion as a future energy source. I will then look into the future to see where superconductivity will play a role in the modern world including quantum computers and quantum teleportation and ask whether superconductors that operate at room temperature and do not need cooling are possible. I will also look at some interest results on whether superconductivity can explain about how cells communicate to get other.

Date: Tuesday 4th December 2007
Venue: Slade Lecture Theatre, School of Physics, University of Sydney
AGM Time: 5:30 PM
Lecture Time: Refreshments from 6:00, lecture at 6:35 PM