Explore mysteries of the universe with the experts at Fermilab
The Fermilab Summer Lecture Series continues with "The Quantum Universe" by University of California-Berkeley professor Hitoshi Murayama at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, in Ramsey Auditorium, Pine Street and Kirk Road in Batavia. Admission is $7. The program is presented in collaboration with the Fermilab Users annual meeting.
Where do we come from? Science is making progress on this age-old question of humankind. The universe was once much smaller than the size of an atom. Small things mattered in the small universe, where quantum physics dominated the scene.
To understand the way the universe is today, scientists have to solve remaining major puzzles. The Higgs boson that was discovered recently is holding our body together from evaporating in a nanosecond. But scientists still do not know what exactly it is. The mysterious dark matter is holding the galaxy together, and we would not have been born without it. But nobody has seen it directly. And what is the very beginning of the universe?
Murayama is a theoretical physicist who works on the connection between the physics of the small (elementary particles) and the large (the universe). In addition, he worked on a neutrino experiment and is currently leading a team of astronomers. He received his Ph.D. from University of Tokyo in 1991, had research positions at Tohoku University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and has been on faculty at University of California, Berkeley, since 1995. Since 2007, he is also a founding director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo. He received the Yukawa Commemoration Prize and is a Fellow of American Physical Society. He is a member of American Academy for Arts and Sciences as well as Science Council of Japan.
The summer series will continue with a screening of "Particle Fever" at 7 p.m. Friday, June 20. Cost is $7. It will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Atlas and CMS physicists.
There will be a pre-film dinner at Chez Leon starting at 5:30 p.m. The prix fixe menu includes haricots verts and grape tomato salad with creme fraiche dressing, lobster tails with Champaigne butter sauce, spaghetti squash with scallions, sauteed sugar snap peas and mixed berry pie.
Call Chez Leon directly for reservations at (630) 840-3524.
Imagine being able to watch as Edison turned on the first light bulb, or as Franklin received his first jolt of electricity. For the first time, a film gives audiences a front-row seat to a significant and inspiring scientific breakthrough as it happens. "Particle Fever" follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the startup of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet, pushing the edge of human innovation.
As they seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe, 10,000 scientists from more than 100 countries joined forces in pursuit of a single goal: to recreate conditions that existed just moments after the Big Bang and find the Higgs boson, potentially explaining the origin of all matter. But our heroes confront an even bigger challenge: have we reached our limit in understanding why we exist?
Directed by Mark Levinson, a physicist turned filmmaker, and masterfully edited by Walter Murch ("Apocalypse Now," "The English Patient"), "Particle Fever" is a celebration of discovery, revealing the very human stories behind this epic machine.