2004 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science

"It's About TIME"

“It's About TIME” is the topic of the 2004 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a series of free public lectures held from Saturday, 31 January to 28 February 2004. Designed to be a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in communities near University Park, the lectures took place on five consecutive Saturday mornings from on the Penn State University Park Campus.

"It's About TIME"

31 January 2004

Gene Block,
Vice President and Provost, and Thomas Jefferson Professor of Biology, University of Virginia

"Unwinding the Biological Clock: Why are some of us "morning people" and others "night people"? How do our biological rhythms affect our lives?"
100 Thomas Building -- 11:00 a.m.
(accompanied by PowerPoint Presentation)

New discoveries about biological timekeepers in humans and other mammals—how they work and how they affect health and behavior, including the sleep-wake cycle.

7 February 2004

Abhay Ashtekar,
director of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry,
Eberly Family Chair, and professor of physics, Penn State

"Time in the Physical Universe: From Antiquity to Einstein and Beyond"
101 Thomas Building -- 11:00 a.m.
(accompanied by PowerPoint Presentation)

The concept of time has fascinated every civilization and has changed dramatically during the past two millenia. What clues do recent discoveries in cosmology and quantum physics provide us, as we embark into the third millennium? Will Nature continue to amaze us with new revelations about the nature of time? (Learning resource related to this lecture available by clicking here.)

14 February 2004

Kurt Gibble,
associate professor of physics, Penn State

"Atomic Clocks on Earth and in Space: Why We Need Them, How They Work, and What They Can Tell Us"
100 Thomas Building -- 11:00 a.m.
(accompanied by PowerPoint Presentation)

Why do high-speed fiber-optic networks and the Global Positioning System (GPS) need clocks that lose or gain only a second in a million years? How is Penn State research leading the way to even more precise atomic clocks?

21 February 2004

Robert B. Mitchell,
professor of biology, Penn State

"Time, Human Aging and Longevity: How Long Can a Person Live? "
100 Thomas Building -- 11:00 a.m.

How does time change our bodies and affect our lifespan? What does the latest research tell us about basic processes of aging? How might we slow the rate of aging and extend our productive years of life?

28 February 2004

Joel Lebowitz,
director of the Center for Mathematical Sciences Research and professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University

"The Arrow of Time: Why Can We Remember the Past but Not the Future?"
100 Thomas Building -- 11:00 a.m.

One of the most intriguing questions in science is that of the mysterious "arrow of time"—while the basic laws of physics look the same whether time runs forward or backward, the world we live in does not. For example, a movie of the motion of atoms looks equally correct if you run it forward or in reverse, but a movie of a raw egg dropping on the floor and breaking looks absurd in reverse. Why is this so?

Financial support for the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is provided by Penn State and Pfizer Inc.