Coffe Talks at IfA
Schedule:
22th January at 4pm in the IfA Lecture Theatre
Douglas Scott, Univ. of British Columbia
Things you never knew about the Cosmic Microwave Background
-
Abstract:
The Cosmic Microwave Background has become one of the central pillars in
establishing the "era of precision cosmology", and so its study is a serious
and sober intellectual pursuit. Except in this talk.
Coffee Talks organised by Michele Cirasuolo
Additional talks at the IfA:
- Astronomy seminars on Wednesdays at 4pm in the Lecture Theatre, organised by Peder Norberg
- University of Edinburgh School of Physics: a series of General Interest Seminars held at the JCMB, Kings Buildings.
Past Coffee Talks
Monday, 20th October at 11am
Peder Norberg, IfA
"Where did all the CPU go?"
Abstract:
One way to summarize the content of this talk it to provide a series of
alternative titles instead:
- "Who is iprn and what does he yet again do on my computer?"
- "Condor: a way of efficiently distribute serial jobs"
- "What came out from these jobs, more than complaints and heating?"
- "Robust error estimation for 2-point statistics"
23rd October at 11am
Atsushi Taruya, University of Tokyo
Accurate modeling for power spectrum and baryon acoustic oscillations
24th October at 11am
Shun Saito, University of Tokyo
Forecast of constraint on neutrino masses through nonlinear galaxy power spectrum.
30th October at 11am
Marija Vlacic
Abundance Gradients in the Outer Disks of Spirals
6th November at 11am
Dipak Munshi, IoA
TBD
18th November at 11am
Scott G. Gregory, University of St-Andrews
"The magnetic fields of forming solar-like stars"
19th November at 11am
Colin Cunningham, UKATC
Future Technologies for Optical/IR Telescopes and Instruments
Abstract:
In October we celebrated 400 years since the first patent for the
telescope was rejected in the Netherlands. I present my view on what the
major leaps of technology have been in the evolution of the telescope
over those 400 years, and attempt to predict what new technologies could
come along in the next 50 years to change the way we do astronomy and
help us make new discoveries. Are we approaching a peak of innovation
and discovery, and will this be followed by a slow decline (as predicted
by Martin Harwit in 1981)? Or are there prospects for even further
technology leaps and consequent new discoveries? Will global resource
and financial crises bring an end to our great ambitions, or will we
continue with bigger telescopes and more ambitious space observatories?