123 Niuewland Science Hall
4:30-5:00 pm
"Electroanalytical Eavesdropping on Cellular Communication"
Free and Open to the Public
Abstract Single cell measurements reveal otherwise unobtainable information about how individual biological cells communicate with one another. This talk will focus on the use of single cell microelectrochemical measurements to study (1) blood platelets and (2) immune cell nanoparticle toxicity. Blood platelets are critical players in the process of hemostasis but, based on their small size and propensity to activate, real time single cell measurement of chemical messenger secretion has never been accomplished. Herein, microelectrochemical techniques reveal the concentration of chemical messengers stored in and the kinetics of chemical messenger release from individual platelets, including considerations of how extracellular and membrane manipulations influence platelet behavior. The same electrochemical techniques that reveal fundamental insight about blood platelets can also be used for applied studies of nanoparticle toxicity. In this case, carbon-fiber microelectrochemistry is used to probe critical cell function in immune system cells following exposure to engineered nanoparticles. The insight gained reveals how nanoparticles interact with cells as well as potential avenues to avoid this interaction in next generation nanoparticle-containing products
University of Notre Dame
2:00 pm
"Interactions between Geometry and Analysis"
Free and Open to the Public
Invited Speakers
Dimitri Burago (Penn State University)
Robert Bryant (MSRI, Berkeley)
Jeff Cheeger (Courant Institute, NYU)
Toby Colding (MIT)
Vitali Kapovitch (University of Toronto)
Bruce Kleiner (Courant Institute, NYU and Yale)
Peter Petersen (UCLA)
Anton Petrunin (Penn State University)
Christina Sormani (CUNY)
Chuu-Lian Terng (UC-Irvine)
Gang Tian (Princeton)
Guofang Wei (UCSB)
Wolfgang Ziller (University of Pennsylvania)
Hayes-Healy 127
4:30-5:30 pm
"Quantum information, the ambiguity of the past, and the complexity of the present"
Free and Open to the Public
Abstract Quantum theory, in particular the theory of entanglement, provides a coherent picture of the physical origin of randomness and the growth and decay of correlations, even in macroscopic systems exhibiting few traditional quantum hallmarks. It helps explain why the future is more uncertain than the past, and how correlations can become macroscopic and classical by being redundantly replicated throughout a system's environment. The most private information, exemplified by which path a particle takes through an interferometer, is not replicated, and exists only transiently: after the experiment is over no record remains anywhere in the universe of what ``happened''. At the other extreme is information that has been replicated and propagated so widely as to be infeasible to conceal and unlikely to be forgotten. Modern information technology has caused an explosion of such information, eroding privacy while making it harder for tyrants to rewrite the history of their misdeeds; and it is tempting to believe that all macroscopic information is permanent, making such cover-ups impossible in principle. But we argue, by comparing entropy flows into and out of the Earth with estimates of the planet's storage capacity, that most macroscopic classical information--for example the pattern of drops in last week's rainfall--is impermanent, eventually becoming nearly as ambiguous, from a terrestrial perspective, as the which-path information of an interferometer. Finally, we discuss prerequisites for a system to accumulate and maintain in its present state, as our world does, a complex and redundant record of at least some features of its past. Not all dynamics and initial conditions lead to this behavior, and in those that do, the behavior itself tends to be temporary, with the system losing its memory as it relaxes to thermal equilibrium.
Eric E. Schadt Chief Science Officer, Pacific Biosciences
Jordan Hall of Science 101
4:00 pm
"An Integrated Biology Approach to Reverse Engineering Living Systems"
Free and Open to the Public
Abstract To further our understanding of the complex network of molecular and cellular changes that impact disease risk, disease progression, severity, and drug response, multiple dimensions must be considered together. Schadt presents an approach for integrating a diversity of molecular and clinical data to uncover models that predict complex system behavior. By integrating diverse types of data on a large scale he domstrates that some forms of common human diseases are most likely the result of perturbations to specfic gene networks that in turn cause changes in the states of other gene networks both within and between tissues that drive biological processes associated with disease. His work has significant implications for drug discovery.
Michael Freedman Director of Station Q, Microsoft Research, UC Santa Barbara
Jordan Hall of Science 105
5:00 pm
"Creating the Quantum Computer"
Free and Open to the Public
Abstract The underlying logic of our computers is of the 19th century. Computers might, instead, be designed to “think” in a quantum mechanical way. The tidal wave that brought us quantum mechanics may wash over us again 100 years later. There is reason to believe that quantum computing is the ultimate mode of information processing consistent with physics. So the short answer to, “What will quantum computers do?” is, “Everything possible.” Topology is geometry after you have forgotten local details; it deals with discrete structures. In physics local detail is usually of paramount importance. However one of the key physical ideas of the last 50 years – the “renormalization group” – tells us there are low temperature systems whose most important properties are topological in nature. The discrete nature of topology will allow us to control quantum mechanical evolutions in these systems with amazing precision. This is just what quantum computation requires.
Robert P. Kirshner Clowes Professor of Science, Harvard University
Hesburgh Library Auditorium
7:00 pm
"Exploding Stars and the Accelerating Cosmos"
Free and Open to the Public
Abstract Recent observations of exploding stars located halfway across the Universe reveal an astonishing fact: the expansion of the Universe is speeding up! Apparently, the universe is dominated by a mysterious “dark energy” that drives cosmic acceleration. Robert P. Kirshner, a distinguished astronomer and science educator, explains this astonishing new picture of the universe in a lively, richly illustrated presentation, drawing his own first-hand account of the discovery.
