Public Lectures

Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series
Foothill College
Los Altos Hills, CA

Speaker: Dr. Helen Quinn, Stanford University
Topic: The Many Mysteries of Antimatter
Date & Time: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Location: Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills, California

Free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and driving directions.

No background in science will be required for this talk. Seating is first come, first served.

Antimatter is just like matter with all its properties reversed. But when antimatter meets a matching amount of matter, they destroy each other, both turning suddenly into energy. Scientists think there may have been equal amount of matter and antimatter in the early universe, and yet today we have lots of matter and very little antimatter. How and when that imbalance developed is one of the great mysteries in understanding the underlying properties of the universe.

Dr. Quinn, who is co-author of the definitive popular book on antimatter, will discuss the history of our understanding of antimatter and how we use the little bit of antimatter around today to study some of the highest energy processes among the stars and galaxies. One particularly interesting possible source of antimatter is the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, mysterious material that is thought to make more of the universe than the regular matter we know and love. Dr. Quinn will discuss ongoing antimatter experiments that are helping to put limits on the nature and behavior of dark matter.

Dr. Quinn is Professor of Physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford and Assistant to SLAC’s Director for Education and Outreach. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and is a former President of the American Physical Society. Her book The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter (2008, Princeton University Press) is an engaging introduction to the world of particle physics.

Co-sponsored by:
NASA Ames Research Center
The Foothill College Astronomy Program
The SETI Institute
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are available
in MP3 format at: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html

Pennsylvania State - Erie

Lectures by a faculty member or visitor are followed by astronomical observing, weather permitting. Most of the talks are about astronomy, although sometimes there is another science topic. Access the Full Schedule.

The Schedule is at http://www.pserie.psu.edu/science/Seminars.htm under "Open House Nights In Astronomy."

Steward Observatory Public Evening Series

Monday night public astronomy lectures
Location: Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona - Tucson

For more information on the lectures go to their website - Steward Observatory Public Evening Series.

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