🚀 go-pugleaf

The Department of Physics and Astronomy will host the annual
Menendez Lecture this coming Thursday at 4 PM in the Auditorium
of the Physics Building.  The speaker is Professor Christopher
R. Gould, Head of the Physics Department at North Carolina
State University.  Prof. Gould is a Fellow of the American
Physical Society and has earned distinction in both research
and in undergraduate education.  His lecture will be a
semi-popular presentation, that is accessible to people in
fields besides physics.  All are welcome to attend.

The title and abstract of the lecture follow.

Title:

The Accidental Universe - or why it is that physicists care about measuring 
numbers to four five or more significant digits.

Abstract

Over the last few decades, we have learned from atomic, nuclear, particle 
and astrophysics that the numbers really matter when it comes to assembling 
our Universe. Knowing the laws without knowing the numbers is a very small 
part of the story.  Thinking mainly about nuclear physics, I will discuss 
some of the numerical coincidences that have made the world as we know it. 
I will then discuss some ongoing experiments I'm involved with, on time 
reversal violation and on neutrino oscillations, that may shed light on two 
still unclear questions: what is the origin of the matter in the Universe, 
and where is most of it anyway?