"Beginning the Exploration of the Universe with Gravitational Waves"
Rainer Weiss, MIT on behalf of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
The recent observation of gravitational waves from the merger of binary black holes opens a new way to learn about the universe as well as to test General Relativity in the limit of strong gravitational interactions – the dynamics of massive bodies traveling at relativistic speeds in a highly curved space-time. The lecture will describe some of the difficult history of gravitational waves proposed exactly 100 years ago. The concepts used in the instruments and the methods for data analysis that enable the measurement of gravitational wave strains of 10-21 and smaller will be presented. The results derived from the measured waveforms, their relation to the Einstein field equations and the astrophysical implications are discussed. The talk will end with our vision for the future of gravitational wave astronomy.
http://physics.berkeley.edu/news-events/events/20161003/2016-segre-lecture-october-3
The Course Thread Program allows UC Berkeley undergraduates to explore intellectual themes that connect courses across departments and disciplines. Without creating new majors or minors, the program instead highlights connections between existing courses. Course Threads help students see the value in educational breadth while also pursuing a more in-depth and well-rounded knowledge on one particular topic. Course Thread topics include: Human Rights, Cultural Forms in Transit, The Historical & Modern City, Visible Language, Humanities & Environment, Human-Centered Design, Old Things, and Sciences & Society.
Students following a thread enroll in at least 3 courses from the thread over the course of their study at Berkeley, and participate in at least one year-end symposium. The Course Threads Program is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Cognitive Science C102, 001 - Fall 2014
Scientific Approaches to Consciousness - John F. Kihlstrom
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