Webinars

In this webinar we will discuss how atmospheric drag causes satellites to reenter, and look at historical data on where this occurs. We will compare it to the structure and density profile of the Earth’s atmosphere and discuss where the forces of gravity become more important than atmospheric forces, and how this varies with time and place. We will also review some of the historical ideas on the subject. Originally aired April 2022.

Photons are excellent carriers of quantum information over long distances and can be reliably processed in advanced photonic integrated circuits. One fundamental challenge has been that they are complex to generate, i.e. single-photon sources tend to be inherently inefficient. Solid-state quantum emitters deterministically coupled to nanophotonic circuits have overcome this challenge, and today highly efficient and coherent photon-emitter interfaces are realized, enabling generation of high-quality single-photon sources, multi-photon entanglement sources or photonic quantum gates. In this webinar we will explain the fundamental operational principle of this novel light-matter interfaces and discuss future application areas within quantum computing and quantum networks. Originally aired March 2022.

After the demonstration of the laser in 1960, researchers quickly discovered that tightly focused laser pulses generated a bright spark of ionized air. The physics of this process—a laser-driven exponential growth of charge—was well-understood by the end of the 1960s. An obvious potential application was extreme sensitivity charge detection in gases through the amplification of individual free electrons, in analogy to the detection of single photons or electrons by multiplier tubes. However, various technical and physics limitations delayed this application until very recently. In this presentation we will describe the avalanche process and discuss how we overcame these limitations to develop an ultrasensitive charge detection diagnostic. Originally aired March 2022.

Most colored materials owe their color to the absorption of light. In nature we often see a different type of coloration, known as structural color: certain wavelengths are transmitted, while others scatter and constructively interfere. Structural colors are common in birds and particularly in blue feathers, which consist of disordered arrays of pores that scatter light. Originally aired February 2022.

Whirlwinds caused by thermal updrafts can pick up dust and become visible, forming 'dust devils'. Largely a harmless curiosity in desert meteorology, they can cause occasional damage. Like earthquakes, there are many small ones, and a few intense ones; the distribution of diameters, or core pressure drops, seems to follow a power law…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired January 2022.

The sparking of grapes in a household microwave oven has been a popular online parlour trick for decades. Traditional explanations presume that the objects act as conductive short antennas. However, attending to the bulk of these objects as aqueous dielectric spheres with an index of refraction of order 9 (at 2.5 GHz) provides new and exciting…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired December 2021.

Heat engines have played a central role in our society since the industrial revolution. Producing mechanical work from thermal energy, they have been widely used to generate motion, from ancient steam engines to modern internal combustion motors. In the past decades, heat engines have been successfully miniaturized down to the nanoscale, eventually…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired November 2021.

Shortfin mako sharks are considered the cheetahs of the open ocean, with some estimates putting speeds greater than 60 mph. However, the secret to their speed may lie in more than just their powerful muscles and streamlined shape, it may also have to do with the microscopic scales that cover their skin. Originally aired October 2021.

While the classical vacuum of empty space is static, and perhaps a bit dull, the reality of the quantum vacuum is anything but boring. Electromagnetic fields are constantly fluctuating and can give rise to measurable consequences. One striking effect is the Casimir force, where quantum fluctuations between two charge neutral plates give…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired September 2021.

This webinar explores jugglers' dependence on muscle memory and dynamical prediction. If every throw is considered to be an independent event, there exist juggling patterns in which the reaction time required to make successive catches and the precision needed to make perfect throws exceeds human capabilities. Using simulations with Gaussian deviations applied to throw angles and velocities, we reinforce this claim and compare the stability of various juggling patterns known as siteswaps. We show that throw angles and velocities affect very distinct aspects of juggling performance, and we obtain criteria on each that are needed to avoid juggling failures. Originally aired August 2021.