March 16
Einstein's Biggest Blunder: A Cosmic Mystery Story
A World Year of Physics Series Lecture by Professor Lawrence Krauss, internationally known theoretical physicist from Case Western Reserve University and best-selling author.
CEBAF Center Auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m.
Within a decade of adding a "Cosmological Constant" to his triumphant General Theory of Relativity in 1915, Einstein denigrated the addition as his "greatest blunder." In the last decade, however, new observations have led to a revolution in cosmology and a rethinking of Einstein's alleged blunder and its implications for understanding nature and life. In this lecture, Lawrence Krauss, director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University, explains new data from a variety of independent cosmological and astrophysical observations and reveals one of the strangest theoretical possibilities one can imagine.
March 22
A Visit with Marie Curie
A Science Series Lecture
CEBAF Center Auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m.
This one-woman, living history exposes the struggles and triumphs of Madame Marie Curie - an academically impassioned, vehemently private, fervently Polish scientist, mother and teacher. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize when she and her husband, Pierre, earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Then in 1911, Marie Curie became the first person to win a second Nobel; this time the recognition was a Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of radium and radioactivity. This 40-minute presentation covers her childhood through scientific discovery, a 10-minute question and answer period with "Marie Curie" and then a 10-minute Q&A with presenter and storysmith, Susan Marie Frontczak. Visit JLab's web page for downloadable study guide: http://education.jlab.org/scienceseries/currentseries.html
Both events take place at Jefferson Lab, 12000 Jefferson Ave., Newport News, Va. Enter Jefferson Lab at its main entrance on Jefferson Ave. (Onnes Dr.). Everyone over age 16 is asked to carry a photo ID. For more information about Einstein's papers and how his scientific discoveries form the basis for the technologies used and the research conducted at the Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab, please visit www.jlab.org/.
For more information about these and other public events, please contact Debbie Magaldi, 269-5102.