Public Lectures

Science is like puzzle-solving. Making sense of quantum theory is a particularly thorny kind of brain-twister, with more than its fair share of mysteries. If you are stuck on a puzzle, it may be because you have made a false assumption about the nature of some entity that is absolutely central to the whole business. If so, you have made a category mistake: you are not just wrong about what this entity is, but about what sort of thing it is.

In his Public Lecture at Perimeter Institute, Robert Spekkens will explain why he believes that many quantum mysteries are a result of a category mistake concerning the nature of quantum states. Along the way, he will address some idiosyncratic questions, such as: What did Plato have to say about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle? What do poorly implemented clinical drug trials have to do with "spooky action at a distance"? And, most importantly, what did the successful deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs teach us about the interpretation of quantum theory? 

Spekkens is a faculty member at Perimeter Institute whose research examines the foundations of quantum theory. He co-edited the book Quantum Theory: Informational Foundations and Foils, and he is a Project Leader of the international research collaboration "Quantum Causal Structures.” In 2012, he won first prize in the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) essay contest "Questioning the Foundations: Which of Our Assumptions Are Wrong?" He lives in Waterloo with his wife and three-year-old son.

As a child, Quebec native Pauline Gagnon dreamed of understanding what the universe was really made of.

As an adult, she studied exactly that, working at the largest experiment ever built, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. In her role as a Senior Research Scientist, based at Indiana University and working at CERN, she searched for dark matter particles in the decays of the famous Higgs boson, in the form of hypothetical particles called dark photons.

Now retired from active research, Gagnon is dedicated to inspiring other curious minds of all ages to ponder the same big questions that fascinated her as a child. Having worked in the CERN Communications group, she is adept at explaining the complex science of particle physics in engaging, comprehensible ways. She has delivered nearly 100 presentations to audiences in nine countries on three continents.

Gagnon’s popular science book, Who Cares about Particle Physics: Making Sense of the Higgs boson, the LHC and CERN, not only explains current issues in particle physics but also explores the importance of fundamental physics in shaping not only our understanding of the universe, but in shaping society as well.

In her Perimeter Institute Public Lecture, Gagnon will explore the incredible (and improbable!) feats of ingenuity and cooperation that have led to one of humanity’s greatest experiments, and why such pioneering research, albeit “useless” in terms of everyday practicality, has changed the way we live and is vital to our collective future.

Are we standing on the brink of a new scientific revolution that will radically change our views on space, time, and gravity?

In most circumstances, the theories of Einstein and Newton adequately describe gravity, but on cosmological scales, big questions arise, particularly surrounding the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

These questions are ushering in a revolution in theoretical physics – a completely new view on spacetime and gravity. Research in string theory and black hole physics, involving key concepts of quantum information theory, reveals a deep connection between the structure of spacetime and the origin of gravity.

This research suggests that gravity is not a fundamental force of nature, but rather an emergent phenomenon, similar to how temperature is an emergent phenomenon that arises from the movement of particles. That is, gravity is a side-effect, not a cause, of what happens in the universe.

In his public lecture, Dr. Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam) will explore the core ideas behind this research, and examine the implications of this fast-emerging revolution in our understanding of the universe.

Join the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, as he interviews renowned scientists and celebrities about the enduring influence of Star Trek on popular culture, innovation, and creativity.

THE TRUTH IS IN THE STARS chronicles Shatner’s journey around the world to discover how Star Trek’s optimistic vision for the future has inspired leading minds including Perimeter Institute Director Neil Turok, Perimeter Founder Mike Lazaridis, Prof. Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chris Hadfield, David Suzuki, and many more.

More than a billion years ago, two black holes collided. In the final second of their long life together, the black holes banged out a rhythm like mallets on a drum, creating gravitational waves – ripples in the shape of spacetime. One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of such waves, though it seemed improbable – if not outright impossible – that we’d ever be able to actually detect them. They were long considered too faint for any earthbound experiment to measure. Undaunted, experimentalists were determined to measure these Lilliputian ripples, and after many decades of work and collaboration, they built LIGO – the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. This incredible sophisticated and sensitive instrument was made to listen for the beat of that distant drum. In 2015, a billion years after the two black holes collided, their waves rippled through the LIGO detectors in Louisiana and Washington. With these remarkable new observatories, we can now capture the soundtrack to accompany the silent movie of the history of our universe.

Mathematics can be tasty! It’s a way of thinking, and not just about numbers. Through unexpectedly connected examples from music, juggling, and baking, Dr. Eugenia Cheng will demonstrate that math can be made fun and intriguing for all. Her interactive talk will feature hands-on activities, examples that everyone can relate to, and funny stories. She will present surprisingly high-level mathematics, including some advanced abstract algebra usually only seen by math majors and graduate students. There will be a distinct emphasis on edible examples.

The Hubble Space Telescope has completely revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and has become a beloved icon of popular culture. As revolutionary as Hubble has been, we have pushed it to its scientific limits in many ways. Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, has been in the works for almost two decades and is scheduled to launch in late 2018. It will be 100 times more powerful than Hubble. In her Perimeter Public Lecture, Dr. Amber Straughn will provide an update on the progress of building the world’s largest-yet space telescope, and will give an overview of the astronomical questions we hope to answer with Webb. These questions get to the heart of what it means to be human: Where did we come from? How did we get here? Are we alone?

Twenty-first century finance is built on complex mathematical tools developed by “quants,” a different breed of investor with expertise in fields such as physics, mathematics, and computer science. These models have been the basis for both new trading strategies and new financial products, leading to untold wealth. In some cases, however, these models have done more damage than good, making markets less stable and introducing new systemic risk. In this talk, Dr. James Weatherall will tell the story of how in the aftermath of World War II, some innovative physicists and mathematicians saw surprising connections between physics, gambling, and finance, and put those connections to use to become the first quants. Dr. Weatherall will introduce some of the ideas behind modern quantitative trading and show how the history of mathematical reasoning in finance reveals that these models can be extremely useful-but only if we understand their limitations.

Imagine going beyond treating the symptoms of disease and instead stopping it and reversing it. This is the promise of regenerative medicine.

In her Perimeter Institute public lecture, Prof. Molly Shoichet will tell three compelling stories that are relevant to cancer, blindness and stroke. In each story, the underlying innovation in chemistry, engineering, and biology will be highlighted with the opportunities that lay ahead. 

To make it personal, Shoichet’s lab has figured out how to grow cells in an environment that mimics that of the native environment. Now she has the opportunity to grow a patient’s cancer cells in the lab and figure out which drugs will be most effective for that individual. 

In blindness, the cells at the back of the eye often die. We can slow the progression of disease but we cannot stop it because there is no way to replace those cells. With a newly engineered biomaterial, Shoichet’s lab can now transplant cells to the back of the eye and achieve some functional repair. 

The holy grail of regenerative medicine is stimulation of the stem cells resident in us. The challenge is to figure out how to stimulate those cells to promote repair. Using a drug-infused “band-aid” applied directly on the brain, Shoichet’s team achieved tissue repair. 

These three stories underline the opportunity of collaborative, multi-disciplinary research. It is exciting to think what we will discover as this research continues to unfold.

When small, hard particles are suspended in a fluid, they make it more resistant to flow. The higher the particle concentration, the higher the viscosity. Add enough particles and fluid stops flowing entirely, becoming a jammed solid - this makes intuitive sense.

Less intuitive and more intriguing are suspensions that flow smoothly if pushed gently, but that suddenly solidify if you push too hard. This behaviour is called Discontinuous Shear Thickening (DST). You can try it yourself by mixing cornstarch with water - in the right proportions, the mixture will flow smoothly when stirred gently, but will refuse to flow at all if stirred too hard.

More than an interesting kitchen trick, DST has important real-world consequences. It can cause catastrophic failure of industrial pumping equipment, but can also have life-saving applications to bulletproof vests.

For many years, the mechanism behind DST was unclear, but we have very recently found a new and stunningly simple explanation based on the idea that the contacts between particles become less lubricated and more frictional as the force between them increases. Although this dependence is typically gradual, when a fluid gets close to the “jamming” point, global instabilities can result in the sudden switching from liquid to solid.

Michael Cates (Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge) will explain this peculiar form of “bulletproof custard” with a few equations, plenty of diagrams, and even some hands-on demonstrations.

Even the greatest scientists have made some serious blunders. "Brilliant Blunders" concerns the evolution of life on Earth, of the Earth itself, of stars, and of the universe as a whole.

In this talk, astrophysicist Dr. Mario Livio will explore and analyze major errors committed by such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Linus Pauling, and Albert Einstein. Dr. Livio will scrutinize the various types of blunders and attempt to explain how they happen. Blunders are not only inevitable, argues Dr. Livio, but also an integral component of the process of science.