Talks

Presented as part of the SciComm Collider 2 workshop.
All PI Residents are invited. 

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A colloquium featuring 2 perspectives on science communication.

Tatiana Erukhimova - Making Physics Fun and Approachable
Matthew Strassler - The Challenge of Communicating Physics Accessibly, Clearly and Accurately

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The correlation functions of large-scale fluctuations are crucial observables in modern cosmology. These boundary correlators contain rich information about the bulk dynamics and can be used to probe physics at the inflation scale. There have been considerable efforts in the analytical study of inflation correlators in recent years. In this talk, I will introduce the basic structure of inflation correlators and several analytical methods we have developed for their computation. In particular, I will introduce the method of partial Mellin-Barnes (PMB) representation. With this method, we can largely solve the massive tree correlators analytically. At the loop level, we use PMB to prove a factorization theorem for the nonanalytical part of inflation correlators, which produces a characteristic nonlocal signal. Finally, we can recover the full correlator starting from this nonanalytical part using a dispersion integral.

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Using replicate populations evolved under the same environmental conditions, experimental evolution provides the unique opportunity to study polygenic adaptation. I will discuss how genetic redundancy, pleiotropy, epistasis and linkage disequilibrium influence the selection response of polygenic traits.

For over a century, most biologists have been convinced that all aspects of biodiversity have been driven entirely by natural selection, with stochastic forces and mutation bias playing a minimal role. However, this is not the case at the molecular and cellular levels, where diverse traits scale with cell/organism size in ways that cannot be explained by optimization and/or speed vs. efficiency arguments. These include aspects of gene/genome architecture, intracellular error rates, the multimeric nature of proteins, swimming efficiencies, and maximum growth rates.

Although natural selection may be the most powerful force in the biological world, it is not all powerful, and the power of random genetic drift ultimately dictates what selection can and cannot accomplish. Many prokaryotes may reside in population-genetic environments where the limits to selection are indeed dictated only by the constraints of cell biology. However, in the eukaryotic domain, larger organism size is typica...

I will review the "gyroscopic gravitational memory”, the permanent effect of gravitational waves on freely-falling gyroscopes far from the source of gravitational radiation. Then, I will compute the effect created by binary systems in the post-Newtonian approximation. The discussion naturally involves the helicity of gravitational waves and gravitational electric-magnetic duality.

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Presented as part of the SciComm Collider 2 workshop.
All PI Residents are invited. 

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While scientists and journalists have many overlapping interests and skills, they often differ in their goals, resources, and expertise. This talk covers strategies, tips, and approaches researchers can use to make their interactions with writers and journalists rewarding and enjoyable. It will also cover ideas about pitching and writing for popular science and mainstream media publications. This session will be as interactive as possible, so feel free to bring your questions, concerns, and ideas.

Speaker Bio:
Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based science journalist and author. He has designed and run many workshops and training sessions for scientists and other researchers engaging in media relations and public engagement.

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