Was there a strategic alternative to the atomic bombing of 1945?
Delve into history with Dr Rob Johnson, Director of The Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford, as he explores a pivotal question.
Dec 21, 2023•25 min
Oxford Physics Public Lectures
The Department of Physics public lecture series. An exciting series of lectures about the research at Oxford Physics take place throughout the academic year. Looking at topics diverse as the creation of the universe to the science of climate change.
Features episodes previously published as:
(1) 'Oxford Physics Alumni': "Informal interviews with physics alumni at events, lectures and other alumni related activities."
(2) 'Physics and Philosophy: Arguments, Experiments and a Few Things in Between': "A series which explores some of the links between physics and philosophy, two of the most fundamental ways with which we try to answer our questions about the world around us. A number of the most pertinent topics which bridge the disciplines are discussed - the nature of space and time, the unpredictable results of quantum mechanics and their surprising consequences and perhaps most fundamentally, the nature of the mind and how far science can go towards explaining and understanding it. Featuring interviews with Dr. Christopher Palmer, Prof. Frank Arntzenius, Prof. Vlatko Vedral, Dr. David Wallace and Prof. Roger Penrose."
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Episodes
Oxford Physics and the ‘remote and speculative project’
A lecture by Prof Stephen Blundell, Professor of Physics – Condensed Matter - (Department of Physics and Mansfield College).
Dec 21, 2023•28 min
Nuclear Physics and the development of the bomb
Explore the history of atomic bomb development with Dr. Georg Viehhauser, Particle Physics Research Lecturer at St John's College, Oxford.
Dec 21, 2023•41 min
IceCube: Opening a New Window on the Universe from the South Pole
Particle Physics Christmas Lecture, hosted by Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Head of Particle Physics and senior members of the department with guest speaker, Professor Francis Halzen. Professor Francis Halzen is Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Prof Halzen is a theoretician studying problems at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. In 1987 he began working on the AMANDA experiment, a prototype neutri...
Dec 20, 2019•1 hr 25 min
The First Image of a Black Hole
Professor Heino Falcke of Radboud University, Nijmegen delivers the 19th Hintze Lecture - reviewing the latest results of the Event Horizon Telescope, its scientific implications and future expansions of the array One of the most bizarre, but perhaps also most fundamental predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity are black holes. They are extreme concentrations of matter with a gravitational attraction so strong, that not even light can escape. The inside of black holes is shielded ...
Nov 19, 2019•58 min
The Many Universes of Quantum Materials
Professor Stephen Blundell explores the many universes of quantum materials for the 2019 Quantum Materials Public Lecture. Physicists try to find the laws that govern the Universe, discover new particles and explain phenomena. But what if the rules that govern the Universe were different? What would happen then? This question is not just an academic one. Every new material discovered is behaves like a new Universe, with different laws and sometimes new particles. This talk explains how this idea...
Oct 07, 2019•41 min
Gravitational Waves and Prospects for Multi-messenger Astronomy
Professor Barry C Barish gives a talk on the quest for the detection of gravitational waves. The quest for gravitational waves, following their prediction by Einstein in 1916 to their detection 100 years later will be traced. The subsequent opening of exciting new science, from rigorous tests of general relativity to using gravitational waves to explore the universe will be discussed. Prof Barish is a Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus at CalTech University in the USA, and ha...
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 20 min
Finding aliens – An update on the search for life in the Universe
Bill Diamond, President & CEO The SETI Institute gives an an update on the search for life in the Universe. Hosted by Ian Shipsey, Head of Physics.
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 10 min
Cherwell-Simon Memorial Lecture: The XENON Project: at the forefront of Dark Matter Direct Detection
What is the Dark Matter which makes 85% of the matter in the Universe? We have been asking this question for many decades and used a variety of experimental approaches to address it, with detectors on Earth and in space. Yet, the nature of Dark Matter remains a mystery. An answer to this fundamental question will likely come from ongoing and future searches with accelerators, indirect and direct detection. Detection of a Dark Matter signal in an ultra-low background terrestrial detector will pro...
Jul 08, 2019•1 hr 18 min
Is Dark Matter Made of Black Holes
The 2019 Halley lecture n February 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the discovery of the merger of two black holes, each of which weighed around 30 times the mass of the Sun. Shortly thereafter, it was speculated that these black holes might make up the dark matter that has long been known to exist in galaxies (like our own Milky Way). I will review this possibility and explain why the hypothesis may or may not work.
Jun 04, 2019•53 min
The Role of Gas in Galaxy Evolution
Professor Jacqueline van Gorkom delivers the 18th Hintze Lecture. How do galaxies get their gas and how do they lose it? Theories of galaxy formation predict that the growth of galaxies is regulated by the infall of hydrogen gas. This gas is the fuel for star formation. When galaxies run out of gas star formation stops. Interestingly, observationally we know much more about the stars in galaxies and how the star formation rate has evolved over time than we know about the gas. The gas is hard to ...
Jun 03, 2019•59 min
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance - Past, Present and Future
Professor Mark Newton describes some of the key events in the discovery and development of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR). Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy as it is also known is a method for studying systems with unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but it is electron spins that are excited instead of the spins of atomic nuclei. EPR was first observed in Kazan State Uni...
Mar 18, 2019•1 hr 5 min
The Quantum and the Cosmos
The 17th Hintze Lecture, given by Professor Rocky Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago. In daily life we do not experience the quantum nature of the world on the scale of elementary particles, nor do we sense the expansion and evolution of the universe on cosmic scales. Humans, midway in size between quantum and cosmic scales, evolved to perceive nature not as it actually is, but merely as required to survive in our e...
Nov 14, 2018•1 hr 9 min
The Search for Life on Earth, In Space and Time
Dr James Green, current Chief Scientist of NASA gives a talk on the how life may be distributed on Earth and in the Solar System with consideration of the age of our sun. This talk was a joint lecture held by the The Department of Physics and the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers. NASA's Gravity Assist podcast, hosted by Dr. James Green: https://www.nasa.gov/mediacast/gravity-assist-explorer-1-jim-green-s-gravity-assist
Oct 29, 2018•1 hr 21 min
How do we find planets around other stars?
The 3rd Wetton lecture, 19th June 2018 delivered by Professor David W. Hogg, Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University In the last 20 years, the astronomical community has found thousands of planets around other stars, and we now know that many or even most stars in our Galaxy host planets. These planets have been found by making exceedingly precise measurements of stars. Some of the planets we find are extremely strange; most known planetary systems are very different from ...
Jul 02, 2018•42 min
The Quest for Nearby Habitable Worlds
The 16th Hintze lecture, 25th April 2018 delivered by Professor René Doyon, Director, Mont-Mégantic Observatory & Institute for Research on Exoplanets, University of Montreal, Canada It is now well established that planetary systems are very common in the Solar neighbourhood, in particular small rocky planets, similar to Earth, around low-mass stars. Thanks to new ground-and spaced-based infrared facilities soon to be deployed, it will be possible not only to find the closest habitable world...
May 22, 2018•35 min
ALMA and the Birth of Stars Across Galaxies
The 2018 Astor Visiting Lecture 14th March 2018 delivered by Professor Adam Leroy, Ohio State University. The Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) is the largest, most complex ground-based telescope ever built. From its perch high in the Chilean Andes, ALMA is now unveiling the birth of planets, stars, and galaxies. I will give a taste of the revolution ushered in by ALMA. This includes resolving the disks that form new Solar systems, finding the seeds of gaseous giant planets, w...
Mar 28, 2018•54 min
The State of the Universe
Our Universe was created in 'The Big Bang' and has been expanding ever since. Professor Schmidt describes the vital statistics of the Universe, and tries to make sense of the Universe's past, present, and future.
Nov 20, 2017•1 hr 15 min
Superconductors: Miracle Materials
An introduction to the fascinating world of superconductors and the many surprising phenomena they exhibit, from zero resistance to quantum levitation. Superconductors are metals with remarkable and unexpected properties at low temperatures which defied explanation for many decades. In this talk, illustrated with practical demonstrations, Professor Andrew Boothroyd recounts the long history of superconductivity and gives simple explanations for how superconductors work and what they are useful f...
Oct 25, 2017•33 min
Quantum physics and the nature of computing
How can we test a quantum computer? An exploration of some of the theoretical puzzles of this field and how we can investigate them with experimental physics. What is the relationship between quantum physics, computer science and complexity theory? In this talk, Dr Jelmer Renema will introduce a conceptual problem that sits at the intersection between these fields, namely: how can we show that a quantum computer can outperform an ordinary computer?
Oct 25, 2017•18 min
Superconductors: why it’s cool to be repulsive
A family-friendly demonstration of superconductors in action. Fran explores the low temperatures we need to make them work, and how we can use superconductors for levitating trains. When something superconducts, it behaves as a magnetic mirror, so will be repelled from magnetic fields. We can use this property to float a superconductor above a bed of magnets. However, for this to work, the superconductor has to be very cold. Graduate student Fran Kirschner uses liquid nitrogen to cool some super...
Oct 25, 2017•20 min
Cassini-Huygens: Space Odyssey to Saturn and Titan
Public Lecture organised by the Aeronautical Society of Oxford in conjunction with the Department of Physics.
Oct 18, 2017•1 hr 1 min
Observation of the mergers of binary black holes: The opening of gravitational wave astronomy
The 2017 Halley Lecture 7th June 2017 delivered by Professor Rainer Weiss, MIT on behalf of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration The recent observations of gravitational waves from the merger of binary black holes open 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 gr...
Jun 27, 2017•1 hr 11 min
Ghost Imaging with Quantum Light
Physics Colloquium 26th May 2017 delivered by Professor Miles Padgett, University of Glasgow Ghost imaging and ghost diffraction were first demonstrated by Shih and co-workers using photon pairs created by parametric down-conversion. They were able to obtain an image or a diffraction pattern using photons that had never interacted with the object, relying instead on the correlations with photons that have. In a typical ghost-imaging configuration, the down-converted photons are directed into two...
Jun 27, 2017•52 min
Pulsars and Extreme Physics - A 50th Anniversary
Physics Colloquium 5th May 2017 delivered by Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell Pulsars, or pulsating radio stars, were discovered accidentally 50 years ago. Dame Professor Bell Burnell will give a brief account of the equipment used and the discovery. We now understand pulsars to be rapidly rotating neutron stars (1ms < P 10s, R ≈ 10km, surface speed 10%c) which manifest extreme physics in several dimensions (average density = nuclear, surface B up to 1011T). Dame Professor Bell Burnell wil...
Jun 27, 2017•1 hr 1 min
Starquakes Expose Stellar Heartbeats
The 14th Hintze Biannual Lecture 4th May 2017 delivered by Professor Conny Aerts - Director, Institute of Astronomy KU Leuven Thanks to the recent space missions CoRoT and Kepler, a new era of stellar physics has dawned. Asteroseismology, the observation and interpretation of starquakes, has produced a number of surprises about the deep interiors of stars. These results have altered our view of the lifecycle of stars including the generations of stars that preceded the Sun. Starquakes allow us t...
Jun 27, 2017•1 hr 5 min
Curiosity’s Search for Ancient Habitable Environments at Gale Crater, Mars
4th Annual Lobanov-Rostovsky Lecture in Planetary Geology delivered by Professor John Grotzinger, Caltech, USA The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, touched down on the surface of Mars on August 5, 2012. Curiosity was built to search and explore for habitable environments and has a lifetime of at least one Mars year (~23 months), and drive capability of at least 20 km. The MSL science payload can assess ancient habitability which requires the detection of former water, as well as a sourc...
Apr 27, 2017•1 hr 9 min
Spatio-temporal Optical Vortices
Physics Colloquium 10th March 2017 delivered by Professor Howard Milchberg, University of Maryland, USA When an optical pulse propagating through a nonlinear medium exceeds a certain threshold power, it can focus itself and collapse, in theory, to a singularity. In practice, several physical mechanisms mitigate or arrest the catastrophic collapse and the pulse continues propagation as a filamentary structure. This scenario has played out in many nonlinear optics systems over decades: among them ...
Apr 27, 2017•57 min
Learning new physics from a medieval thinker: Big Bangs and Rainbows
Physics Colloquium 24 February 2017 delivered by Professor Tom McLeish FRS, Department of Physics and Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University, UK For the English polymath, Robert Grosseteste, light was the fundamental first form that gave dimensionality and stability to the material world. In a dozen scientific treatises written in the early 13th Century, he postulated a physics of light, colour and the rainbow. In his De luce (on light) he extends it to the origin of t...
Apr 27, 2017•54 min
The applied side of Bell nonlocality
Physics Colloquium 17 February 2016 delivered by Professor Valerio Scarani Since its formulation in 1964, Bell's theorem has been classified under "foundations of physics". Ekert's 1991 attempt to relate it to an applied task, quantum cryptography, was quenched by an approach that relied on a different basis and was allegedly equivalent. Ekert's intuition was finally vindicated with the discovery of "device-independent certification" of quantum devices. In this colloquium, I shall revisit the to...
Apr 27, 2017•50 min
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