<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><b>KNIGHT SEMINAR: April 21, E19-623 at 4:00pm.</b></span></font><p align=""><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">How the Hippies Saved Physics</span></font></b><br>David Kaiser, Associate Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT and Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics, MIT.</p><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div></div></div></div><div><div>Abstract: </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>In recent years, the field of quantum information science -- an amalgam of topics ranging from quantum encryption, to quantum computing, quantum teleportation, and more -- has catapulted to the cutting edge of physics, sporting a multi-billion-dollar research program, tens of thousands of published research articles, and a variety of device prototypes. This tremendous excitement marks the tail end of a long-simmering Cinderella story. Long before the big budgets and dedicated teams, the field moldered on the scientific sidelines. In fact, the field’'s recent breakthroughs derive, in part, from the hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement. Many of the ideas that now occupy the core of quantum information science once found their home amid an anything-goes counterculture frenzy, a mishmash of spoon-bending psychics, Eastern mysticism, LSD trips, CIA spooks chasing mind-reading dreams, and comparable “Age of Aquarius” enthusiasms. For the better part of two decades, the concepts that would, in time, blossom into developments like quantum encryption were bandied about in late-night bull sessions and hawked by proponents of a burgeoning self-help movement—more snake oil than stock option. This talk describes the field’'s bumpy transition from New Age to cutting edge.</div><div><br></div><div>About the speaker:</div><div> David Kaiser is a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he teaches in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the Department of Physics. He completed PhDs in theoretical physics and the history of science at Harvard. Kaiser is author of the award-winning book, Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005), which traces how Richard Feynman’'s idiosyncatic approach to quantum physics entered the mainstream. In 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Other honors include the Leroy Apker Award from the American Physical Society; the Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society for best book in the field; the Harold Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award from MIT; and several teaching awards from Harvard and MIT. His latest book, How the Hippies Saved Physics, will be published by W. W. Norton in June 2011.</div></div></body></html>