[Sci-tech-public] Knight Seminar next week: April 21
Eric Strattman
ejstratt at mit.edu
Fri Apr 15 16:51:22 EDT 2011
KNIGHT SEMINAR: April 21, E19-623 at 4:00pm.
How the Hippies Saved Physics
David Kaiser, Associate Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and
Society, MIT and Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics, MIT.
Abstract:
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 movementmore snake oil than
stock option. This talk describes the field's bumpy transition from
New Age to cutting edge.
About the speaker:
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.
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