The State of the Galaxy...

Look out folks, it's your president... Zaphod Beeblebrox, comin' thru!



( see more halloween pics here )

"Most people thought they were voting for the worst dressed sentient being in the universe contest!" - Humma Kavula

Lisa Randall

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but Lisa Randall--famous string theorist from Harvard, and author of Warped Passages--gave a general public lecture yesterday here and is giving a slightly more technical lecture today. Here was the flyer for yesterday's expensive (best seats were $30!) lecture:
http://artslectures.ucsc.edu/ARTISTPAGES/Randall.htm

The nice thing about today's lecture is it's free... they just don't advertise it as widely since it's intended more for physicists (although I assure you, nobody will notice if you just casually show up... it's most likely going to be a huge crowd.) It's at 4pm today, so if you happen to be on campus you might want to check it out. More info:

Speaker: Lisa Randall
Physics Department, Harvard University

Title: Relaxing to Three Dimensions

Abstract:

Extra dimensions of space might be present in our universe. If
so, we want to know "How do dimensions hide?" and "Why
are three dimensions special?" I'll give potential answers
to both these questions in the context of localized gravity.

DATE: Thursday, November 3, 2005
TIME: 4:00 P.M.
PLACE: Thimann Lecture Hall 1

I'm excited to see Lisa here, especially after the embarassment Michael Nauenberg caused UCSC when Nima Arkani-Hamed (a colleague of Lisa's at Harvard) visited and was heckled the entire time.

Also, while I'm at it... here's an article on her which appeared in the New York Times a few days ago.