An upcoming symposium, Time for Everyone
“Time for Everyone” is a unique opportunity to learn about the origins, evolution, and future of public time from some of the foremost authorities in many branches of time measurement. From its natural cycles in astronomy, to its biological evolution, to how the brain processes it differently at various stages of life and under different circumstances, to how we find it, how we measure it, and how we keep it, this symposium will explore many facets of this fascinating subject of unfathomable depth. The program has been designed for a diverse audience and the speakers carefully chosen not only for their knowledge, but also for their ability to bring their subjects to life.
Not surprisingly, I’ve met a number of the speakers and heard a few of them give talks (or parts of talks). That list includes Sean Carroll (Arrow of time), Tom Van Baak (amateur “time nut” who did the gravitational time dilation experiment I mention at the end of this post), Geoff Chester (Public Affairs Officer here at the Observatory), and Bill Phillips (Nobel Prize in ’97 for laser cooling and trapping) who is giving the keynote at the banquet.
It’s in the next fiscal year, so the probability of getting to go is not identically zero.
“unfathomable depth” “diverse audience” Ranque-Hilsch vortex tubes spontaneously separate hot from cold gas molecules, -40 C and 120 C outputs from ambient temperature air. Theory played catchup to observation, then South Africa’s Helikon process for a half-tonne of 93% HEU.
The breaking of time reversal symmetry results in chirality: Phys. Rev. A 82, 043811 (2010), http://pra.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v82/i4/e043811, http://physics.aps.org/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.043811.pdf
Chirality is the strong arrow of time (entropy is a weak arrow of time – Belosouv-Zhabotinsky rxn): Nature 463 210 (2010), Phys. Rev. D 71 057501 (2005), Phys Rev Lett. 91(24) 247404 (2003), Chem. Phys. Lett. 173(5-6) 485 (1990)
Time remains an uncrackable nut, along with parity violations, SUSY, and quantum gravitation – all assuming exact vacuum mirror-symmetry toward fermionic matter. A (A HREF=”http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/erotor1.jpg”>geometric test (jpeg) of spacetime geometry uses self-similar, extreme opposite chirality fermionic matter distributions. Has an answer ever not been in the last place you looked?
Answer to Uncle Al: No, because when you find it… never mind. I think it was on a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper from grade school.