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Saturday Mornings of Theoretical Physics events
Stars sometimes explode with such violence that for a week or two they outshine an entire galaxy of 100 billion stars. These `supernova explosions' can end the lives of both massive, young stars and welter-weight dead stars: white dwarfs.
The practical objective of improving steam engines led to an impressive level of abstract thinking during the development of thermodynamics.
A major theme in current theoretical physics is understanding the implications of quantum mechanics for the dynamics of composite systems. When sub-systems interact, they naturally become correlated.
Who can fail to be impressed by the grand sweep of spiral arms across the face of a galaxy? Look deeper and galaxies also pose fascinating problems in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics.
Superfluidity and superconductivity -- the flow of matter or electrical current without friction -- are the two most spectacular manifestations of quantum mechanics at a macroscopic scale, and the understanding of these phenomena is one of the great achievements of quantum theory applied