April 25, 2006 Source: :
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/060425-2232.asp Nobel laureate to discuss 'the coolest stuff in the universe' Physicist to discuss how scientists are improving atomic clocks, using demos and down-to-earth explanations
Apr 25/06
by Nicolle Wahl (about) (email) The genius of Albert Einstein and his view of time led to the development of today’s atomic clocks, which are essential to industrial, commercial and military uses, such as global positioning systems. William D. Phillips, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, will give a multimedia presentation about some of today’s newest and most exciting science on Tuesday, May 2 at 4 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle, Room 2158. The lecture, Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe, will use live demonstrations and down-to-earth explanations to discuss how scientists are improving atomic clocks by using Einstein’s idea to cool the atoms to less than one-billionth of a degree above absolute zero (the temperature at which atoms stop moving), producing clocks that are accurate to better than a second in 60 million years. Phillips, who works at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology Atomic Physics Division, received his doctorate in physics and completed his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1978 he joined the staff of the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) where he conducted his award-winning research. Phillips developed new and improved methods for measuring the temperature of laser-cooled atoms, and in 1988 he discovered that the atoms reached a temperature six times lower than the predicted theoretical limit. The lecture is part of the Distinguished Visiting Scientists Program at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Optical Sciences, and is funded by the Department of Physics.
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