My son found this image on facebook, or some such place. No wonder math is hard!
Which calculator would you buy?
Monthly Archives: October 2012
Free pizza for P&A graduate students
Are you a physics or astronomy graduate student?
Do you like free Soprano’s pizza?
Then come on out to the third floor common area on Wednesday, October 17th at noon! The Physics and Astronomy Graduate Students’ Council is hosting a pizza party for all P&A graduate students. Learn about the council and ways to get involved, and above all else, enjoy free pizza!
Physics & Astronomy Colloquium – THURS. 25th Oct. – DR. CARLOS SILVA, U de Montréal
Poster: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/colloquia/Colloquia%20Notices/2012_2013/SILVA%20Colloquium.pdf
Western University
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM
Date: Thursday, 25th October 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Location: Physics & Astronomy Seminar Room 100
Dr. Carlos Silva
Département de Physique & Regroupement québécois sur les matériaux de pointe
Université de Montréal
“The dependence of charge recombination dynamics on the solid-state microstructure in neat, semicrystalline polymeric semiconductors”
ABSTRACT
We investigate the dynamics of geminate-polaron-pair recombination in the neat polymeric semiconductor regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) by means of time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy as a function of the solid-state microstructure, imposed by the molecular weight of the polymer and the thin-film processing route. At 10K, we observe delayed PL that originates from recombination of long-lived geminate-polaron pairs. The delayed PL decays over microsecond timescales, which is orders of magnitude longer than the exciton lifetime. We find that >36% of the total PL in solution-processed films of high-molecular-weight (331 kg/mol) material, which features a two-phase semicrystalline microstructure of alternating chain-entangled amorphous phases and crystalline lamella. In this microstructure, both the yield and the decay dynamics depend upon molecular weight. However, in films with dominant one-phase chain-extended microstructures, delayed PL is strongly suppressed. We thus find that a two-phase morphology leads to a higher yield of delayed PL with a higher distribution of decay rates than one-phase, chain-extended morphologies. By invoking a kinetic model including interconversion of excitons and geminate polarons, we conclude that geminate electron-hole pairs are on average further apart in two-phase morphologies, and that these microstructures result in a higher yield of geminate pairs that do not recombine within the timeframe of our experiment.
Refreshments will be available.
Melanie Wright receives TA award for 2011-12.
Melanie Wright, who spent much of the summer doing research in the arctic, has officially received her Teaching Assistant Award for the past year. Other winners were Teznie Pugh and Geron Bindseil.
Baumgartner Space-Jump ABORTED! #westernu
Felix Baumgartner, all set to become the 1st human to break the sound barrier unaided, didn’t even make it off the ground on a windy day – the jump cancelled because of weather conditions.
The event is to be re-scheduled, when Felix will fall from 36 km above Earth’s surface.
Nobel Prize: Big Congratulations to Quantum Physicists!
As expected, the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to 2 quantum physicists, Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland for their work on experimental methods of measuring/manipulating individual quantum systems.
Link:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/
Brief video tour of parts of the newly renovated Physics and Astronomy building
Brief video tour of the renovated Physics and Astronomy building.
Nobel Physics Prize 2012: Who arte the contenders?
The Nobel Physics Prize for 2012 will be announced tomorrow, Oct 9. You will likely wake up to hear the news. Meantime, if you have time to kill on Thanksgiving, give this article from Slate magazine a read. It analyzes and speculates on potential winners in Physics and other categories. I note two Canadians on the Physics speculation list!
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/10/nobel_prize_…
Women in Physics
A new bit of research shows that sterotypes about gender differences in physical reasoning are not true, and gives a way to erode them. The statistics are not great yet, the research is not conclusive, but it is definitely interesting. Maybe we should get this kind of thing in first and second year classes!
2012 Elizabeth Laird Memorial Lecture a great success.
Dr. Edward ‘Rocky’ Kolb gave a superb presentation to a packed house of 270 people in Conron Hall on Thursday, October 4. The 2012 Elizabeth Laird Memorial Lecture was titled “Mysteries of the Dark Universe”. Dr. Kolb gave a wonderful history of the search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in our visible universe, and he also mapped out the most likely future scenarios and candidates for the discovery of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.