Dr. Jay Strader Department of Physics & Astronomy Michigan State University
“Black Holes in Globular Clusters”
ABSTRACT
Hundreds of stellar-mass black holes are expected to form in the early lifetime of a typical globular star cluster, but nearly all are expected to be ejected over short timescales. The existence of black holes in globular clusters would have broad implications for the demography of black holes, gravitational wave sources, and the evolution of globular clusters. I will discuss the use of deep radio continuum data, taken with the upgraded Very Large Array, to search for stellar and intermediate-mass black holes in Milky Way globular clusters.
Do you want to try a truly Canadian activity? One which combines ice, lots of physics and licensed beverages, and is safer than hockey? Of course you do!
The first annual Physics & Astronomy curling night is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, January 26 at 7pm. Watch this space for more information. And start watching curling when you go to the Grad Club, so you’ll know what to do!
I saw the science paper on spaun, and a few newspaper articles and frankly it struck me as being something pretty special. Then I looked at the videos of SPAUN performing and I was completely blown away.
Basically, it looks to me, the ultimate layman, like they are not far off being able to create an AI. I would say that because their simulations look like the work, except they do not have the complexity of our brains. That means it is only a matter of time for computing power to get there. If you look back to the Human Genome Project, it did not really get off the ground until we had TeraByte hard drives available, which just happens to be the amount of storage you need for the human genetic code. It will probably be the same thing for these attempts to make models of the brain.
Here is a question though. If they make a model that is able to perform tasks, make decisions, have opinions; do they have the right to switch it off at the end of the day?
