Einstein, Light and Time - with a bit of whizz bang

Einstein, Light and Time - with a bit of whizz bang

Where once humans used the Sun, our greatest source of light, to measure time, now scientists are developing ultra-accurate clocks that can achieve accuracies of better than one second in 80 million years but still depend fundamentally on light.

Where once humans used the Sun, our greatest source of light, to measure time, now scientists are developing ultra-accurate clocks that can achieve accuracies of better than one second in 80 million years but still depend fundamentally on light.

At a public lecture at the University of Auckland, visiting Nobel Laureate William D Phillips explores Einstein’s insights into time and how Einstein’s theory of relativity affects our everyday lives.

Professor Phillips, Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland in the United States and an award-winning researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, was awarded the joint Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997.

In his entertaining public lectures, Professor Phillips uses a series of unusual props, including balloons, flowers and liquid nitrogen, to demonstrate key concepts in physics.

Professor Phillips was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. The technique slows the movement of gaseous atoms and cools them to temperatures approaching absolute zero, or minus 270 degrees Celsius.

His work in this area is now widely applied in the development of high-precision measurement systems and has paved the way for the development of the world’s most accurate atomic clocks, carried by GPS satellites orbiting Earth.

These clocks will become essential to industry, commerce and science and have specific applications in quantum computing and modern GPS technology but still fundamentally depend on light.

Because of their accuracy, super-accurate clocks can help test some of Einstein’s most important predictions and our fundamental understanding of Nature.

Professor Phillips visits Auckland as part of global celebrations for the 2015 International Year of Light. His lecture is on 25 November at 7pm at the University of Auckland’s Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Rd. The lecture will be held at the Fisher and Paykel Auditorium.

He is hosted in New Zealand by the IONS KOALA Conference, the Conference on Optics, Atoms and Laser Applications (KOALA) held annually in Australia and New Zealand as well as an International OSA Network of Students (IONS) conference sponsored by The Optical Society (OSA). The visit is also sponsored by the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, a Centre for Research Excellence.

ENDS

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