Newswise — Plant mimicry, black holes, remote-controlled worms, and more: These are some of the topics to be presented at a series of live webcast news briefings from the 2013 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Baltimore, Md. The three 45-minute webcasts will take place this Thursday, March 21. To register and for more information on the panelists, see below.
What: Media Webcasts on New Research at the APS March Meeting
When: Thursday, March 21, 2013• 9 a.m. EST - PHYSICS OF NATURE: PLANT MIMICRY AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CRACKLING TREES• 11 a.m. EST - CREEPY CRAWLIES: FROM REMOTE-CONTROLLED WORMS TO SYNTHETIC CILIA• 1 p.m. EST - QUANTUM ISSUES: BLACK HOLES, THE REALITY OF THE WAVEFUNCTION, AND WHY SPACE IS 3-D
Registration: To register, please visit http://apswebcasting.com/
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List of Panelists:
Thursday, March 21, 9:00 a.m. ESTPHYSICS OF NATURE: PLANT MIMICRY AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CRACKLING TREESPanelists:• Zi Chen, Washington University in St. Louis, will discuss the mechanics of the Venus flytrap's fast motion and bio-inspired robots whose snapping mechanism could find applications in sensors, artificial muscles, and biomedical devices. • Sean Gart, Virginia Tech, will discuss harvesting electric energy from rain using a setup that mimics the process of raindrops hitting leaves. • Alexandre Ponomarenko, Grenoble University, will discuss new developments to track down the source of crackling emitted by trees suffering from drought.
Thursday, March 21, 11:00 a.m. ESTCREEPY CRAWLIES: FROM REMOTE-CONTROLLED WORMS TO SYNTHETIC CILIAPanelists:• Askin Kocabas, Harvard University, will present work to manipulate the neural activity of free-moving C. elegans worms using light. • Timothy Sanchez, Brandeis University, will discuss synthetic cilia and other biomimetic phenomena that his team has developed using simple, self-organizing biological components (such as microtubules and clusters of motor proteins). The group has also used their techniques to engineer new materials with functions not seen in nature, like flowing liquid crystals and self-propelled emulsion droplets. • Daria Monaenkova, Georgia Institute of Technology, will discuss new research that can be used to better understand the behaviors of fire ants, an invasive species in the United States. The work examines the relationship between wetness of soil and ants’ digging strategies for nest construction. • Nick Gravish, Georgia Institute of Technology, will dig deeper into fire ants’ nest design strategies with a talk about their underground tunneling tactics, and how tunnel size helps ants keep their footing when the animals are perturbed.
Thursday, March 21, 1:00 p.m. EST QUANTUM ISSUES: BLACK HOLES, THE REALITY OF THE WAVEFUNCTION, AND WHY SPACE IS 3-DPanelists:• Christoph Adami, Michigan State University, tackles a particularly challenging problem at the intersection of quantum mechanics and relativity: if information is absorbed by a black hole, which then subsequently evaporates, what happens to the information? Adami and colleagues have found what they believe to be a solution to the information paradox posed by black holes, which in turn implies that black holes can act as nearly perfect “quantum copying machines.” • Renato Renner, ETH Zurich, has turned to another long-standing puzzle – whether or not the wave-function of quantum mechanics is real or simply a handy calculating tool. Renner’s research addresses deep philosophical issues in physics as well as confirming the effectiveness of quantum-based cryptographic schemes. • Markus Mueller, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, presents a new take on the old question of why space is 3-dimensional, and suggests an answer based on modern quantum information theory.
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MORE INFORMATION FOR JOURNALISTS• General Meeting Information: http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/index.cfm • Searchable Abstracts: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR13/APS_epitome
ABOUT APSThe American Physical Society (www.aps.org) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities. APS represents 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, MD (Headquarters), Ridge, NY, and Washington, DC.
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