The second installment of the Spring 2009 Frontiers of Science Lecture Series will
feature assistant professor of physics Jennifer Schwarz presenting "Jamming in
Granular Materials" Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Gifford Auditorium,
located in Huntington Beard Crouse Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Paid parking is available in the Irving Garage.
Those who have ever experienced the frustration of trying to get stuck coffee beans
out of a dispenser, throwing away expensive paint that has dried out and hardened,
or even getting caught in a traffic jam might be interested to know that these
phenomena are all examples of what physicists call "jamming." One of the oldest,
unsolved problems in physics, jamming is defined as the transition of a many-body
system from a fluid-like state to a disordered solid-like state. While the transition from
a fluid state to an ordered solid state is well understood (for example liquid water
becoming ice), scientists have yet to uncover an explanation for transitions to the
disordered solid-like state.
The lecture will include a discussion of the ways in which scientists are trying to
unravel the mystery and a few experiments with granular materials.
The Frontiers of Science Lecture Series is presented by the Department of Science
Teaching in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences and is co-sponsored
by a number of the college's departments, SU's L.C. Smith College of Engineering
and Computer Science and a number of engineering departments, SU's School of
Education, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Bristol-Myers
Squibb, the Office of the Dean of Hendricks Chapel and the Syracuse Biomaterials
Institute.
