Events Archive

Sep
04
2013
Quantum Matter and the Entanglement Frontier
Entanglement has recently emerged as an important conceptual tool in quantum many-body physics.  I will explain why we care about entanglement in quantum matter and why we are interested in the physics of highly ntangled quantum states.  I will also show how entanglement has led us to new phases of matter, new ways to characterize phases and phase transitions, novel numerical techniques, and useful conceptual advances. I will conclude with a discussion of the prospects for measuring...
Sep
03
2013
Exerting Mechanical Force on Proteins
Using force spectroscopy mode of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) one can measure physiologically relevant pN forces between an AFM tip and a biomolecule with a mean displacement resolution of about 0.1 nm. The last 15 years have witnessed an explosion of interest in single molecule force spectroscopy fueled by: 1) new possibilities to advance in protein folding, 2) possibilities to elucidate molecular mechanisms of various cellular processes, and diseases, and 3) efforts to understand...
Aug
28
2013
Toward highly dynamic locomotion : actuation, structure and control of the MIT cheetah robot
Aug
28
2013
Mathematical Biology and Ecology Seminar: Cascades and Social Influence on Networks
I discuss "simple" dynamical systems on networks and examine how network structure affects dynamics of processes running on top of networks.  I consider results based on "locally tree-like" and/or mean-field and pair approximations and examine when they seem to work well, what can cause them to fail, and when they seem to produce accurate results even though their hypotheses are violated fantastically.  I'll also present a new model for multi-stage complex contagions--in which fanatics produce greater influence than mere followers--and examine dynamics on networks with hetergeneous...
Aug
21
2013
Exploring the Phase Space of Transitional Pipe Flow
Well-controlled experiments in pipe flow began at least as early as those by Reynolds himself (1883).  Forming a model for transition to turbulence, however, has taken a long time to develop.  The first nonlinear solutions to the equations governing fluid flow in a pipe were discovered only 10 years ago (Faisst and Eckhardt 2003), but since this time our understanding of the underlying nonlinear dynamics has developed thick and fast.  I begin by reviewing some of the progress that followed the discovery of travelling wave solutions.  For the future, it will be...
Aug
19
2013
Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems
Jul
09
2013
Nanoconfined DNA: From model system to tool in biological analysis
DNA coils undergo  striking conformational transitions when it is confined to volumes with dimensions smaller than one of the characteristic lengths of the molecule.  We are particularly interested in confinement to channels less than two persistence length wide, and hundreds of microns long.  In these channels, DNA extends to 50 % of its contour length and more, thus establishing a clear connection between location and the linear "genetic address" expressed in base pairs. We can fabricate nanochannel systems with arbitrary configurations in two dimensions using fused silica, and thus are...
Jun
25
2013
Development of novel magnetic tweezers technologies: Applications to biomaterials characterization
Characterization of the mechanical properties of cells, as well as the tissues and extracellular matrices (ECM) in which they reside, requires microscale manipulation platforms that allow precise measurement of their local rheology. To achieve this, my laboratory has developed a suite of NdFeB-based magnetic tweezers devices optimized for biomaterials characterization. In this talk, I will present the design and construction of three new microscope-mounted magnetic tweezers devices that allow controlled forces to be applied locally to networks, cells, and tissues while their deformation is...
May
24
2013
Adhesion at Heterogeneous Surfaces: From Fundamental Colloidal Interactions Manipulation of Proteins and Cells
Textbooks on colloidal phenomena teach us to describe the electrostatic and dispersion interactions at interfaces using single parameters (Hamaker constants, surface potentials or charge densities), an approach which treats surface as uniform. Real surfaces, be they mineral, polymeric, or biological, present heterogeneous surface chemistry that complicates their interactions.  It is recognized that clustered rather than uniform presentation of attractive chemistries, for instance peptide sequences, enhances biological interactions.  Likewise, heterogeneity in charge and acid-base...
May
07
2013
On the relation between Graphene and non-Abelian Quantization
We will present a simple non-relativistic model to describe the low energy excitations of graphene. Our model is based on a deformation of the Heisen-berg algebra in such a way that the commutator of momenta is proportional to the pseudo-spin. We solve the Landau problem for the resulting Hamil-tonian, which reduces in the large mass limit, while keeping constant the Fermi velocity, to the usual linear one employed to describe these excitationsas massless Dirac fermions. Extending this model to negative mass we re-produce the leading mass term in the low energy expansion of...

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