January 31-February 4, 2005 THE BOSTON AREA PHYSICS CALENDAR The Boston Area Physics Calendar is published weekly during the academic year by the Department of Physics at Boston University. You may send your announcement by e-mail (bapc-events@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu ) or FAX (617-353-9393). We cannot accept announcements by telephone. Entries should reach us no later than 12:00 p.m. the Tuesday of the week proceeding the week of the event. ENTRIES RECEIVED AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2005 Monday, January 31, 2:00PM Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear and Particle Theory Seminar Center for Theoretical Physics, Building 6, Third Floor seminar room ``High precision QCD at hadron colliders: new techniques and results for perturbative calculations" Frank Petriello Johns Hopkins University Refreshments will be served Monday, January 31, 2005, 4:15 p.m. Harvard University Woodward Lecture Series in the Chemical Sciences/Organic Chemistry Seminar Pfizer Lecture Auditorium, Mallinckrodt Building, Lower Level, 12 Oxford St. "Using Chemistry to Understand the Nicotine Receptor." Dennis Dougherty California Institute of Technology TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2005 Tuesday, February 1, 2005, 4:00pm Brandeis University Martin Weiner Lecture Series, Physics Colloquium Physics Building, Abelson 131 "Angular Trapping of Nano-Particles: Rotating and Applying Torque to Biological Molecules with Optical Tweezers" Dr. Arthur La Porta Stanford University Refreshments in Room 333 at 3:30pm Tuesday, February 1, 2005, 3:30 PM Boston University 2004-2005 Colloquia Dean S. Edmonds Lecture Metcalf Science Center: Room SCI-107 "m=E/c2: The Origin of Mass" Frank Wilzeck (2004 Nobel Laureate) MIT Refreshments served at 3:15 PM in the SCI 1st floor Lounge Tuesday, Feb 1st, 2005 @4:15p.m. Harvard University Phenomenology Seminar Jefferson 453 "Tripletless Unification in the Conformal Window" Ryuichiro Kitano (IAS) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2005 Wednesday February 2, 2:00PM Massachusetts Institute of Technology String/Gravity Theory Seminar Center for Theoretical Physics, Building 6, Third Floor seminar room ``Chameleon Scalar Fields: Detecting Dark Energy with Tests of Gravity" Justin Khoury MIT-CTP Refreshments will be served Wednesday, Feb 2nd, 2005 @4:30p.m. Harvard University Joint Theory Seminar Jefferson 453 "Lattice QCD with the overlap Dirac operator" Claudio Rebbi (Boston U.) (Refreshments from 4pm) Wednesday February 2, 2:00PM Massachusetts Institute of Technology String/Gravity Theory Seminar Center for Theoretical Physics, Building 6, Third Floor seminar room ``Chameleon Scalar Fields: Detecting Dark Energy with Tests of Gravity" Justin Khoury MIT-CTP Refreshments will be served THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2005 Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005, 12:30 pm Tufts University Lunchtime Cosmology Seminar Robinson 250 "Massless Scalar Fields and Infrared Divergences in the Inflationary Brane World" Oriol Pujolas University of Kyoto Thursday, February 3, 2005, 4:15 p.m. Harvard University Duality Seminar Jefferson 453 "Primordial perturbations: open questions and prospects for future experiments" Matias Zaldarriaga Harvard University Refreshments served in the High Energy Theory coffee area, 4th floor Jefferson, at 3:45 12pm, Thursday, Feb. 3rd Harvard University Condensed Matter Theory Seminar Department of Physics Lyman 425 "Topological aspects in physics of multicomponent superconductivity" Dr. Egor Babaev Cornell University Thursday, February 3, 2005, 2:30pm Brandeis University Martin Weiner Lecture Series, Physics Colloquium Physics Building, Abelson 131 "Nonlinear optics in vivo: using light to study and perturb blood flow in the living brain" Dr. Chris B. Schaffer University of California-San Diego Refreshments in Room 333 after the talk Thursday, February 3, 2005, 4:00 pm Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Phillips Auditorium 60 Garden Street, Cambridge "White Dwarfs from the SDSS as Tracers of the Ages amd Evolution of Populations in the Galaxy" James Liebert University of Arizona Tea and cookies at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, February 3, 2005, 4:15pm Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics Colloquium Series at MIT Room 10-250 "Boost-Phase Intercept and the National Missile Defense" Daniel Kleppner Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thursday, February 3, 2005, 4:15 p.m. Harvard University Duality Seminar Jfferson 453 "Primordial perturbations: open questions and prospects for future experiments" Matias Zaldarriaga Harvard University Refreshments served in the High Energy Theory coffee area, 4th floor Jefferson, at 3:45 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2005 12pm, Friday, Feb. 4th Harvard University Special Condensed Matter Theory Seminar Department of Physics Lyman 425 "Quantum Hall tunnel junctions: Amphitheaters for Luttinger liquid physics and quantum coherence effect" Eun-Ah Kim Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Friday, Feb. 4, 2005, 3 PM Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Building NW17-218 "Remnant magnetic fluctuations and transport in the dynamo-free RFP" John Sarff University of Wisconsin