Gordon & Betty Moore Fdn. Lecture: The Physics of Light in Eighty Pictures

Classical optics is an ancient subject. We now have a library of ‘elementary forms’ that describe our everyday light. Rainbows, twinkling stars, sunlight sparkling on water,dancing lines of light on the bottoms of swimming-pools, can be understood in a unified way using modern geometry. Where wave interference must be considered,geometry describes the secret lines of light’s darkness, and the fingerprints of polarisation in the blue sky – invisible to us, perceived by bees. Poets, novelists, painters, have represented optical phenomena in ways familiar to physicists.

Professor Sir Michael Berry, University of Bristol, U.K. will visit UC Davis as Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, hosted by Warren Pickett on behalf of sixteen other faculty in four departments involved in research of joint interest. The visit is being supported by the Department, The College of L&S, APS and the Moore Foundation.

https://michaelberryphysics.wordpress.com/

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