Events

Sami Mitra, PhD -- Editor, Physical Review Letters (APS)
Physics after the lab & the desk: Your work in PRL
In a talk structured to encourage interspersed Q and A, I will discuss the dissemination of your physics results that follows the lab, the keyboard, and the desk.

Rafael C. Bernardi, Visiting Research Scientist, The Beckman Institute; the Univ. of IL - Urbana/Champaign

Combining in vitro and in silico Single-molecule Force Spectroscopy to Characterize Protein Mechanics

Steered Molecular Dynamics (SMD) simulations have been used to depict the underlying molecular details of protein mechanics. At the molecular level, these behaviors are governed by mechanically active proteins.

Thomas T. Perkins, JILA

Watching Individual Proteins Unfold and Refold Using 1-µs Resolution Force Spectroscopy

Protein folding occurs as a set of transitions between structural states within an energy landscape. An oversimplified view of the folding process emerges when transiently populated states are undetected because of limited instrumental resolution. To achieve state-of-the-art performance, we integrated several recent technical advances that improve the precision, stability, and accuracy of AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy.

There is no physics colloquium scheduled for this week due to Thanksgiving.

Peter W. Milonni, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Lab and Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Univ. of Rochester

Zero-Point Energy: Still Interesting (and Mysterious) After All These Years

Following a brief review of how zero-point energy first appeared in quantum theory, and how the concept has come to be accepted over the years, I will describe some of the evidence for the physical reality of zero-point energy and zero-point fluctuations, especially in the context of quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics. I will also address some questions surrounding the existence of zero-point energy.