SAIP2016

Winter Schools

Winter Schools (Monday 4 July)

Timetable PDF

From the Smallest to the Largest Scales:  Our Evolving Universe

 

What do we know about the origins, history and evolution of our universe? What do we know about the interplay of cosmological evolution and particle physics, the phases of matter and the phase transitions in the early universe? How can we find out about their detailed properties combining observation and experiment with detailed theories? The biggest scientific efforts under way today, both the SKA in South Africa and Australia, and the LHC at CERN, probe different aspects of this topic: At the LHC we recreate matter last seen in nature during about a microsecond after the big bang and study its features. With the SKA we can measure the distribution of structure on the very largest scales - which in fact tells us about the earliest moments of the big bang - just 10^-36s after it happened in fact!

 

Both experimental and theoretical developments help us paint an ever richer and multi-faceted picture of our universe -- this winter school will attempt to present the main ideas and current research issues.

 

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The Biophysics of Cells and Macromolecules (timetable PDF) Living systems and the molecules that enable them to function are the ultimate sustainable resource of our planet and will be the basis of future technologies. Biophysicists work to define the structures, energetics, mechanics and other physical properties of living cells and the macromolecules from which they are made and in this way obtain insight into the way these complex assemblies work. The insights gained are leading to useful interventions: medical and agricultural products, sustainable energy, industrial enzymes and even cell-like assemblies having useful synthetic properties. The workshop will present a range of physical technologies and modelling approaches that can be applied to answer the fundamental questions of Life’s processes.