Friday, Nov. 2nd, Pablo Laguna, professor of astrophysics and director of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics at Georgia Tech, is featured speaker for Science Unwrapped. He speaks at 7 p.m. in the Emert Auditorium (Room 130) of the Eccles Science Learning Center. His talk is free and open to all ages.

Following Dr. Laguna's talk, Science Unwrapped attendees are invited to enjoy free refreshments and a variety of hands-on learning activities.

The brain, our favorite example of organic intelligence, is too hard (for me, at least) to study. Like all lazy physicists, I look for something more accessible. In fact, what I really want to know is not how the brain works but rather, what are the minimal ingredients a biological or artificial system must have in order to be able to perform sophisticated tasks? A good place to start looking for an answer is within the computational paradigm of “cellular networks.”

My talk will consist of three parts. In the first, I will describe evidence for sophisticated task performance in (other people’s) experiments done with the amazing “many-headed slime mold,” Physarum polycephalum.

As P. polycephalum can be viewed as a network of elementary processing units lacking a central controller, I will give an extraordinarily brief overview of network science in the second part of the talk—focusing especially on how artificial cellular networks can compute through the emergent (i.e., without the help of a CPU) collective dynamics of their constituent processing units.

Finally, I will describe the research my colleague, Keith Mott, and I are conducting at USU on an even simpler organismal structure than P. polycephalum: stomatal networks on the surfaces of plants. Our research suggests that emergent collective dynamics among stomata can produce sophisticated task performance similar to what is observed in artificial cellular networks. I will discuss a few implications of “computation” in plants, and leave you with a spooky (yet to be tested) hypothesis, drawn from contemporary network science, regarding “landscape intelligence.”

Thesis title:

"Reproductive Biology and Impacts of Energy Development on _Physaria_congesta_ and _P._obcordata_ (Brassicaceae), Two Rare and Threatened Plants in the Piceance Basin, Colorado"

This presentation will be recorded as well.


Refreshments will be served at the Logan campus at 10:15am.

Seminar title:

Invasive Pythons in South Florida: Status, Impacts, and Future Directions


Refreshments will be served at the Logan campus at 3:45pm

Due to inclement weather, the public viewing night has been CANCELLED. We will try again Dec. 7th.

All are invited to the USU Observatory Public Viewing Night. IMPORTANT: Please visit www.physics.usu.edu/observatory before arrival, as the viewing will be cancelled in the event of cloudy or inclement weather. The website also includes directions and parking information.

Judson Finley from the USU Anthropology-Archaeology Department will present "Obsidian and Ceramic Archaeometry in the Central Rocky Mountains." The public is invited.

Paul Campbell, president and CEO of Logan, Utah-based Campbell Scientific, Inc. presents "Applied Physics in Environmental Instrumentation." Refreshments follow Mr. Campbell's lecture.

For its annual R. Gaurth Hansen Lecture, USU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry welcomes Anna Marie Pyle of Yale University as featured speaker.

Join USU's Department of Physics for its annual Thanksgiving tradition: the November Demonstration Show. In a gathering for all ages, physicist James Coburn demonstrates the "phun" of physics.

We will be having Dr. David Harker, MD come teach us how to suture using PIG FEET! Dr. Harker is a General Surgeon at Logan Regional that obtained his medical degree from George Washington University and Residency from David Grant USAF Medical Center.

If you are interested, please e-mail or call to let us know as we need an exact count and ability to get you information. SO COME MONDAY NOVEMBER 26TH from 5-7 PM in ENGR 206!!!

Come to the Fall 2012 Undergraduate Research Symposium and see what the department undergraduates have been studying.


Refreshments will be served.