Seminar Thoughts

At seminar today, Christos Flytzanis from the Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain and Ecole Normale Supèrieure presented on “Photonics in Nanoscale Structures: The Impact of Electron and Photon Confinement". It was all quantum dot and quantum fiber stuff, very neat stuff! I already knew a bit about the quantum dots, but hadn't heard of the quantum fibers before. These very neat guys has a ton of applications in a variety of fields including chemistry, biology and electronics if we just get them to work. That is always the trick, actually getting them to work. I had heard the morst possitive things about them for computing, but the presenter today had serious doubts about the immediate feasibility of this. Apparently when the photon is absorbed and then released there is an effect on any unpaired electrons. This electronic spin change then causes a magnetic change. The relaxation time though is fairly long, combined with the fact that you are temporarily spitting out an electron (but then reaccepting it) makes me wonder the plausibility of the electronic uses away.

On a slightly related not, I have to wonder how old you need to get before you can just put just about anything you want in your presentation. Have you ever noticed that really old professors can get away with just about anything? I am not sure if age provides a relaxed wisdom, if you just don't care or if you are expected to be eccentric. If I was presenting I guess I would be too uptight to put jokes etc in. Well in any case Professor Flytzanis ended his with the following on his last slide:

Monday, Nov. 29
Murphy's Guide to Modern Science

If it is green or wriggling, it's biology.
If it stinks, it's chemistry.
If it doesn't work, it's physics.
If it doesn't exist, it's mathematics