Oxford Physics Public Lectures

Delve into history with Dr Rob Johnson, Director of The Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford, as he explores a pivotal question.

A lecture by Prof Stephen Blundell, Professor of Physics – Condensed Matter - (Department of Physics and Mansfield College).

Explore the history of atomic bomb development with Dr. Georg Viehhauser, Particle Physics Research Lecturer at St John's College, Oxford.

Particle Physics Christmas Lecture, hosted by Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Head of Particle Physics and senior members of the department with guest speaker, Professor Francis Halzen. Professor Francis Halzen is Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Prof Halzen is a theoretician studying problems at the interface of particle physic...

Our Universe was created in 'The Big Bang' and has been expanding ever since. Professor Schmidt describes the vital statistics of the Universe, and tries to make sense of the Universe's past, present, and future.

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 3rd morning of Theoretical Physics covering the subject of Inner Space Meets Outer Space: Covering the Connections Between Cosmology and Particle Physics

Physics Colloquium 20th November 2015 delivered by Professor Tom Ray This year marks the centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. As is well known, physicists became convinced that Einstein was right after Eddington’s and Dyson’s famous expedition to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight. Recently the speaker has found the equipment that proved critical in testing Einstein...

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator program at CERN

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator program at CERN

Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 6th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the ways in which ideas from theoretical particle physics guide the high energy accelerator programme at CERN.

Inaugural Lecture by Professor Steven Balbus looking at the history of the universe A one sentence summary of much of the history of our Universe might be that it is the formation of ever more complex and compact structure from a diffuse background. The build-up of a compact core of material from more tenuous surroundings is known as accretion, and it is a process common to much of astrophysics, f...

The 9th Dennis Sciama Memorial Lecture, looking at chaos theory and climate change Lorenz is one of the pioneers of chaos theory. However, over 50 years before Lorenz, Poincaré discovered the sensitive dependence on initial conditions that characterises chaos. So what makes Lorenz’s contribution so important? I argue it is the discovery of the fractal invariant set in state space: the Lorenz attra...

Halley Lecture 2013 by Professor Dr Ewine van Dishoeck on new developments in astronomy One of the most exciting developments in astronomy is the discovery of planets around stars other than our Sun. Nearly 1000 exo-planets have now been detected. But how do these planets form, and why are they so different from our own solar system? Which ingredients are available to build them? How are their par...

The 8th Hintze Lecture by Professor David Charbonneau looking at investigating habitable exoplanets. The investigation of planets orbiting other stars has moved from the study of gas giants to the hunt for smaller planets that are predominantly rock and ice in composition. When such Planets are discovered in edge-on orbits, such that the planet and star undergo mutual eclipses, scientists granted...

Professor Wade Allison gives a talk about his book 'Radiation and Reason; The Impact of Science on a Culture of Fear'.

On the inextricable links between physics and philosophy and the ways in which one can lead to the other - how they complement each other in answering the big questions.

Dr Christopher Palmer on the historical ties between physics and philosophy - from ancient philosophical thought through to the scientific revolution and the pioneers of modern physics.

Prof. Frank Arntzenius on whether space and time are absolute entities or simply relational properties derived from the idea of motion - an old debate between Newton and Leibniz, carried on today.

Prof. Vlatko Vedral on the mind-boggling and paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics and its consequences on modern technology - the possibilities of superfast computing and teleportation. This interview was recorded via Skype, so is of a lower audio quality than the other podcasts in this series.

Dr. David Wallace on the many-worlds theory, an explanation of the baffling results that quantum mechanics provides us with - and that there may be more worlds than just our own.

Prof. Sir Roger Penrose on the idea of artificial intelligence and whether consciousness can be replicated by a computer - a discussion of new physics which may take us closer to explaining the mind.