Science Under the Dome

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Do It For The Gram...The Kilogram - September 1 at 7pm

If you sat down and thought about it, what is a kilogram? As a matter of fact, what is any unit of measurement? What’s a meter, an inch? What’s a second? We use these measurements every day, and to most of us they just are unchanging, well-defined units of measurements. But what if they aren’t as unambiguous as we believe them to be? The international system of units, or the metric system, was developed in the early 20th century but got its start with the much older MKS or meter kilogram-second system developed in France, which was widely adopted in the world by 1875 with the Treaty of Metre. At the metre convention, the reference standard for all the kilograms and meters in the world was made. You see, before May 20, 2019 all kilograms in the world were based off of an actual physical object. And that was a problem, so scientists decided to fix the issue by redefining what a kilogram is.

Marium Fernanders is a PhD candidate in the Chemistry department at CU Boulder. A refrain often heard in the search for life on other planets is to search for water. Marium does laboratory studies simulating the Martian environment to study the interaction of water vapor on surfaces, in the hopes of determining if liquid water can form on the surface or sub-surface of Mars.

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Arches: The Ancient Bones of Modern Architecture - February 17 at 7pm

The arch is a simple piece of technology that revolutionized civilization in Spain. Arches are used in aqueducts, bridges, castles, cathedrals, mosques and synagogues, and form many ancient and modern buildings of Spain (and much of Europe). Different cultures, ideas and time periods influenced the arch throughout Spanish history, improving its aesthetic and structural qualities. But no influence on the arch was more revolutionary than that proposed and implemented by the architect Antoni Gaudí. By designing arches upside down, he used naturally shaped “catenary” arches in his designs, which are not only stronger, but arguably more beautiful. He demonstrated that even the most resolute and reliable technologies can be improved with a simple change of perspective. What are stagnant ideas in our society, culture, or sciences that could use a new point of view?

Corey Trujillo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and studies methods of cleaning petroleum-contaminated soil using concentrated solar power. Born and raised in rural Nevada, Trujillo grew up with a strong appreciation for the beauty of nature which deepened during a semester he spent exploring art and architecture in Spain. He strives to build bridges between technical and creative fields and enjoys gardening, cooking and building in his spare time. 

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Penrose Tilings, Quasicrystals, and Islamic Architecture - October 21 at 7pm

WATCH the recorded talk on our YouTube channel.

What do the floor of the Oxford mathematics department and Medieval Islamic architecture have in common? They both feature a particular kind of mathematical pattern called aperiodic tilings. In the 1960s and 1970s, mathematicians found different sets of shapes that could be put on a flat surface in such a way that the pattern never exactly repeats, so matter how many tiles you use. Roger Penrose created one of the most famous of these tilings, involving just two different shapes: a kite and a dart. Though Penrose is credited for this discovery, a version of this very same mathematical tiling appears in Medieval Islamic architecture dating to the 1400s. Additionally, in the same way that a set of cubes is the three-dimensional version of a tiling of squares, these aperiodic tilings provide the basis for the atomic structure of newly discovered set of materials called quasi-crystals. In this talk, we explore how this one mathematical idea appears in surprising and beautiful places.

Catherine Blume is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her B.A. in physics from Princeton University in 2018, where she studied Earth's magnetosphere. At CU, she studies the solar interior using fluid simulations. When she is not buried beneath equations, she enjoys crocheting cat sweaters, being outside with friends, and baking banana cupcakes with (what some would say is too much) chocolate frosting.