"Chemical Fizzics: The World of Bubbles, Beer and Champagne" is the topic of the 37th George Gamow Memorial Lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Monday, March 18, by Richard Zare of Stanford University.
"It is likely that this lecture will make you never look at a carbonated beverage again in quite the same way," Zare said. "The lecture is loaded with many demonstrations of bubbles in action. Only the brave and the foolhardy should sit in the front row!"
The 8 p.m. talk in Macky Auditorium is free and open to the public. The George Gamow Lecture is a prominent lecture series that brings renowned scientists to campus to address a general audience of non-scientists.
Zare is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science at Stanford and is a winner of the nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science. He was a member of the CU-Boulder faculty from 1966 to 1969 and is renowned for his research in the area of laser chemistry.
The lecture will examine some of the common mysteries surrounding bubbles such as:
o Why bubbles are spherical in shape
o Why you can easily make bubbles with soapy water but not with pure water
o Why a bottle of carbonated beverage that has been agitated before opening seems to explode while one that has been still is well behaved
o Why the foaming of a carbonated beverage poured over ice is strongest at first and less strong after subsequent pouring
o Why you get more lather in hot water than in cold water
"Bubbles have a timeless appeal," Zare said. "They fascinate the young and the old alike. Some think that bubbles are only child's play whereas others feel that bubbles conjure up visions of fantasy. Still others believe that bubbles capture the ephemeral nature of life."
Zare's experimental and theoretical studies have made seminal contributions to the knowledge of molecular collision processes. His development of laser-induced fluorescence as a method for studying reaction dynamics has been widely adopted in other laboratories.
Zare earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He was an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to CU-Boulder in 1966, where he taught in the department of chemistry and the department of physics and astrophysics and was instrumental in establishing a doctoral program in chemical physics.
In 1969 he was appointed to a full professorship in the chemistry department at Columbia University, becoming the Higgins Professor of Natural Science in 1975. In 1977 he moved to Stanford University.
Zare has received numerous honors and awards including the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award, California Scientist of the Year, the Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday Medal and the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science.
His teaching awards include Stanford University's Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Allan V. Cox Medal for Faculty Excellence Fostering Undergraduate Research and the Bing Fellowship Award for "excellence in teaching and commitment to undergraduate education."
He has authored and co-authored more than 650 publications and patents, and has published four books.
The George Gamow lecture series has featured public talks by internationally famous scientists since 1971. The series honors the late CU-Boulder physics professor who was pivotal in the origination of the big-bang theory of the creation of the universe. Gamow also was known for his many books popularizing science for non-scientific audiences.
For more information call (303) 492-6952. No reservations are required to attend.