Splash Biography

Energy -- making it, storing it, using it, and doing it all sustainably -- is one of the biggest challenges facing the world. Crystals are beautiful, intriguing, and claimed by many enthusiastic bloggers to have elusive properties for controlling and harnessing our inner energies. But in the world of real science, crystals are perhaps more exciting and powerful than any blogger imagined--including harnessing, storing, and controlling energy in the 21st century! We will talk about how the chemistry and physics of crystals leads to exciting properties and applications to solar cells for catching sunlight, batteries for storing energy, catalysts for clean fuels, and maybe even superconductors. In addition to materials already in use, we will explore future energy applications involving cutting edge nano- and quantum-materials. Along the way, we will learn about bonding, lattices, band structure, surfaces, and other fundamentals of material science underlying these critical applications.

Quantum mechanics underlies the chemistry everything is made of, but quantum mechanics is usually behind the scenes in all but the smallest, most isolated, coldest and shortest lived systems -- electrons, isolated atoms, supercooled, perfectly ordered crystals. Biology -- biomolecules, cells, and organisms-- is (relatively speaking) big, warm, soft, and immersed in messy liquids that would destroy any hope of front and center quantum mechanics. Or so one would think. But scientists have discovered evidence of quantum mechanics in amazing biological applications--with wave particle duality, interference, spin, and more on full display. We will focus on two examples: how plants turn sunlight into fuel in photosynthesis, and how certain birds use the electron’s spin to navigate with the Earth’s magnetic field. We will learn some basic features of quantum mechanics, see some fascinating quantum tricks evolution has discovered, and appreciate just how amazing these bits of quantum biology are, and perhaps what humans can learn from them. It seems even in quantum mechanics, life finds a way.

In our dreary and pandemic addled world, adventure and heroism feel like things we watch, read, or hear about, but seldom live out. We live not the lives of dashing fighters, devious sorcerers, and swashbuckling rogues but of usually mundane and hopefully safe humans, doing our best in a messy and minutia-filled world. But fear not--for we can come together and bring our most fantastical dreams to life through the game of Dungeons and Dragons, with the aid of some inspired imagination and the rolls of some many sided polyhedral dice. In this class, we will briefly discuss what Dungeons and Dragons is and how to play, sticking to the big ideas and leaving the details for another day. Then, giving each student a character, we will play a quick and likely Halloween themed adventure. (I’ll handle the game mechanics to let players stick to creativity and character). Perhaps as a raging barbarian with a side penchant for poetry, you will do the only thing you know how when confronted with the dying of the light. Or your frontier-hardened ranger’s kleptomaniacal streak will earn her some trouble with a coven of ever plotting witches. Or, as a warm and charming warlock, you’ll be content with your lot in life--though the powerful being you struck a deal with for your arcane powers may feel differently. And perhaps your adventures will teach you something about heroism, teamwork, and adventure along the way. There’s no limit to the tales you’ll forge in D&D, so come join us!