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September 12, 2011
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Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
MECHANICS AT THE NANO SCALE
More information Time 10:30 - 12:00Location Neve ShalomLecturer RON LIFSHITZ
RAYMOND AND BEVERLY SACKLER SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY TEL AVIV UNIVERSITYOrganizer Department of Particle Physics and AstrophysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Vigorous research in nanoscience and nanotechnology is expec...» Vigorous research in nanoscience and nanotechnology is expected to lead to exciting new applications, but considering that the first person to envision science at the nano scale was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the last century, one should wonder whether we can expect to see any new physics emerging from this activity as well. I will attempt to answer this question by reviewing some exciting developments in the field of nanomechanics, emphasizing my particular interests, ranging from classical nonlinear dynamics, through mesoscopic physics of phonons, to the ultimate limit of QEM (quantum electromechanics). -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
Asymmetric Grow-Up Equations and their Non-Compact Global Attractors
More information Time 11:00 - 11:00Location Jacob Ziskind BuildingLecturer Nitsan Ben Gal
Organizer Faculty of Mathematics and Computer ScienceContact -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
"Selenocysteine as a tool to study protein chemistry"
More information Time 11:00 - 11:00Title Organic Chemistry - Departmental SeminarLocation Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman BuildingLecturer Dr. Norman Metanis
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, SwitzerlandOrganizer Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials ScienceContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Abstract. Selenocysteine is the 21st encoded amino acid, ...» Abstract.
Selenocysteine is the 21st encoded amino acid, found in several selenoproteins, most of which are redox selenoenzymes. Its resemblance to cysteine enabled its use for protein chemical synthesis and mechanistic studies. As they belong to the same group of elements in the periodic table, sulfur and selenium share many features including similar size, electronegativity and major oxidation states. However they differ in other properties, for example, selenium compounds are easier to oxidize and show greater electrophilic character. The selenium atom is also more polarizable than sulfur, so selenols are softer nucleophiles than thiols. Because selenols are substantially more acidic (ΔpKa ~3), selenocysteine is ionized at physiological pH, further enhancing its reactivity relative to cysteine. These properties make selenocysteine a valuable building block for constructing peptides and proteins with novel properties and as a tool for protein synthesis and folding studies. For example, native chemical ligation at selenocysteine followed by selective deselenization will enable chemical synthesis of proteins without protecting groups on cysteine residues. Additionally, targeted insertion of a non-native diselenide cross-link into a cysteine-rich protein can be exploited to direct the early stages of oxidative folding so as to avoid accumulation of unproductive intermediates that limit folding efficiency. This novel strategy could facilitate the production of many difficult-to-fold peptides and proteins. Results from
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Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Colloquia
What are Majoranas and where to find them at the Weiz-mann Institute
More information Time 11:15 - 12:30Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical SciencesLecturer Prof. Yuval Oreg
Weizmann Institute of ScienceOrganizer Faculty of PhysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Topological quantum computation provides an elegant way arou...» Topological quantum computation provides an elegant way around decoherence, as one encodes quantum information in a nonlocal fashion that the environment finds difficult to corrupt. Zero energy Majorana Fermion states (Majorans for
short) emerges as a key concept for a realization of nonlocal encoding. In this talk we will discuss what are Majoranas? What makes them nonlocal? and how one may create and manipulate them. We will discuss recipes for driving semiconduct-ing wires into a topological phase supporting Majoranas at the wires ends, and re-cent experimental observations at the Weizmann institute. Theoretically, in this setting Majoarans can be transported, created, and fused by applying locally tuna-ble gates to the wire. More importantly, we will show that networks of such wires allow braiding of Majoranas exhibiting non-Abelian statistics. -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
"How biomass is born: understanding cellulose synthesis for second generation Biofuels"
More information Time 11:15 - 11:15Location Ullmann Building of Life SciencesLecturer Dr. Nadav Sorek
Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USAOrganizer Department of Plant and Environmental SciencesContact -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
TBA
More information Time 12:00 - 13:30Location Neve ShalomLecturer MATAN FIELD
WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCEOrganizer Department of Particle Physics and AstrophysicsContact -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
New solutions to the "solved" problem of how sodium channels control cortical neuronal excitability
More information Time 12:30 - 12:30Location Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallLecturer Prof. Mike Gutnick
Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University of JerusalemOrganizer Department of Brain SciencesContact Abstract Show full text abstract about 60 years ago, Hodgkin and Huxley published their seminal pap...» 60 years ago, Hodgkin and Huxley published their seminal papers which described the kinetics of voltage-gated ionic currents in the squid giant axon and used these measurements to produce the fundamental model of action potential generation. Their findings have become the basis for our understanding of neuronal excitability and information processing and are central to computational models of neuronal function. However, it turns out that the precise activation and inactivation characteristics of voltage-gated sodium channels in the CNS can vary widely, not only depending on the brain region, cell type and molecular subunit, but also as a function of the location of channels within the neuron and their relationship to the local membrane cytoskeleton. These differences in current properties can have a profound functional impact. I will discuss our data on transient and persistent sodium currents in the various compartments of the cortical pyramidal neuron, collected in brain slices using whole-cell current and on-cell single channel recordings and imaging of sodium-sensitive fluorescent dyes. -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Cultural Events
"How do you build an Orchestra?"
More information Time 17:30 - 17:30Title Raanana SinfonetteLocation Michael Sela AuditoriumContact -
Date:19TuesdayJune 2012Lecture
קפה מדע
More information Time 19:30 - 21:00Location Davidson Institute of Science EducationOrganizer Science for All UnitHomepage Contact -
Date:20WednesdayJune 2012Lecture
Kinetic Luminosity of Quasar Outflows and its Implications to AGN Feedback: HST/COS Observations
More information Time 11:15 - 11:15Location Edna and K.B. Weissman Building of Physical SciencesLecturer Nahum Arav, Virginia Tech Organizer Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for AstrophysicsContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Sub-relativistic outflows are seen as blueshifted absorption...» Sub-relativistic outflows are seen as blueshifted absorption
troughs in the spectra of roughly one third of all quasars. I will
describe a recent breakthrough, enabled by HST/COS observations, that
yield the mass flux and kinetic luminosity for the majority of
these outflows. The derived values suggest that quasar
absorption outflows have a profound effect on the host galaxy.
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Date:20WednesdayJune 2012Lecture
Polycomb and chromosome architecture in fly development
More information Time 11:30 - 11:30Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical ResearchLecturer Dr. Giacomo Cavalli
Institute of Human Genetics, CNRS, FranceOrganizer Department of Systems ImmunologyHomepage Contact -
Date:20WednesdayJune 2012Lecture
POPULAR LECTURES - IN HEBREW
More information Time 12:00 - 12:00Location Dolfi and Lola Ebner AuditoriumLecturer Prof. Atan Gross Contact -
Date:20WednesdayJune 2012Cultural Events
Music at Noon
More information Time 12:30 - 13:30Title "Pearls from the Opera"Location Michael Sela AuditoriumContact -
Date:21ThursdayJune 2012Lecture
Pension planning for retirement - Scientists
More information Time 09:00 - 13:00Location Herman Mayer Campus Guesthouse. Maison de FranceOrganizer Human Resources DivisionContact -
Date:21ThursdayJune 2012Lecture
Role of SHIP in Cancer, Mucosal Inflammation and Stem Cells
More information Time 11:00 - 11:00Location Wolfson Building for Biological ResearchLecturer Prof. William G. Kerr (PhD)
Upstate Medical University Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyOrganizer Department of Systems ImmunologyContact -
Date:21ThursdayJune 2012Lecture
Biological robustness and the role of microRNAs
More information Time 13:00 - 13:00Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical ResearchLecturer Dr. Richard Carthew
Northwestern University, Evanston, USAContact -
Date:21ThursdayJune 2012Lecture
Brain-to-brain coupling:a mechanism for creating and sharing a social world
More information Time 14:30 - 14:30Location Nella and Leon Benoziyo Building for Brain ResearchLecturer Prof. Uri Hasson
Dept of Psychology, Princeton UniversityOrganizer Department of Brain SciencesContact Abstract Show full text abstract about Cognition materializes in an interpersonal space. The emerge...» Cognition materializes in an interpersonal space. The emergence of complex behaviors requires the coordination of actions among individuals according to a shared set of rules. Despite the central role of other individuals in shaping our minds, experiments typically isolate human or animal subjects from their natural environment by placing them in a sealed quiet room where interactions occur solely with a computer screen. In everyday life, however, we spend most of our time interacting with other individuals. In the talk I will argue in favor of a shift from a single-brain to a multi-brain frame of reference. I will present a series of studies aimed at characterizing the brain-to-brain coupling during real life social interaction. The data suggest that in many cases the neural processes in one brain are coupled to the neural processes in another brain via the transmission of a signal through the environment. The brain-to-brain neural coupling exposes a shared neural substrate that exhibits temporally aligned response patterns across communicators. The recording of the neural responses from two brains opens a new window into the neural basis of interpersonal communication, and may be used to assess verbal and non-verbal forms of interaction in both human and other model systems.
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Date:21ThursdayJune 2012Lecture
Life Science Lecture
More information Time 15:00 - 16:30Title Plant Immunity StrategiesLocation Dolfi and Lola Ebner AuditoriumLecturer Prof. Robert Fluhr
Department of Plant Sciences Weizmann Institute of ScienceContact -
Date:24SundayJune 2012Lecture
Identifying a new player in the regulation of mTOR and autophagy
More information Time 13:00 - 13:00Location Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical ResearchLecturer Yaara Ber
Adi Kimchi's group, Dept. of Molecular Genetics, WISOrganizer Department of Molecular GeneticsContact -
Date:24SundayJune 2012Lecture
"Stochastic Time-Dependent Current-DFT: a functional theory of open quantum systems"
More information Time 14:00 - 14:00Location Perlman Chemical Sciences BuildingLecturer Prof. Massimiliano di Ventra
Department of Physics University of California, San DiegoOrganizer Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials ScienceContact Abstract Show full text abstract about ”Standard” density-functional methods ...»
”Standard” density-functional methods can only deal with Hamiltonian dynamics, and not with open quantum systems, namely systems dynamically coupled to baths/reservoirs. There is, however, a large class of physics problems where one needs to consider this interaction explicitly. These include energy relaxation and dephasing due to an environment, non-radiative decay, quantum measurement theory, etc. In order to address these issues, we have introduced a new theory we have named Stochastic TD-CDFT [1,2] and extended it to the correlated motion of electrons and ions [3,4]. I will describe this theory in detail, its range of applicability, and show some applications with and without ionic motion, in particular those related to energy transport in nanoscale systems [5,6].
[1] M. Di Ventra and R. D'Agosta, Stochastic Time-Dependent Current-Density-Functional Theory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 226403 (2007).
[2] R. D’Agosta and M. Di Ventra, Stochastic Time-Dependent Current-Density-Functional Theory: a functional theory of open quantum systems, 78, 165105 (2008).
[3] H. Appel and M. Di Ventra, Stochastic Quantum Molecular Dynamics, Phys. Rev. B 80, 212303 (2009).
[4] H. Appel and M. Di Ventra, Stochastic quantum molecular dynamics for finite and extended systems, Chem. Phys. 381, 27 (2011).
[5] Y. Dubi, M. Di Ventra, Thermoelectric effects in nanoscale junctions, Nano Lett. 9, 97 (2009).
[6] Y. Dubi and M. Di Ventra Energy flow and thermoelectricity in atomic and molecular junctions, Reviews of Modern Physics 83, 131 (2011).