Speaker: Leif Ristroph (CIMS, NYU)Title: The Feynman Sprinkler ProblemAbstract:New York University’s Courant Institute, Applied Math LabFlows with inertia are not reversible, a fact that has many surprising consequences and practical applications. I’ll discuss several curious cases and mainly focus on the infamous reverse sprinkler problem that attracted great scientists like Mach and Feynman. The problem has stubbornly resisted an answer for 140 years and left a literature full of contradictory observations, conflicting predictions, and passionate disagreements. I'll talk about what our precision experiments tell us and how math modeling and flow simulations are helping to make sense of the results. Our first findings were recently published (https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.044003) but there is much more to do.--*Note change in location.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Please join us in this book talk with Alice Rothchild ft. Judy Norsigian, co-founder and past executive director, Our Bodies Ourselves and Steven E. Ostrow, Research Affiliate and Lecturer (retired), History Faculty, M.I.T.“Inspired and Outraged: The Making of a Feminist Physician” tells the story of Alice Rothchild's journey from 1950's good girl to irreverent, feisty, feminist obstetrician-gynecologist forging her own direction in the contradictory, sexist world of medicine. As a child who came of age in the turbulent 1960s, she was compelled to create a path in the often outrageous, male-dominated medical field, repeatedly finding herself to be a first: accepted into an ob-gyn residency, opening an all-woman practice, working with midwives, challenging the status quo, shaped by her early involvement with Our Bodies Ourselves. Rothchild's poems are steeped in the often-shocking history of medicine and the conflicted sexual politics of the second half of the twentieth century. More about Alice RothchildFood will be provided.This event is cosponsored by MIT History.

Speaker: Sameera Vemulapalli (Harvard University)Title: Brill--Noether theory of smooth plane curvesAbstract:Given a smooth curve C, it is natural to ask: what are all the degree $d$ maps from $C$ into a projective space $\mathbb{P}^r$? The study of this question is called Brill-Noether theory. Given a curve $C$, the data of a degree d map $C ightarrow \mathbb{P}^r$ is equivalent to the data of a degree $d$ line bundle on $C$ together with a choice of $r + 1$ global sections having no common zeros. As such, a central object of study is the Brill–Noether locus $W^r_d(C)$, which is defined to be the space of degree $d$ line bundles on $C$ with at least $r+1$ global sections.The famous Brill-Noether theorem gives a nice description of $W^r_d(C)$ when $C$ is a general curve of genus $g$. However, curves we come across in nature (such as curves in the plane) are not general, and may fail the Brill-Noether theorem! In this talk, I'll describe joint work with Hannah Larson, in which we describe the Brill-Noether theory of smooth plane curves (and more generally, curves on Hirzebruch surfaces), using tools from arithmetic statistics.

Speakers: Dan Mangoubi (Hebrew University)Title: Multiplicity bounds for eigenvalues of the clamped circular plate.Abstract: Consider a vibrating circular membrane with its (Dirichlet) Laplacian eigenvalues. Bourget's hypothesis, proved by Siegel in 1929, says that there are no eigenvalues of non-trivial multiplicities. On the other hand, it is an open question whether there are non-trivial multiplicities in the vibrating clamped circular plate problem. I will report on progress in this direction where it is shown that no eigenvalue of the clamped circular plate has multiplicity greater than four.Based on joint work with Daniel Rosenblatt.

Writing a journal article can be a daunting task, characterized by frustration instead of progress. This four-part workshop series will breakdown the task of writing an empirical journal article into manageable pieces so that you can move your project forward. Led by WCC lecturer Adrienne Tierney, Ed.D, we will discuss how to approach each section and how to use writing as a problem-solving tool in creating a meaningful paper that conveys your research clearly and effectively. We encourage you to attend all sessions of the series, but you are also welcome to sign up for separate sessions.Part 1. Getting Started: Creating a Plan and Drafting an IntroductionTuesday, February 11th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 2. Getting to the Data: Methods and ResultsTuesday, February 18th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 3. Interpreting Your Findings: DiscussionTuesday, February 25th, 4:00-5:30pmPart 4. From Paper to Publication: Revision and SubmissionTuesday, March 4th, 4:00-5:30pm