Wright Science Colloquium: Revelations about the Sun

A series of fascinating lectures about the Sun and a sound and light show are being organised by the Wright Science Colloquium, which takes place from 10 to 14 November.

You might think we know all there is to know about the Sun and its unchanging celestial ballet. But our star still holds plenty of intrigue for the scientists who continue to make fascinating discoveries about its nature, how it works, its influence on the climate and uses for its energy. This year’s Wright Science Colloquium, organised from 10 to 14 November by the Fondation H. Dudley Wright and the University of Geneva, is devoted to the Sun, and comprises four lectures, two on physics, one on climate change and a fourth on an astonishing process of artificial photosynthesis.

In the first lecture on Monday, 10 November, André Brahic, one of the world’s foremost experts on the solar system, who discovered the rings of Neptune, will talk about the formation of planetary systems. The following day, renowned particle physicist Arthur McDonald will talk about the Sun, underlining how the two disciplines of astrophysics and particle physics are now converging.  He will give a lecture on the solar neutrinos studied by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), of which he is the Director. These ephemeral neutrinos, created in the Sun's nuclear reactions, are messengers from our star. The SNO detector is particularly famous, among its other successes, for having demonstrated the oscillation of solar neutrinos in 2001 (http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28474).

The Wright Science Colloquium is also organising two other popular science lectures, a sound and light show in the Parc des Bastions every evening from 6 to 23 November, and a discovery day for young people.

16^th Wright Science Colloquium

10 to 14 November 2014

Uni Dufour, Geneva, lecture every day at 6.30 p.m. Free admission.

The lecture by André Brahic will be in French with simultaneous interpreting into English. The other lectures will be in English, with simultaneous interpreting into French.

For more information:

http://www.colloque.ch/