'Nanomaterials And The Environment'

“Nanomaterials and the Environment” will be presented on Monday, Jan. 23, 4 p.m., Gant Science Complex, P-38, UConn Storrs campus. Vicki Grassian, professor of chemistry, chemical and biochemical engineering, director of the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute, at University of Iowa, will talk about how natural and engineered nanomaterials play important roles in environmental processes. In this talk, some specific examples of the role of size-dependent properties and surface chemistry of both natural and engineered nanomaterials in environmental processes as related to both their applications and implications will be discussed. Refreshments will be prior to the talk at 3 p.m., at the Gant Complex, Physics Library, room P-103. More information available at: http://www.physics.uconn.edu.

Tachyon, Faster Than Light, Back In Time

A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that travels faster than the speed of light (and therefore, also, theorectically, travels back in time).

The existence of tachyons (Greek, tachys, for "swift) is allowed by equations of Einstein's special theory of relativity. However, although searches have been carried out for tachyons, the results have so far proved negative.

The existence of tachyons were first proposed by the physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, and the particles were named in the 1967 by Gerald Feinberg.

Particles that travel slower than light are called tardyons (or bradyons in more modern usage).

Particles, such as photons, that travel exactly at the speed of light are called luxons.