Compton Lectures: Exploring the 'Chaos Revolution and Beyond'

What is "chaos" and why is it important in understanding the world around us? The physics of chaos and its exotic-sounding companions, "fractals" and "strange attractors," will be explored in this fall's Compton Lectures, beginning Saturday, Sept. 27. The 10-part series, which is intended for a general audience, will be presented on Saturdays through Dec. 6 at 11 a.m. in Kersten 115.

Physicist Shankar Venkataramani, Research Associate in the James Franck Institute and L.E. Dickson Instructor in Mathematics, will present the series, titled "The Chaos Revolution and Beyond: Physics in a Nonlinear World." He will explain what chaos is and how the study of chaos may help reveal order and simplicity underlying many irregularities found in nature -- changes in weather patterns and irregular heartbeats, for example. Chaos is at the forefront of research in many disciplines, including chemistry, physics, meteorology, biology, economics and mathematics.

The talks, which are free and open to the public, are the 46th series of Arthur Holly Compton Lectures, sponsored each fall and spring by the Enrico Fermi Institute. For more information, call 7027823.