Blog Archives

December 2, 2024 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Speakers

Dr. Peter Smith graduated in polymer chemist from Aberdeen University in Scotland a long time ago. He became a project and systems manager in the pharmaceutical industry before retirement. Along with this, he has been studying and teaching human evolution for many years. 

Philip W. Apruzzese (BE Chem. E., MS Technology Mgmt., CHMM) graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J. He was employed in the pharmaceutical industry (Squibb, Beecham, Schering-Plough) for nearly 40 years, holding manufacturing operations, project, research pilot plant startup, and environmental compliance management positions. From 2010 to 2019 he was employed part-time as a Chem Eng/Environmental, health and safety consultant in addition to working seasonally as a Level C Official for USA Cycling racing events.

Since relocating to the Seattle area he has begun volunteer work with several non-profit community cycling/Recycling resources and advocacy organizations. Additionally he volunteers online with the Summit Old Guard an organization for retired business and professional men.

In April, 2015, he spoke on Tour de France cycling performance enhancements – Post Lance/Post Drugs and in 2019 he presented on The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium ion batteries and in 2021 presented on The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.

Pricing

All: Free

About the Series

The Lyceum Society is a collegial venue promoting fellowship, education, and discussion among retired members of The New York Academy of Sciences. Learn more and explore other events hosted by the Lyceum Society.

November 4, 2024 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 PM to 2:30 PM

A Simpler and Useful Way to View AI

Bill Rosser

We reveal Artificial Intelligence Large Language Models as a fabulous development that enables quantum leaps in pattern recognition, but not beyond this. This is a breakthrough advance in computer technology, but it is not “thinking” or what we think of as human intelligence. Humans are extraordinarily skilled at pattern recognition, so we understand this very well. The colossal change here is the amount of raw data that AI can explore in order to sense and identify patterns. But it is humans that figure out what these patterns may mean or how to use them. When viewed in this way, we can sense where this capability can be usefully applied, and not be overcome with fears of some kind of uncontrolled power. 

Examples of pattern recognition: 

1. To examine vast amounts of existing data on, for example medical diagnoses, protein structures, etc. to reveal previously unseen patterns, which can then be analyzed for new insights and understanding – leading to new discoveries and approaches to apply.
2. To scan the unimaginable amounts of existing digitized text from the Internet, etc. and capturing relationships among words. This enables creation of meaningful patterns of text responses to user input prompts – based upon the calculated probability of word sequences. The meaning of the selected words is immaterial to the process. AI does not know what it is saying.

We also plan to discuss the potential impact of these capabilities on jobs in the workforce. Most useful are performing duties which are largely repetitive – such as customer service, or even personal education, etc.

In addition, we can discuss what are the dangers to society of this pattern recognition capability? Note: the patterns have no goals in themselves. Yet algorithms employing AI-based patterns are potentially dangerous. But clearly more advances will be coming soon.

Speaker

Bill Rosser retired ten years ago from Gartner, Inc., Stamford, CT, the worldwide top-ranked advisory firm providing guidance to corporations regarding their use of information technology. As a Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst, he spent 29 years writing, speaking and advising clients about effective use of IT.  He studied Basic Engineering at Princeton University, and after work in telecommunications in San Francisco, returned to the Harvard Business School and graduated with Distinction in 1962. In 1969 he formed his own start-up in data processing based on the new electronic cash registers, and after a merger, worked in strategic planning for Perkin-Elmer and Exxon Enterprises prior to Gartner. Today Bill is active as an architectural walking tour guide (Grand Central Terminal and the NoHo Historic District) and is a founding member of “Reform Elections Now” (with fellow Harvard Business School graduates) promoting vital improvements in the election processes such as Ranked Choice Voting.

Pricing

All: Free

About the Series

The Lyceum Society is a collegial venue promoting fellowship, education, and discussion among retired members of The New York Academy of Sciences. Learn more and explore other events hosted by the Lyceum Society.

June 3, 2024 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 am to 11:45 am 

Initial Presentation: 11:45 am to 12:45 pm 

Start of our Solar System: Earth Biased Illusions

Fred Cadieu

Everybody has some innate feelings about the start of Earth. Today we want to maybe expand those views and feelings by considering some basic physics points that have generally been neglected. One of these relates to the basic opposite rotation that the neighboring planet, Earth’s twin, Venus exhibits. Another relates to the mysterious fact that our Sun exhibits a maximum number of sunspots that peaks approximately every eleven years, sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little less, but on the average about every 11 years over the relatively short time of several hundred years for which sunspots have been counted. Two recent publications provide background, but I think the talk can be readily appreciated without prior research. (Readily searchable under WJCMP Cadieu 2002 and WJCMP Cadieu 2024.)

Main Presentation: 12:45 pm to 2:30 pm

The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter

Paul J. Steinhardt

(video of lecture by Paul J. Steinhardt, published on YouTube.com)

A crystal structure is characterized by periodicity and symmetries. That is, it has repeated units and remains the same when rotated or translated in particular ways. For example, table salt has a repeating cubic form and remains the same when rotated 90 degrees along three axes. Mineral structures can be observed microscopically and by x-ray diffraction patterns. In two dimensions, crystals are called tilings, and the same principles apply. For crystals or tiles to fill space, there are limitations on shapes. For instance, pentagons will not tile without gaps.

In 1974 Roger Penrose introduced an aperiodic tiling of two shapes using a “matching” rule, with local pentagonal symmetry. His method can be generalized to three dimensions as “quasicrystals,” so named because it was considered impossible for aperiodic crystals to occur naturally. A quasicrystal is ordered by a rule, but not periodic.

Dan Schechtman created metallic quasicrystals in 1982. Independently, Paul J. Steinhardt, now at Princeton University, hypothesized their natural existence and searched for them in collections of geological samples. A single instance led to a remarkable expedition to a remote region, where more natural examples were discovered. They turned out to be of primordial extraterrestrial origin.

Steinhardt’s 2019 book “The Second Kind of Impossible” narrates the entire project. This lecture, recorded at Harvard University c. 2000, outlines the science, the expedition, and the discovery.

Synthetic quasicrystals have been put to use, notably in superconducting graphene experiments, in non-stick cookware, and in LED lights. The theory of quasicrystals and aperiodic tilings is also an important area of mathematical research today.

Reference: Paul J. Steinhardt, The Second Kind Of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter

Speakers

Fred Cadieu is Emeritus Professor in the Physics Department of Queens College of the City University of New York. He received BS, MS, and a PhD from the University of Chicago. Research efforts have been to a certain extent concentrated in the areas of the synthesis of magnetic and permanent magnet films. Over the last two decades Professor Cadieu has taught astronomy with the application of physics—what is currently known as the fast-moving subject of astrophysics with modern tools such as the James Webb Space Telescope. One recent publication is titled “Just A Bit of Physics Can Tell So Much: A Unique Story of the Start of the Earth-Moon System” (World Journal of Condensed Matter Physics, Fred J. Cadieu, 2020). Other publications have hinged upon the application of very basic, but often overlooked, physics concepts such as the topic of today’s talk. Research Gate lists about 140 publications.

Paul J. Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, where he is also on the faculty of both the Department of Physics and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences.

Steinhardt received his B.S. in Physics in 1974 from Caltech, where he worked with Richard Feynman, Barry Barish and Frank Sciulli. He received his M.A. in Physics in 1975 and Ph.D. in Physics in 1978 from Harvard University….

Steinhardt’s research spans problems in particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology and condensed matter physics. He is one of the original architects of the inflationary model….In 2001, Steinhardt and collaborators proposed that the big bang might instead be a big bounce, and that the key events shaping the large-scale smoothness, flatness and density variations of the universe may have occurred before the bounce….

In condensed matter physics, Steinhardt and Dov Levine (Technion) first introduced the concept of quasicrystals in 1983, a new phase of solid matter with symmetries that are forbidden for periodic crystals (such as five-fold symmetry in two dimensions or icosahedral symmetry in three dimensions). Throughout the more than three decades following that theoretical breakthrough, Steinhardt has continued to make contributions to understanding quasicrystals’ unique mathematical and physical properties.

Steinhardt is a Fellow in the American Physical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He shared the P.A.M. Dirac Medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in 2002…, the Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society in 2010 for his contribution to the theory of quasicrystals; and the John Scott Award in 2012 for his work on quasicrystals…. In 2020, he was awarded the Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honor for his contributions to science and the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Professor Steinhardt is the author of over 200 refereed articles, 100 reviews, sixteen patents, three patents pending, three technical books, and numerous popular articles. His is the author of The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter , (2019), a popular account of the remarkable decades-long story of quasicrystals…. He is also co-author (with Neil Turok) of Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang (2007), a popular book on contemporary theories of cosmology.

Pricing

All: Free

About the Series

The Lyceum Society is a collegial venue promoting fellowship, education, and discussion among retired members of The New York Academy of Sciences. Learn more and explore other events hosted by the Lyceum Society.

May 6, 2024 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 am to 11:45 am

Initial Presentation: 11:45 am to 12:45 pm

Homo Naledi 

Ruth Milts

Excavated starting in 2013 in South Africa, the hominin now called Homo naledi may be over 330,000 years old. How were they related to other Homo species? What were they like physically? Their teeth may indicate their diet. The known remains may have been buried intentionally. Ms. Milts will review the discovery, what is known, and what remains unknown about this “new” human ancestor.

Main Presentation: 12:45 pm to 2:30 pm

Personal Identification: Its Modern Development and Security Implications 

David J. Haas

Personal Identification: Modern Development and Security Implications, Second Edition chronicles the path of personal identification measures, including the latest developments of Real ID, which, in addition to a passport, provides a “trusted & secure” identification card for every American citizen. Scholars and professional security managers understand that stability, security, and safety necessitate these identity measures to ensure a safer America after 9/11. The book explains the various stages and advances in the 200 years of personal identification development. It provides readers with a unique study of this fascinating history of the relationship between identity and how one validates and proves one’s own identity. The enactment of the REAL ID Act of 2005, requiring a trusted and tamper-resistant document for each citizen of the United States (their State-issued driver’s license or Identification Card), is being instituted so that one can trust that “you are who you say you are.” The state-issued Real ID driver’s license is not a national ID card but a nationally recognized ID for each citizen. 

Speakers

David Haas received his BA in Physics and PhD in Biophysics in protein crystallography and molecular biology at the State University of NY at Buffalo. For the next five years, he performed basic research in protein crystallography at several institutions in Europe, Israel, and the United States. In 1970, he joined Philips Electronic Instruments in Mt Vernon, NY, as Principal Scientist for X-ray systems, working on analytical instruments and designing some of the first airport security X-ray systems used worldwide during the 1970s.

Conceiving the idea of a self-expiring security ID (Visitor badge), David and his wife, Sandra, formed Temtec Inc., which developed and manufactured high-tech visitor and temporary IDs for more than 20 years under the brand name TEMPbadge. Temtec Inc. was sold to Brady Worldwide Corporation in 2002. David & Sandra Haas have more than 100 patents to their credit and many technical and scientific publications. 

Dr. Haas has published a book by ASIS International entitled: “Personal Identification – Its Modern Development and Security Implications.” It reviews the history and reasons for modern personal identification documents such as Passports, National Identity Cards, etc. Dr. Haas also published a monograph on the development of Electronic Security Screening for Aviation Passenger Screening between 1968 and 1973.

Ruth Milts graduated from Cornell University at age 19. She did graduate work in biology at Colombia University, where she received an M.S. She worked for 33 years at William H. Maxwell Vocational High School in Brooklyn, first as a biology teacher and then as a program chair, assistant principal (administration) and assistant principal (supervision). She earned an M.A. from Pace University in College Administration and Supervision. She has always been interested in paleo-anthropology and archaeology and has participated in archaeological digs in the Southwest and England. Among her many interests are attending opera and doing beadwork.

About the Series

The Lyceum Society is a collegial venue promoting fellowship, education, and discussion among retired members of The New York Academy of Sciences. Learn more and explore other events hosted by the Lyceum Society.