When you shine light on molecules, they resonate at certain special frequencies, just as a tuning fork resonates with sound waves. Calculating these resonant frequencies seems like a daunting task, usually requiring the full machinery of quantum mechanics, but in this class we'll explore a simpler way. By thinking about the shape of a molecule, we can understand its resonances using pictures, visual intuition, and a minimum of math. Come see how chemists use symmetry to study the hidden music of molecular vibrations.

Quantum field theory is the most successful scientific theory known to humanity -- and also the hardest to understand. But it becomes much more manageable in the two-dimensional world familiar from the $$(x,y)$$ plane of geometry. This is the stage on which string theory and other so-called "conformal field theories" unfold, but here we'll discuss the essence of these theories using only intuition, conceptual arguments, and pictures. Come listen to two theoretical physics PhD students geek out about what makes physics in two dimensions so beautiful and so powerful.