[AANC Contacts] First Announcement for Newsletters: Talk on Antimatter in the Cosmos Mar. 10 at Foothill College

Public Lecture, Free and Open to Everyone
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Wednesday, Mar. 10, at 7 pm

Dr. Helen Quinn (of Stanford University) will give a free public
lecture on "The Many Mysteries of Antimatter"

part of the 11th Annual Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, in the
Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.

No background in science will be required for this talk. Seating is
first come, first served. Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and
driving directions.

Antimatter is just like matter with all its properties reversed. But
when antimatter meets a matching amount of matter, they destroy each
other, both turning suddenly into energy. Scientists think there may
have been equal amount of matter and antimatter in the early
universe, and yet today we have lots of matter and very little
antimatter. How and when that imbalance developed is one of the great
mysteries in understanding the underlying properties of the universe.

Dr. Quinn, who is co-author of the definitive popular book on
antimatter, will discuss the history of our understanding of
antimatter and how we use the little bit of antimatter around today
to study some of the highest energy processes among the stars and
galaxies. One particularly interesting possible source of antimatter
is the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, mysterious
material that is thought to make more of the universe than the
regular matter we know and love. Dr. Quinn will discuss ongoing
antimatter experiments that are helping to put limits on the nature
and behavior of dark matter.

Dr. Quinn is Professor of Physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center at Stanford and Assistant to SLAC's Director for Education and
Outreach. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences
and is a former President of the American Physical Society. Her book
The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter (2008, Princeton University
Press) is an engaging introduction to the world of particle physics.

The lectures are co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
* The SETI Institute

Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available in MP3 format at:
<http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html>http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html

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Andrew Fraknoi, Chair, Astronomy Program
Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd.,
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA

Telephone: (650) 949-7288
E-mail: fraknoiandrew@No-Spam
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