Speaker: Nicholas Bellono, HarvardHost: Matt WilsonTitle: "Taste by touch in octopus"The Biology Colloquium is a weekly seminar held throughout the academic year — featuring distinguished speakers in many areas of the biological sciences from universities and institutions worldwide. More information on speakers, their affiliations, and titles of their talks will be added as available. Unless otherwise stated, the Colloquium will be held live in Stata 32-123 (Kirsch auditorium) Contact Margaret Cabral with questions.

Title: The Alchemy of VacuumAbstract:Over the past decade, the possibility of manipulating material and chemical properties by using hybrid light-matter states has stimulated considerable interest [1,2]. Such hybrid light-matter states can be generated by strongly coupling the electronic or the vibrational transitions of a material, to the spatially confined electromagnetic field of an optical resonator. Most importantly, this occurs even in the dark because the coupling involves the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations of the resonator, the vacuum field. After introducing the fundamental concepts, examples of modified properties of strongly coupled systems, such as chemical reactivity, charge and energy transport, and magnetism will be given to illustrate the broad potential of light-matter states.References (reviews):[1] F.J. Garcia Vidal, C. Ciuti, T.W. Ebbesen, Science 2021, 373, eabd336[2] K. Nagarajan, A. Thomas, T.W. Ebbesen, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 141, 16877.

Dennis Egger (University of Oxford)

Time: 4:00 PMLocation: Boston, MA

Dennis Egger Univ. of Oxford (joint w/ Development & Trade)

Join the AXIOM Ensemble for their first concert of the spring semester!March 18, 2025 4:30pm | W18 Thomas Tull Concert HallRepertoireNonet in F Major, Louis SpohrAdam Boyles, ConductorAxiom explores the nonet repertoire in its second semester. The “Grand” Nonet in F major of Louis Spohr, written in 1813, is a milestone of the nonet repertoire, and set the standard for instrumentation and scope for many such works to follow.An axiom is defined as an established rule or principle; a self-evident truth. It also stems from the word axios which means ‘worthy’. There are musical works which don’t quite fit in the context of a typical large-ensemble concert nor chamber music concert, but are most certainly worthy works of art. AXIOM, MIT’s newest ensemble, explores such musical works.This project is presented as part of Artfinity, an Institute-sponsored event celebrating creativity and community at MIT. Artfinity is organized by the Office of the Arts.