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Great Debate and Quantum Physics to be Explored by Leading French Scientist Visiting Canada’s Perimeter Institute

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02.10.2007

Many experts are convinced that large scale, practical implementations of quantum information systems hold great promise for society, much as the laser and the transistor have already revolutionized the world. This stems from a long history of research that included an intense, raging battle of epic proportions between scientific giants.

This debate will be examined by Alain Aspect of the Institute d’Optique and Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, during a Perimeter Institute Public Lecture to be held on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm in Waterloo, Ontario.

In tracing the history, Aspect will explain why Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr argued over the nature of “entangled” states – where pairs of sub-atomic particles are strangely correlated – from 1935 until their very deaths. He will also share how, decades later, John Bell discovered his famous inequalities that made it possible for experimentalists, including Alain Aspect and others, to settle the great debate and help propel a new era of fundamental understanding with concepts and methods that seek to harness unique properties of atoms to process and transmit information.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Prof. Alain Aspect is a leading figure with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France’s National Center for Scientific Research) where he is Senior Scientist at Institut d'Optique and Professor at Ecole Polytechnique. Both institutions are on the same campus at Palaiseau. Among his many awards and honours, Prof. Aspect is recipient of the 2005 CNRS Gold Medal, the highest academic recognition in France, as well as a member of the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Technologies.

ABOUT PERIMETER INSTITUTE:
Perimeter Institute is an independent, non-profit research centre where international scientists are clustering to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws by contemplating and calculating new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The Institute, located in Waterloo, Ontario, also provides a wide array of educational outreach activities for students, teachers and members of the general public across Canada and beyond in order to share the joys of research, discovery and innovation. For more information, please visit www.perimeterinstitute.ca.

CONTACT:

To inquire about seats for journalists or to coordinate an interview with
Dr. Aspect, contact Renée Ellis at rellis@perimeterinstitute.ca
or 519.569.7600 ext. 5051.

Renee Ellis | Source: alphagalileo
Further information:
www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Outreach/Public_Lectures/Public_Lectures/

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