Faculty of Physics University of Warsaw > Events > Seminars > J.Pniewski & L.Infeld Colloquium

J.Pniewski & L.Infeld Colloquium

2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | 2024/2025

Information about earlier events available here:

room 0.06, Pasteura 5 at 11:00

dr Paweł Boguszewski (Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

Consciousness as a natural phenomenon

For millennia, humans have grappled with questions we might call fundamental: What makes us human? What is reality? What is consciousness? Of these, the last question continues to elude our cognitive grasp. Despite centuries of contemplation by philosophers, theologians, and scientists, we remain incapable not only of explaining the nature of consciousness but even of reaching a consensus on its definition. Modern neuroscience has identified as one of its foremost goals the investigation of how a biological entity, shaped by billions of years of natural evolution, generates consciousness. This emerging field, rooted in biology and firmly anchored in scientific methodology, holds promise for addressing this profound question—or at least for refining the definitions and formulating more precise inquiries. The neuroscientific approach combines theoretical hypothesis testing with meticulous experimental methods, directly studying the brains of humans and animals using state-of-the-art technologies. Along the way, it confronts a host of other significant questions: the uniqueness of the species Homo sapiens, the existence of consciousness or proto-consciousness in animals, and even the possibility of its creation in computational systems. By following this path, we may inch closer to answering humanity's most enduring question: who we truly are.br>

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Obejrzyj nagranie / Watch the video

room 0.06, Pasteura 5 at 11:00

prof. dr hab. Tomasz Bulik (Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw)

On the origin of merging black hole binaries

Gravitational observations of the first three observing runs of Ligo and Virgo have brought a catalogue of nearly one hundred mergers. I will review what can we observe about each merger and discuss the statistics of the observed population. I will then describe the models of the formation of merging compact objects and confront the models with observations.br>

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Pobierz slajdy / Download the slides
Obejrzyj nagranie / Watch the video

room 0.06, Pasteura 5 at 11:00

dr hab. Ernest Grodner (National Centre for Nuclear Research)

Nuclear chirality: from curiosity to mainstream research

Two decades ago the existence of the nuclear chirality phenomenon was experimentally confirmed for the first time thanks to the cooperation of two Warsaw University units, i.e. the Faculty of Physics and the Heavy Ion Laboratory. Among various types of chirality in science, the nuclear one deals with low energy collective nuclear excitations. Initially, the nuclear chirality research covered only a few strictly characteristic isotopes and was considered an interesting curiosity with a significant degree of risk. The next two decades were characterized by a rapid development of nuclear chirality study, both theoretical and experimental. Numerous chiral-characteristic signatures and phenomena have been predicted and observed. Not only has the range of isotopes (over 60 today) recognized as chiral expanded from odd-odd through odd-even up to even-even nuclei but also the number of chiral structures in excitation level schemes in single nuclei has been multiplied. Today, in some isotopes a set of chiral excited states is comparable to the set of other excited states in the same energy range. The chirality effect from a niche topic grew up to the mainstream of nuclear spectroscopy. National Centre for Nuclear Research in cooperation with Heavy Ion Laboratory remains at the forefront of chirality research actively setting the direction of further study.

Pobierz plakat / Download the poster

Pobierz slajdy / Download the slides
Obejrzyj nagranie / Watch the video