Physics Special Colloquium, December 11, 2006

How Advances in Science are Made

Douglas D. Osheroff

Stanford University

It is seldom the case that one can anticipate where great breakthroughs in science will occur, and even harder to anticipate where these breakthroughs will find applications to benefit mankind. In this talk the speaker will trace the development of NMR as an example of a development for which the applications were not at all obvious. He will then address the question of how discoveries in science occur, and will present a set of research strategies that can substantially decrease the chances that one will miss making a discovery. Finally, he will use his own discovery of superfluidity in liquid ³He to show how most discoveries depend largely on prior contributions to science made by others.

1:30 p.m., Robert Smith Seminar Room, 1080 PRB