Presidential Lecture: Patterns in Nature by Prof. Sidney Nagel

The commonplace is extraordinary! Examine closely the world around you and you’ll realize that many things that you take for granted are truly astonishing. Take, for example, a simple drop of liquid falling onto a surface: if the surface is cool and dry, the drop will likely splash; if the surface is hot, however, the drop simply hovers and never touches down. Consider another: when a liquid is compressed between two smooth surfaces, it forms an expected circular disk; but when the plates are separated, quite a different pattern emerges. This is a form of dilation symmetry caused by the penetration of space. It is all around and within us.

In this talk, I will emphasize the surprises and elegance of how nature arranges the texture of our lives.