Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell of the Open University UK, the AIP Women in Physics Lecturer for 1999, will give two lectures in the Physics department during her visit to Tasmania in May 1999.
The lectures are open to all, although they have been designed for Physics staff and students in Hobart.

Cygnus X-3, a turbo-charged swan?

Seminar: Monday, May 10, 1999, 3.10 p.m. - Physics Lecture Theatre 2

Abstract:
Cygnus X-3 is an x-ray emitting binary star system near the edge of our galaxy. It shows bizarely unique behaviour in all wavebands, and appears to expand and contract at speeds greater than the speed of light. It is one of the few sources to have been observed at 1015 eV, is a copious IR and x-ray source, and can flare a thousand-fold in the radio, Recent IR and sub-mm observations which throw some light on this obscure object will be described.

In pursuit of pulsars

A Physics1 lecture: Physics Lecture Theatre 2 - Wednesday, 12 May, 12 noon.

Abstract:
The discovery of pulsars, or neutron stars, in 1967 took the astronomical community by surprise, so bizarre are these objects. Some 30 years later we know of about a thousand of them, but the surprises still roll in! The radio astronomical techniques will be discussed, the detection of pulsars described and the conundrum of the big-but-yet-small source set out. Signals from intelligent life elsewhere are considered and set aside in favour of a totally new kind of star. What do we know about them now and what have they taught us about the extremes of physics? These objects have stretched our understanding of the behaviour of matter at high densities, high speeds and high fields. They serve as extremely precise clocks against which to check our own clocks, and with which to carry out high precision experiments. Created in cataclysmic explosions, pulsars are a (stellar) form of life after death. The birth, life and death of the typical pulsar are discussed, and how some dead pulsars are born again to yet another afterlife is explained. One of the biggest surprises about pulsar research is that surprises still occur - there is no sign yet of the field settling down to a staid middle-age. Some of the startling recent developments in the field will also be recalled.