Prof. Rob Phillips, California Institute of Technology, presents “Drunken Sailors, Coin Flips and How to Read Genomes” as part of the Winegard Lectureship in Physics.

The ability to read the DNA sequences of different organisms has transformed biology in much the same way that the telescope transformed astronomy.  And yet, much of the sequence found in these genomes is as enigmatic as the Rosetta Stone was to early Egyptologists. This talk will describe unexpected ways of using the physics of information transfer first developed at Bell Labs for thinking about telephone communications to look into genomes and to try and understand their meaning.

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Location: University Centre, Room 442