Tunable Matter -- Many More is More Different

Datum

07.07.2025

Zeit

16:30 - 17:30

Sprecher

Prof. Andrea J. Liu

Zugehörigkeit

University of Pennsylvania

Serie

MPI-PKS Kolloquium

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Physik

Andere Themen

Physik

Beschreibung

In 1972 Phil Andersen articulated the motto of condensed matter physics as “More is different.” However, for most many-body systems the behavior of a trillion bodies is nearly the same as that of a thousand. Here I argue for a class of condensed matter, “tunable matter," in which many more is different. The ultimate example of tunable matter is the brain, whose cognitive capabilities increase as size increases from 302 neurons (C. Elegans) to a million neurons (honeybees) to 100 billion neurons (humans). I propose that tunable matter provides a unifying conceptual framework for understanding not only a wide range of systems that perform biological functions, but also physical systems capable of being trained to develop special collective behaviors without using a processor.

Letztmalig verändert: 03.07.2025, 07:37:43