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SUMMARY:Isolation and Trapping using Optical Tweezers - Professor Philip J
 ones\, University College London
DTSTART:20230217T173000Z
DTEND:20230217T183000Z
UID:TALK172151@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:In 2018 Arthur Ashkin was awarded a half share of that year's 
 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the optical tweezers and their application to 
 biological systems". The work for which he was recognised had its origins 
 more than thirty years before\, and in the years since their invention\, t
 he uses of optical tweezers have grown far beyond biological systems\, wit
 h numerous diverse applications across the chemical and physical sciences 
 also. In this lecture we will look at the history of our understanding of 
 the force that light exerts on matter\, which has its origins in the obser
 vations of Johannes Kepler concerning the tails of comets. We will see how
  the concept of radiation pressure evolved from the work of James Clerk Ma
 xwell\, and trace its development to the experiments in which Arthur Ashki
 n first demonstrated the optical tweezers. Finally\, we will examine just 
 a few of the many uses of optical tweezers where their ``light touch'' and
  ability to trap a single microscopic particle and isolate it from its sur
 roundings have proved invaluable.\n\nPhilip Jones is a physicist whose res
 earch centres on optical trapping and its use as a tool for probing a vari
 ety of nanoscopic\, soft matter and biological materials.  He is currently
  Professor of Physics at University College London where he leads the Opti
 cal Tweezers Group.  Recently he has co-authored the first textbook on opt
 ical tweezers\, published by Cambridge University Press.\n
LOCATION:Lady Mitchell Hall\, Sidgwick Avenue
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