Colloquium

Many complex systems have a generative, or linguistic, aspect: life is written in the language of DNA; protein structure is written in a language of amino acids, and human endeavour is often written in text. Are there universal aspects of the relationship between sequence and structure? I am trying to answer this question using models of random languages. Recently I proposed a model of random context-free languages [1] and showed using simulations that the model has a transition from an unintelligent phase to an ordered phase.

There is a profound lack of diversity in science labs and classrooms, which has a negative impact on productivity. Scientific research demonstrates that diverse groups are more creative and better able to solve problems. Though the perception is that things are improving, NSERC’s recently released report shows that attrition rates in Canadian STEM fields are higher for women than for men at all career stages and that the percentage of women has not changed substantially in the last 15 years. Racialized and Indigenous people are also underrepresented at Canadian universities.

Global symmetries and gauge symmetries have played a crucial role in physics.  The idea of duality demonstrates that gauge symmetries can be emergent and might not be fundamental.  During the past decades it became clear that the circle of ideas about emergent gauge symmetries and duality is central in different branches of physics including Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Field Theory, and Quantum Gravity.   We will review these developments, which highlight the unity of physics.

Hypermassive neutron stars (HMNS) can be briefly formed after a binary neutron star merger and are likely to be highly deformed and strongly oscillating. These oscillations may be seen as modulation of the associated short gamma-ray burst and could provide observational evidence for the HMNS phase. I will discuss the prospects for their detection and the important physical information that can be gained by their observation.