252391 event 1383913801 1475892335 <![CDATA[Estimating Our Energy Predicament]]> The School of Physics welcomes University of California, San Diego Associate Professor Tom Murphy as a featured speaker for its Inquiring Minds Lecture Series. Murphy is a Georgia Tech graduate and the current associate director for UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Abstract:
Combining knowledge of physics with a healthy willingness to estimate and approximate, we can say some rather profound things about future paths available to our society in terms of energy and resources. Topics such as growth, global warming, fossil fuels and their potential replacements, and energy storage are ripe targets for back-of-the-envelope quantification, and will be explored in this talk. A subtext is that we should not take for granted that superior substitutes will replace fossil fuels.

]]> Combining knowledge of physics with a healthy willingness to estimate and approximate, we can say some rather profound things about future paths available to our society in terms of energy and resources. Topics such as growth, global warming, fossil fuels and their potential replacements, and energy storage are ripe targets for back-of-the-envelope quantification, and will be explored in this talk. A subtext is that we should not take for granted that superior substitutes will replace fossil fuels.

]]> Phil First
School of Physics

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