The introduction of a thin conducting shell into vacuum changes the electromagnetic mode structure.  This modifies the zero point energy of space, so that there is an energy associated with the shape and size of the object.   The value of this Casimir self-energy has hitherto been known only for the sphere and the infinite cylinder. However,  Balian and Duplantier have given a route to its calculation for an arbitrary shape.   I will explain their method and my implementation of it, and give some examples: ellipsoid, doughnut, pancake, cucumber, and cube with rounded edges.

Thanks to the movie Milk, we all associate Anita Bryant's late-1970s antigay work in Dade County, Florida, with the concomitant campaigns in California. But Middle America has lots to teach us about Bryant and the bourgeoning conservatism she symbolized. At a time in which Christian businesses and Cold War apocalypticism were sweeping through Bryant's home state of Oklahoma, she emerged as a moral entrepreneur who embodied the wholesomeness of white femininity that connoted the American heartland and exemplified the national ideal of womanhood. It was this unspoken norm of whiteness that undergirded fighting for "our" children. It was this projected purity that a newly nationalized gay activism sought to sully, most famously with a banana cream pie thrown in Bryant's face. Theories of the abject, histories of colonialist agribusiness, and homespun humor merge in this heretofore-untold story of Bryant's rise and fall in Middle America.

Sponsored by Department of Biology Ribble Endowment

*Refreshments served at 3:45

Dr. Jonathan Wendel, Ph.D.

Iowa State Marine Biological Lab