SPEAKER DETAILS
GERALD POLLACK, phd
Gerald Pollack received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He then joined the University of Washington faculty and is now professor of bioengineering. He is also founding editor-in-chief of the journal, "Water", convener of the annual conference On the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water, and executive director of the Institute for Venture Science. His latest book is CHARGED: The Unexpected Role of Electricity in the Workings of Nature.
Pollack has received many honors. Most recently, in 2015, he won the BrandLaureate Award, previously bestowed on notables such as Nelson Mandela, Hillary Clinton and Steve Jobs. In 2016 he was awarded the Emoto Inaugural Peace Prize, and more recently the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chappell Natural Philosophy Society. He appears briefly in the 2016 Travis Rice sports-action film, "The Fourth Phase", named after his recent book. And, he is included in the 2019 listing in OOOM Magazine as one of the “World’s 100 Most Inspiring People.” In 2020, he presented his work at the “Majlis” by invitation from the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi at his Royal Palace and, in 2023, at the United Nations.
PRESENTATION
THE FOURTH PHASE OF WATER: BEYOND SOLID, LIQUID AND VAPOR
FRI, OCT 17 AT 11:00 AM
School children learn that water has three phases: solid, liquid and vapor. But we
have recently uncovered a fourth phase. This phase occurs next to water-loving
(hydrophilic) surfaces. It is surprisingly extensive, projecting out from the surface
by up to millions of molecular layers. And its properties differ markedly from
those of bulk water. In this talk, Dr. Gerald Pollack will present evidence for the existence of this phase of water — how come nobody’s seen it before? He will also consider the broad implications of this phase for science, engineering and health. See his book. See complete talk description:
HOW DO BIRDS FLY?
SAT, OCT 18 AT 1:45 PM
Asked by children, “How do birds fly?” the parent will likely assert that “they flap their wings.” Yet eagles rarely flap their wings and manage to fly perfectly well. The same question addressed to a scientist or engineer will inevitably elicit a response invoking Bernoulli’s principle, based on the curvature of the wing’s top surface. But some modern airplanes lack very much top-surface curvature and fly perfectly well. And airplanes (and some birds) can fly upside down, yet rarely plummet.
These anomalies raise the question: what, really, is the mechanism of flight? In a recent Scientific American article, two of the world’s experts on the dynamics of flight admit that “we still don’t know.” How strange, after a century of flight. In this talk, Dr. Gerald Pollack will suggest a mechanism based on the force of electrical charges. The book describing this mechanism will be available soon: ebnerandersons.com