Do you need to take the GRE • GMAT • TOEFL* PPST/PRAXIS The University of Oregon Testing Office is an official ETS computer-based testing site. Testing is available year-round, Monday-Friday, 2 sessions a day. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 541.346.2772 or by visiting the Testing Office. The Testing Office is located on the 2nd floor (Rm. 238) of the University Health and Counseling Center, 1590 E. 13th Ave., Eugene OR. The period of greatest demand is usually Sept, through March, so it makes sense to plan ahead. For more information visit the Testing Office web site at http://www.uoregon.edu/~testing/ DiHH Now Leasing for next year! University Commons Apartments Furnished 1, % & 4 bedroom apartments with washer/dryer starting at $345 021579 • Uniformed security 7 days a week • Resident amenity cards • Security Alarm System • 2 and 4 Bedrooms w/ 2 bath • Full Size Washers & dryers • Fully furnished • Bathtubs with showers • Sand volleyball court • Heated pool • Caged basketball court • Private balconies and patios • Double entry locks/ private patios on all 4-bedroom apartments un i versiTY COMMONS apartments 338-4000 90 Commons Drive, Eugene, OR 97401 Hours: M-F 9am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 12pm-5pm IREfiflN DAILY EMERALD ^ Noted professor speaks for World Year of Physics Kip Thome will address Albert Einstein's legacy on the centennial of five famous physics papers BY EVA SYLWESTER NEWS REPORTER The University will celebrate World Year of Physics with a lecture by Kip Thome, the Feynman Professor of The oretical Physics at the California Insti tute of Technology, in 100 Willamette Hall on Thursday, March 24 at 7 p.m. Thorne said he plans to speak about Albert Einstein’s legacy in the modem world. The United Nations declared 2005 the World Year of Physics in hon or of the 100th anniversary of Ein stein’s “miraculous year.” In 1905, Einstein was an unknown 26-year-old patent clerk in Switzer land. By the end of the year, he had published five papers relating to three important problems in physics: special relativity, or a concept of how the uni verse would function without gravity; the photoelectric effect, the idea that light beams are more like particles than waves; and Brownian motion, the study of how molecules in a given vol ume of liquid move around. “He wrote these papers, and he sud denly became a widely known guy,” University mathematics professor Jim Isenberg explained. “Two of these pa pers became the basis of how we un derstand the universe works.” Ten years later, in 1915, Einstein developed the theory of general rela tivity, which integrated gravity into his previous theory of special relativi ty. This theory explains how time and space fit together and emphasizes that the shortest path between two objects — for example, a mountain climber and the top of a mountain — may be curved rather than linear. The theory became well known in 1919 after a publicized experiment demon strated that the path of light from stars to Earth bends in different ways based on the earth’s varying posi tions in relation to the sun. “You never prove a theory, ... but what you show is, at this time, this is the best way to understand it,” Isenberg said. STOREWIDE 20-70% OFF Ski Equipment Downhill • Cross Country Snowboards • Clothing On Now! FREE 50th Birthday Refreshments! Berg’/ /hi /hop I3th & Lawrence • 683-1300 • www.ber9ssk1shop.com Isenberg said since the 1960s, physicists have macfe progress to ward understanding things Einstein predicted, such as black holes and gravitational radiation. Einstein pre dicted black holes in 1916, Isenberg said, and now scientists know every galaxy has black holes. A black hole is a massive stellar object concentrat ed in a very small space, which cre ates a gravitational pull that not even light can escape, in theory. “Albert Einstein gave us a number of very surprising insights into the laws that govern the nature of the universe,” Thorne said. “Those insights never came to fruition until decades later.” Thorne researches black holes. While black holes do not emit light or x-rays, he said, they emit gravitational waves. Thorne is one of the founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitation al Wave Observatory, which is a series of instruments set up in Hanford, Wash., and Livingston, La., to investi gate gravitational waves. Thorne also plans to speak about quantum mechanics, the laws that govern atoms and molecules. He said future directions of the field may in clude quantum cryptography, un breakable methods of encoding infor mation, and quantum teleportation, the teleportation of quantum infor mation over great distances. Isenberg and Thome have collabo rated since 1985 on the Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting, an annual conference about gravitational relativity. Isenberg said the conference usually meets at the California Institute of Technology in Santa Barbara, but this year, it will meet in Eugene on March 25 and 26. While the conference is open to all, Isenberg said the speeches are often very specialized, but he asked Thome to give a speech that would be under standable to “anybody who knows a little bit about science.” evasylwester@ daily emerald, com iddlefielH Golf Course l Tee time 942-8730 No tee times 484-1927 STUDENT SPECIAL GOLF 9 HOLES *8 SECOND 9 HOLES $4 /..V- %' u*< Students* Qrtly Must show>ID.>(Monday ■*Friday) M M t| M i M