院士講座系列 １

講者：中央研究院數理科學組院士、中央研究院統計科學研究所特聘研究員李克昭院士

講題：Liquid association for investigating complex data

摘要：The statistical notion of correlation is the building blocks for many useful tools in analyzing complex data, featuring nonlinearity and high dimensionality. This talk is about how to exploit the statistical notion of correlation for bettering the strategy of analytics. The statistical notion of liquid association, motivated by pathway analysis of genomic data, will be elucidated.

院士講座系列 2

講者：中央研究院數理科學組院士、國立台灣大學化學系教授牟中原院士
　
講題：Nano-Confined Water

摘要：Water under nano-confinement is different from normal water. It can be cooled to less than 200 K without freezing. It is relevant to life and geoscience because much of the hydration phenomenon in nature occurs in narrowly confined water. Studying confined water will help one to understand the physicochemical effect of water and its interaction with solutes in crowded environment. Mesoporous silica materials with uniform pore size will be the confining media in our study. By using neutron and X-ray scattering techniques, we studied the density and diffusion of water under nano-confinement. By confinement, solubility of a hydrophobic molecule (such as Xe) in water under nano-confinement will impact several related problems, (a) solubility of methane in water within nano-pores of rock under fracking condition, (b) understanding how hydrophobic effect would be changed in confined water, (c) how protein hydration would change under crowded environment.

院士講座系列 3

講者：中央研究院數理科學組院士、中央研究院數學研究所客座講座劉太平院士

講題：真與美 Truth and Beauty

摘要：科學求真，藝術求美。在人類追求文明的過程，真與美時相發明。我們從物理學家波茲曼，詩人屈原，這兩位偉大思想家談起。除了有明顯的類似，兩位對真與美的追求是其偉大成就的基石。兩位留給我們值得深思的題目，比如波茲曼所引起可逆不可逆的詭論。我們談輪這些題目，希望與大家ㄧ起探討。 Science is about truth and art is about beauty. As we have seen in many instances in cultural pursuits, truth and beauty are deeply related. In this talk we start with the example of Boltzmann the scientist and Chu Yuan the ancient poet from the East. There is similarity between these two towering figures in their passion; but it is their pursuit of beauty and truth that define their greatness. There are key issues handed to us from these giants that continue to concern us. The reversibility/irreversibility of physical phenomena is one such issue that has continued to puzzle leading thinkers since the time of Boltzmann. We will discuss these issues and offer some thoughts on them.