Session K1: Invited Session: Macri and Katzgraber (in Spanish)

The Physics of Diving

The underwater world, and in particular our oceans, represent a final frontier of exploration. In the past, studying the underwater fauna and flora used to be a dangerous undertaking reserved to professional divers. Technological advances over the last 50 years have given sports divers the opportunity to explore this fascinating world using self-contained underwater breathing apparatuses (SCUBA). Despite these technological advances humans have to cope with an unusual environment: perception is different underwater and there is always a risk of decompression illness due to the ambient pressure. After a brief overview of SCUBA diving, some physical phenomena particular to diving will be presented.   

How to Measure the Age of the Universe

In this public talk, we will review the different steps followed by astronomers to measure the age of the Universe. In order to achieve this goal, we need to be able to measure precise distances. We will learn about parallax, Cepheid variables, and supernovae explosions. We will also discuss recent discoveries in this area and their implications for the ultimate fate of the Universe.