PHYSICS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: Stanford Professor Robert Laughlin, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physics, is scheduled to deliver a public lecture at UC Davis on May 22 on new ways to think about the universe. Organizers said the free program, including discussion, is set to begin at 8 p.m. in the Sciences Lecture Hall.

Laughlin is the author of A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics From the Bottom Up.

His lecture is sponsored by the Office of Research and the UC Davis-based Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter, a multidisciplinary UC research program that investigates "emergent phenomena" that emerge from the interactions of large numbers of smaller units, with such phenomena including weather patterns, consciousness and the properties of materials.

THE ELEPHANT'S SECRET SENSE: UC Davis alumna Caitlin O'Connell is set to deliver two lectures on May 23 on elephants' secret sense -- they hear through their feet.

O'Connell is the author of The Elephant's Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa, published in March. Publishers Weekly had this to say about the book: "O'Connell's memoir of her 14 years researching the complexities of elephant behavior is a successful combination of science and soulfulness."

She received a doctorate in ecology at UC Davis in 2000.

Her schedule for May 23:

2:30-3:30 p.m. -- Research lecture, 126 Wellman. Free for students, faculty and staff.

7:30-8:30 p.m. -- Public lecture, Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets: $15 general admission, $7 students. (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org. A book sale and signing is scheduled after the lecture.