Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Tuesday, March 19, 2002 4:10 p.m., Room 118 Physics-Astronomy Building (Student Informal Meeting from 3:15-3:45pm in Room 224 PA) Refreshments served at 3:45pm J. Ritchie Patterson Cornell University Confronting the Strong Force with Charm ABSTRACT: The strong interaction affects all quark decays, and understanding it is key if we are to fully exploit quark decays to learn about weak interactions -- as we hope to do at B-Factories and the Fermilab collider. The strong force may also be a prototype for new non-perturbative forces that could be discovered at next generation colliders at the energy frontier. Recent developments in theory open the door to precise calculation of some strong interactions, but how can we test them? A new opportunity at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring may be the answer.