Dear All, We are delighted to present the MaPSS Seminar topic of today, Monday 05/06; please see the abstract below. **This Semester the Seminar will always run on Monday, at 5:00pm in 535A** Following the talk, there will be pizza on offer. Speaker: Joel Gibson (Sydney University) Title: A Multiple Scales Approach to Sunspots Abstract: Very strong magnetic fields exist throughout the universe. Sunspots are one such example. These localised regions of reduced temperature on the solar surface were first observed in the 8th century BC. Spots arise due to complex interactions between temperature, convection and magnetism. Whilst the dynamics have been examined since the 1930s, this interplay is still poorly understood. Examining the quantitative behaviour of the governing equations presents a significant challenge. We discuss a multiple scales approach to deriving a new set of governing equations and show that we can reproduce dynamics consistent with the theory, in turn highlighting the importance of non-linear corrections to the system. Supervisors, please encourage your students to attend. Thanks, MaPSS Organizers