8th Annual R. Jack and Forest Lynn Biard Cosmology and Astrophysics Lecture
Our Mathematical Universe: From Primordial Gravity Waves to Precision Cosmology
Max Tegmark (MIT)
Wednesday November 19, 2014
7:15pm - 8:15pm
Schoenbaum Hall, Room 105
210 W Woodruff Ave
Free and open to all
Great for a general audience, including kids
ASL interpreter provided
I survey how we humans have repeatedly underestimated not only the size of our cosmos, but also the power of our humans minds to understand it using mathematical equations. My examples include the recent claims of B-modes in the cosmic microwave background as smoking-gun evidence for quantum gravity, Hawking radiation, and cosmological inflation. I also highlight mysteries such as the nature of dark matter, dark energy and our early universe, and how creating the largest-ever 3D maps of our universe can shed new light on them.
Known as "Mad Max" for his unorthodox ideas and passion for adventure, his scientific interests range from precision cosmology to the ultimate nature of reality, all explored in his new popular book "Our Mathematical Universe". He is an MIT physics professor with more than two hundred technical papers and has featured in dozens of science documentaries. His work with the SDSS collaboration on galaxy clustering shared the first prize in Science magazine's "Breakthrough of the Year: 2003".
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