Is intelligent life trying to communicate with us from space? Professor Paul Davies explores the potential and limits of research into the origin and evolution of life, and the search for life beyond Earth. Has ET maybe visited our planet ages ago and left us a message? At the Australian National University, Paul Davies discussed his latest book The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe?
Tagged with “universe”
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Paul Davies: Are we alone in the universe?
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Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson
A discussion about science, society, and the universe with Stephen Colbert, who is out of character, at the Kimberley Academy in Montclair, New Jersey.
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David Deutsch And The Beginning of Infinity
Quantum computing genius and Oxford don David Deutsch is a thinker of such scale and audaciousness he can take your breath away. His bottom line is simple and breathtaking all at once.
It’s this: human beings are the most important entities in the universe. Or as Deutsch might have it, in the “multiverse.” For eons, little changed on this planet, he says. Progress was a joke. But once we got the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution, our powers of inquiry and discovery became infinite. Without limit.
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Why Not to Fear Black Holes with Astronomer Ian Morison
Black Holes seem to have bad press that is largely undeserved. This lecture with professor Ian Morison explains what Black Holes are, and how we can discover them even through they can’t be seen.
This program was recorded in collaboration with Gresham College, on October 27, 2010.
Gresham Professor of Astronomy Ian Morison made his first telescope at the age of 12 with lenses given to him by his optician. Having studied Physics, Maths and Astronomy at Oxford, he became a radio astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Observatory and teaches Astronomy and Cosmology at the University of Manchester.
Over 25 years he has also taught Observational Astronomy to many hundreds of adult students in the North West of England. An active amateur optical astronomer, he is a council member and past president of the Society for Popular Astronomy in the United Kingdom.
At Jodrell Bank he was a designer of the 217 KM MERLIN array and has coordinated the Project Phoenix SETI Observations using the Lovell Radio Telescope. He contributes astronomy articles and reviews for New Scientist and Astronomy Now, and produces a monthly sky guide on the Observatory’s website.
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Lord Martin Rees: Life and the Cosmos
It’s famously called the Final Frontier, and thanks to rapidly developing technology we now know more about the outer reaches of our galaxy than ever. But that leaves unknowns.
Does the universe have any limits? Are there any other earth-like planets out there? And the big one, are we alone?
Addressing the University of Melbourne recently, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, reports on the latest research.
http://fora.tv/2010/03/30/Lord_Martin_Rees_Life_and_the_Cosmos
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Science & The City: What Time Is It?
Famed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and theoretical physicist Brian Greene dissect time as we know it. What is the smallest unit of time, and what does it look like? For starters, you should stop looking at the clock, and start looking at the universe.
http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Media/PodcastDetail.aspx?cid=f3f02313-c697-49da-b298-9b00f2e3d541
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SETI, Hawking, and Alien Contact
A new warning from astrophysicist and global science guru Stephen Hawking: Do not talk to aliens.
The brilliant Hawking is wheel-chair bound and speaks through a computer. But he’s thinking about the cosmos.
With billions of galaxies, trillions of stars, the numbers tell him there’s life out there. The smartest forms could make it here. But we should not want that, says Hawking. Too much danger.
Other scientists disagree. We’ll hear that debate, and talk to the man who heads Earth’s greeting committee for aliens.
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To The Best of Our Knowledge: Reality
Jonathan Lethem has created an alternate NY City circa 2004, with astronauts lost in space, aging child stars and a tiger stalking the Upper East Side. Chuck Klosterman reexamines the Unabomber’s Manifesto and thinks there are some interesting ideas in his writing. V. Vale is republishing author J. G. Ballard, considered a science fiction writer, but self-described as "picturing the psychology of the future." Brent Silby describes a view that suggests that our ‘reality’ is a simulation being run in a massive computer.
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Sir Roger Penrose | The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
Sir Roger Penrose is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and is the best-selling author of The Emperor’s New Mind. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, most notably the Wolf Prize in physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their "development of the theory of general relativity, in which they have shown the necessity for cosmological singularities and have elucidated the physics of black holes… enlarging our understanding of the origin and possible fate of the Universe." Penrose was knighted in 1994 and currently lives in Oxford, England.
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To The Best Of Our Knowledge: Einstein, God & The Universe
Albert Einstein died more than half a century ago, but there’s still a raging debate over what he thought about religion. He once said "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what exactly did Einstein conclude about religion? We’ll hear from leading scientists and religious scholars, including Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg and Elaine Pagels, as well as Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson.
Steve Paulson speaks with Richard Dawkins, Elaine Pagels, and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson. David Lindorff wrote about two physicists’ interest in mysticism and alchemy. David Leavitt tells the story of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Father Thomas Keating talks about God and the contemplative life.
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