The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World

In the centuries since Newton, scientifically minded people have thought of Earth as a lonely rock orbiting an average star in a universe where no place is special. But modern cosmology has now given us a completely new picture of the universe based on dark matter, dark energy, and the drama of cosmic evolution. In this talk, Abrams and Primack will explain the new picture with beautiful astronomical videos and relate it to life here on Earth, suggesting ways of understanding the global issues of our time in their cosmic context.

Speaker Details

Nancy Ellen Abrams, an attorney, philosopher of science, and lecturer at UCSC, has worked for the Ford Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. Joel R. Primack, Distinguished Professor of Physics at UCSC, is one of the principal creators of the modern theory of the universe on the grand scale. Abrams and Primack are co-authors of The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World (Yale University Press, 2011), based on their Terry Lectures at Yale (see http://new-universe.org). They have also co-authored the book, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Penguin/Riverhead, 2006)

Nancy Ellen Abrams, an attorney, philosopher of science, and lecturer at UCSC, has worked for the Ford Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. Joel R. Primack, Distinguished Professor of Physics at UCSC, is one of the principal creators of the modern theory of the universe on the grand scale. Abrams and Primack are co-authors of The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World (Yale University Press, 2011), based on their Terry Lectures at Yale (see http://new-universe.org). They have also co-authored the book, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Penguin/Riverhead, 2006)

Date:
Speakers:
Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack
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