Physicist and author Alan Lightman (who kicks off the Visiting Writers Series on February 2) contributes an essay to the December 21st issue of Harper's about the burgeoning interest among physicists in the "multiverse theory," the theory that there are an incalculable number of universes.
He also addresses the mathematical impossibility of the fact that life exists, the rejection of intelligent design by the scientific community, and the possible explanation provided by multiverses. The more universes, the more likely that a mathematical fluke like life can come to be "by accident." Click to read the essay.
Lightman's essay received a 2011 Sidney Award bestowed by New York Times columnist David Brooks for the year's best American magazine essays.
Lightman will talk about his new novel, Mr. g: A Novel About the Creation, a playful exploration of the "grand ideas" of cosmological physics and the Creation stories of human religion.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Is Life Possible?
