Alan Lightman, novelist and physicist, talks on YouTube about God, books, physics and other weighty matters during his recent visit to the New York State Writers Institute on February 2, 2012.
"I let books choose me. I like to let ideas thrash around in my mind for a year or two...."
Lightman presented his new book, Mr. g: A Novel About the Creation (2012).
See the video.
Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Alan Lightman Talks About God, fiction, etc.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Mind of God
Physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku, who visits the Writers Institute Tuesday 2/21, is at work on a "theory of everything" as proposed by Einstein.
Kaku approaches the issue via string theory, to which he is a major contributor:
"Chemistry is nothing but the melodies you can play on vibrating strings, and the mind of God, the mind of God that Einstein worked on for the last 30 years of his life, the mind of God would be cosmic music. Cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace. You see, our universe is a symphony. It's a symphony of vibrating strings and possibly membranes, but when it was born, it was born as a perfect entity in 11 dimensional hyperspace. That may eventually give us 'a theory of everything.'"
"So, people come up to me and say, 'Professor, if this is a theory of everything, what's in it for me? What's in it for numero uno? Why should I care?' Well, let me tell you why you should care about a theory of everything." More.
The War on Science
Physicist and media star Michio Kaku, who visits this coming Tuesday 2/21, talks about the new war on science by scientifically illiterate politicians and their constituencies, and the obligation of scientists to speak out persuasively in favor of their fields.
The new 3-minute Big Think video is entitled "How Physics Got Fat (And Why We Need to Sing For Our Supper)."
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Build Your Own Lightsaber!
Michio Kaku, who comes to Albany on 2/21, offers some practical advice on how to build a light saber in a video that appeared in 2010 on the Science Channel.
The video is based on Kaku's 2008 book, Physics of the Impossible.
Kaku will speak about the sequel to that book, Physics of the Future (2011), in the Campus Center Ballroom.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Doorways to a Parallel Universe?
Big Bangs may be happening all the time, creating an ever-expanding number of parallel universes.
Physicist Michio Kaku, who visits 2/21, thinks he knows a way to create a portal to get into one.
Kaku formerly hosted the show "Physics of the Impossible," based on his 2008 bestseller, on Discovery's Science Channel. See a clip from the episode here (and pardon the commercials).
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Art in Science
Theoretical physicist Alan Lightman speaks about the importance of art in science on MIT TechTV.
Lightman, who visits this coming Thursday, was born in Memphis Tennessee in 1948, son of Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist. From an early age, he was entranced by both science and the arts and, while in high school, began independent science projects and writing poetry.... More.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Science and Religion
Karen Quamme of the Columbus Dispatch finds Alan Lightman's unholy mixture of science and religion a delight:
"The novel might be too imaginative for readers who want to stick to the facts and too blasphemous for those who want their religion undiluted, but those who find science, poetry and religion a palatable mix will be delighted." More.
Alan Lightman visits this Thursday, 2/2.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Predicting the Weather in 2012
Physicist and media personality Michio Kaku, introduced as "one of the greatest minds of our time" in this January 3, 2012 CNN broadcast, gives his weather predictions for 2012.
Among them: An increasing likelihood of strange weather, including freak snowstorms, droughts and tornadoes, not to mention solar flares that knock out the Internet.
And here's an explanation of the reasons why global warming produces freak snowstorms that Kaku contributed to CNN last January.
Kaku visits the Writers Institute on Tuesday, February 21st in the Campus Center Ballroom to talk about his new book Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Alan Lightman in Nature
"When a physics heavyweight is mentioned in the same breath as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino, it is tough for a reviewer. Few venture into air that rarefied and make it out alive. But when the book is Mr g, a creation myth by physicist Alan Lightman, it is worth the risk."
Read the review by Pedro Ferreira in the science journal, Nature.
Lightman visits the Institute Thursday, February 2nd.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Physics, Poetry, Planetarium Shows
Alan Lightman, bestselling novelist and theoretical physicist who opens the Spring 2012 Visiting Writers Series on February 2nd, has applied his talents to number of genres, including musical adaptations of his bestselling novel Einstein's Dreams, as well as poetry, fables, essays, nonfiction and that least-studied of all literary genres: the planetarium show.
Below is a Library Journal review by Sue Russell of Lightman's book-length narrative in verse, Song of Two Worlds (2009):
"Here, novelist (Einstein's Dreams) and physicist Lightman has created a vivid and moving first-person narrative in verse. The two worlds of the title are the two sections of the book: 'Questions with Answers' and 'Questions without Answers,' with the former representing scientific inquiry and the latter the intuitive capacity that allows us to respond to great art. But this work is no simple intellectual exercise--it is the story of a man who is exiled within his own country, whose intelligence and aloneness keep him perpetually knocking at the door 'naked ... wearing only my questions....'"
And here's an article that discusses a planetarium show designed by Lightman for the newly renovated Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston (which reopened in Feb. 2011).
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Is Life Possible?
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.
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