Outer Space Darwin lecture series

This Friday Professor John Barrow gives the seventh talk in this year's annual Darwin Lecture series. He will provide an overview of recent developments in cosmological thinking.

"Space was once static and dull: philosophers wondered whether it might be infinite and empty, astronomers sought to see through it as far as they could, and mathematicians believed that it had to be flat. But everything changed. In this talk we will introduce some of the striking features of outer space that play a key role in our understanding of the Universe," explains Professor Barrow. "We will discover why the universe of space is not only so big, but getting bigger, uncover its exotic small beginnings and look into its possible futures. Finally, new ideas in physics and cosmology lead us to expect that there may be far more to outer space than meets the eye."

John Barrow
John Barrow is based at Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics where he is Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project. Previously he held positions at the University of Sussex, theUniversity of Oxford and at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a prolific author and lecturer committed to the public understanding of science and has written ten books about a wide spectrum of subjects that connect science and mathematics with other human interests in the arts, history and philosophy. He has also given invited lectures on mathematics and science at 10 Downing Street, Windsor Castle and the Vatican Palace.

The Darwin Lectures
The theme for this year's lecture series is space, a choice in part inspired by Stanley Kubrick's seminal film 2001-A Space Odyssey. "It occurred to us that the theme of space would be at once timely and ideal for the series, as it has such different resonances in different fields," explains Francois Penz, a Fellow of Darwin College and one of the organisers of this year's lectures. "We have planned our intellectual journey from inner to outer space, with excursions into the brain, language, buildings, virtual reality, mapmaking, politics, astronautics, and cosmology."

The Darwin Lectures, a series of public lectures run in the second term of each academic year, were established in 1986 and quickly established themselves as one of the highlights of the University's yearly programme of public education.

Each series has been built around a single theme, approached in a multi-disciplinary way. Previous themes have included commmunications, intelligence, catastrophe and the environment. Each lecture is given by a leading authority on his or her subject. The list of distinguished speakers from previous years includes Stephen Hawking, Helena Kennedy, Jonathan Miller, Roger Penrose and Roy Porter.

Lecture programme
19 January Inner Space
Susan Greenfield (Department of Pharmacology, Oxford)

26 January Space and Language
Karen Emmorey (Salk Institute, California)

2 February Architectural Space
Daniel Libeskind (Berlin)

9 February Virtual Space
Char Davies (Montreal)

16 February Mapping Space
Lisa Jardine (School of English, University London)

23 February International Space
Neal Ascherson (London)

2 March Outer Space
John Barrow (Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge)

9 March Exploring Space
Jeffrey Hoffman (NASA, Paris)

The lectures will start at 5.30 pm in The Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue. An adjacent overflow theatre is provided with live TV coverage. Each lecture is typically attended by 600 people, so it is advisable to arrive around half an hour early to ensure a place.

Further information To find out more about the lecture series go to the events section on the Darwin College website.