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World Science Scholars
1.1 Module Overview
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Overviewdrop-down

  • In this program called Testing the Limits of Cosmology, recorded on June 4, 2017 at the World Science Festival, leading physicists, astronomers, and astrophysicists discuss how they are pushing the boundaries of scientific imagination to develop experiments that test the seemingly untestable theories of multiverses, eternal inflation, and exotic particles.
  • Join the conversation about their plans to recreate the big bang in particle accelerators here on Earth, as well as their quest to sift through signals from the farthest edges of space for the existence of a multiverse.
  • The stakes are high — as they attempt to answer some of science’s biggest questions, they are testing the limits of experimental and observational science itself.

Participantsdrop-down

  • Mario Livio, Astrophysicist, Author: Moderating this program is Dr. Mario Livio, an astrophysicist, a best-selling author, and a popular speaker. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published more than 400 scientific papers on topics ranging from Dark Energy and cosmology to black holes and extrasolar planets. Dr. Livio is also the author of six popular science books, including The Golden Ratio (an International Bestseller for which he received the “Peano Prize” and the “International Pythagoras Prize”) and Is God A Mathematician? (that was the basis for the 2016 Emmy-nominated NOVA program The Great Math Mystery).
  • Nima Arkani-Hamed, Theoretical Physicist: Nima Arkani-Hamed is a theorist with wide interests in fundamental physics, from quantum field theory and string theory to collider physics and cosmology. He was educated at Toronto, Berkeley and Stanford, and was a professor of physics at Berkeley and Harvard before joining the Institute for Advanced Study in 2008. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he was an inaugural recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and was one of six physicists featured in the award-winning documentary Particle Fever.
  • France Córdova, Director, National Science Foundation: France A. Córdova is an astrophysicist and the 14th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the only government agency charged with advancing all fields of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. She has served as NASA’s chief scientist and is a recipient of NASA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. Her scientific contributions are in the areas of observational and experimental astrophysics, multi-spectral research on x-ray and gamma ray sources and space-borne instrumentation.
  • Matias Zaldarriaga, Physicist: Matias Zaldarriaga is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has a PhD from MIT and is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Gribov Medal from the European Physical Society, and the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society. He has made many influential and creative contributions to our understanding of the early universe, particle astrophysics, and cosmology as a probe of fundamental physics. Much of his work centers on understanding the clues about the earliest moments of our universe encoded in the Cosmic Microwave Background and in the distribution of matter in the late universe.
  • Note: The above biographies reflect participant accomplishments at the time of the filming, June 4, 2017.

Acknowledgmentsdrop-down

  • This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.


 
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