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Special Guest Lecture:
"A Tear at the Edge of Creation: Cosmos, Life and
the Search for a Final Theory"
by MARCELO GLEISER
Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy,
Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College
{Sponsored by the STS Program, Physics
Department, and the Knight Science Journalism Fellows Program}
DAY: Tuesday, April 13
TIME: 12:30--2:00 p.m.
PLACE: room E51-315, MIT (2 Amherst Street, Kendall Square, Cambridge)
Free and Open to the Public
Feel free to bring your lunch
Contact person: Judy Spitzer, [email protected],
617-253-4044, STS Program, MIT
ABSTRACT: Can we find a Final Theory that
explains Nature in all of its complexity? Or is
this search fundamentally misguided, more a dream
than a reality? Some of the greatest scientists
of all time, Kepler, Newton, Faraday, Einstein,
Heisenberg, and Schrödinger, believed in and
searched for this elusive "hidden code of
Nature." In this talk, I will argue that the
belief in a Final Theory is rooted in the
monotheistic religious tradition. Examining the
teachings of modern science, from theories about
the origin of the universe to the origin of
matter and of life, we learn a very different
lesson: that Nature's creative engine depends on
asymmetries that manifest themselves in all
levels of complexity. This revelation has
implications for all of us. If we are here
because Nature is imperfect, how common is life
in the universe? Can we guarantee that, given
similar conditions, life will emerge
elsewhere? What about intelligent life? Are
there other thinking beings in the cosmos? I
will argue that although life may exist
elsewhere, intelligent life is exceedingly
rare. This makes us very important in the big
scheme of things. Being rare and precious, we
have the moral directive to preserve life and
this planet. And we don't have a minute to waste.
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