Tag Archives: Science

‘Cosmic inflation’: did the early cosmos balloon in size? A mirror universe going backwards in time may be a simpler explanation

Neil Turok is the inaugural Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He holds the Roger Penrose Visiting Professorship at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada where he is emeritus Director. Before that he was Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge and Professor of Physics at Princeton.
Neil’s day job is developing and testing fundamental physics theories of the universe. His first-principles predictions of correlations between the temperature and polarisation of the cosmic background radiation (CBR), and the CBR and the galaxy distribution have been confirmed at high precision. His work also ruled out several popular theoretical models. Recently, he showed how a CPT-symmetric universe could provide the simplest-yet explanation of the cosmic dark matter, the large scale properties of the universe and the primordial density variations.

In 2008 Neil won the TED prize for his research and for AIMS. In 2016 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and was awarded the John Torrence Tate Medal of the American Institute of Physics for International Leadership in Physics. In 2018 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Murky Bodies

Elaine Whittaker is a Canadian visual artist working at the intersection of art, science, medicine, and ecology. Biology is the basis for her installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and digital images. These works incorporate traditional and unconventional materials: paint, pigment, wax, mosquitoes, salt crystals, human cells, textiles, repurposed fibres, and live microorganisms. ‘Murky Bodies’ is a series of four installations speculating on the entangled ways in which humans, plants, animals and microorganisms emerge and co-exist in a world confronting a warming climate, rising seas, intensified water cycles and extreme storms.

A Vulnerable Border

Chantal Pollier is a visual artist who prefers to work with stone. (and in wax, glass, drawings, and photography) All her work holds references to temporality and transience. Many are rooted in science, with a particular interest in geology, biology, anatomy and morphology. The way in which collaborating artists and scientists can enter each other’s territory, and the extent to which they can thereby add new dimensions to both their own work and that of their partners, leads to refreshing perspectives.

Transient Bodies

Julian Voss-Andreae, a German sculptor based in Portland (Oregon, USA) is widely known for his striking large-scale public and private commissions often blending figurative sculpture with scientific insights into the nature of reality. His sculptures are frequently shown at international art fairs and galleries and can be found in major collections all over the world. Voss-Andreae’s work has been featured in print and broadcast media worldwide and videos of his sculpture have gone viral with tens of millions of views. His expertise in diverse fields of science and a deep passion for the mysteries of the world have been a continual source of inspiration for his work.

Seti: how we’re searching for alien life at previously unexplored frequencies

Owen Johnson
“I am an Irish astrophysicist, currently enrolled as a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin , jointly supported by UC Berkeley under the supervision of Prof. Evan Keane and Dr. Vishal Gajjar . My research is based on transient astronomical objects using everything from pulsars as gravitational probes to searching large data sets for signs of ET.
I completed my undergraduate degree in Physics with Astronomy and Space Science at University College Dublin (UCD) in 2022. During this time I worked as a research assistant at UC Berkeley. Working primarily using LOw Frequency ARrays (LOFAR) searching for technosignatures, pulsars and FRBs.”

Vital Signs: another world is possible

‘Vital Signs: another world is possible’ is Science Gallery London’s new, free exhibition and events programme. It brings together artists, designers and researchers to explore how the health of the natural world is intimately connected to our own health and wellbeing from the waterways and atmosphere to the ocean floor. Revealing unique perspectives on our surrounding environments through multimedia installations, research collaborations and A Living Library, Vital Signs reinforces that humans are fundamentally a part of nature rather than apart from it.

In a future with more ‘mind reading,’ thanks to neurotech, we may need to rethink freedom of thought

Parker Crutchfield is Professor of Medical Ethics, Humanities, and Law, Western Michigan University. He completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at Arizona State University, working in applied ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of science. As Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics, Humanities and law at WMed, Dr. Crutchfield conducts research in medical ethics.

This Land, Marginalia, and Chronicles of Fallacy.

Stephen Nowlin is Los Angeles-based artist, curator, and writer whose practice is inspired by science, the histories of science and art, and theories of knowledge. His work employs the use of digital tools, photography, and scanning technology, resulting in small and large-scale limited edition archival pigment prints. In this article he discusses his work of the last few years which has developed along three ongoing series: ‘This Land’, ‘Marginalia’, and ‘Chronicles of Fallacy’.

Your world is different from a pigeon’s – but a new theory explains how we can still live in the same reality

Catherine Legg is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Deakin University.

“My areas of research include philosophies of language, mind and mathematics. I have long standing interests in the American pragmatists, particularly Charles Peirce, and currently co-edit the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry ‘Pragmatism’. I maintain a side-interest in artificial intelligence, having previously worked as an ontological engineer. I’m also very interested in philosophy of education, and am involved with the Philosophy for Children movement.”

Contemplating Oblivion

Keith Wiley was one of the original members of MURG, the Mind Uploading Research Group, an online community dating to the mid-90s that discussed issues of consciousness with an aim toward mind uploading. He has written a previous book, ‘A Taxonomy and Metaphysics of Mind-Uploading’, about the philosophical interpretation of mind uploading, various invited book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and magazine articles, in addition to several essays on a broad array of topics.