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THE DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE In her March 2 public lecture, Katherine Freese will recount the hunt for dark matter, from the discoveries of visionary scientists like Fritz Zwicky, the Swiss astronomer who coined the term "dark matter" in 1933, to the deluge of data today from underground laboratories, satellites in space, and the Large Hadron Collider. Theorists contend that dark matter consists of fundamental particles known as WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. Billions of them pass through our bodies every second without us even realizing it, yet their gravitational pull is capable of whirling stars and gas at breakneck speeds around the centres of galaxies, and bending light from distant bright objects. Freese will provide an overview of this cosmic cocktail, including the evidence for the existence of dark matter in galaxies. Many cosmologists believe we are on the verge of solving this mystery and this talk will provide the foundation needed to fully fathom this epochal moment in humankind's quest to understand the universe. The George E. Uhlenbeck Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, Freese also recently completed a term as the Director of Nordita – the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Nordic countries in Stockholm. She has been a fellow or visiting professor at physics organizations around the world, including the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CERN, the Max Planck Institute, and Perimeter Institute. Freese is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Following her talk, Freese will answer questions from the online and in-house audience – including questions submitted prior to and during the talk via Facebook and Twitter (using the hashtag #piLIVE). Questions are welcomed from everyone – aspiring scientific explorers, school classes, physics and chemistry buffs, and general science enthusiasts.
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five dollar bet says that what we now call 'dark matter' will. when we better understand it, someday be differentiated into more meaningful definitions. i bet it is not all the same | |
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Yes. I'm surprised how adement folks can be about current scientific views. As if knowledge stands still in this moment of time.
99% of my posts are ironic. Maybe this post sides with the other 1%. | |
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don't worry, it's too early for the thread police. i feel what you're saying. it is truly scary how many 'leading' companies and people are completely unlimited by any moral consideration and are arrogant enough to not realize they have only a shallow understanding of the universe [Edited 2/26/16 5:09am] | |
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99% of my posts are ironic. Maybe this post sides with the other 1%. | |
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i hear you! sometimes i think we humans are not the msot intelligent species at all... i recall back in 8th grade i was really, really interested in astronomy. but, they told us that space "is a vacuum" and there was "nothing" there. this turned me off astronomy until i got a little older and realized they were wrong. . sometimes i find it tragic that humans spend their time making war instead of exploring space. think of what we could do if we all just worked together.. . as to complete understanding, i think that's the next level. if this world of 'matter' is the minority (all we know constitutes 5% and 95% of the universe is unknown) i think it's safe to say we cannot experience the 95% in our current forms as physical beings | |
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It is a headscratcher that humans haven't figured out this basic principle. Very sad set of events for a so-called "evolved" species. FOOLS multiply when WISE Men & Women are silent. | |
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