Science and Society | On Time: The Physics that Makes the Universe Tick

Online

Despite our ever-deepening understanding of the physical universe, we have yet to reach a consensus on the nature of time: does it flow like a river, carrying us along, or does it flow past us? What is the meaning of "now", the ever-shifting boundary between the future and the past? Did time have a beginning and will it have an end? Can it be stretched and squeezed, or even reversed? Some even believe that time is an illusion – a trick of our senses. According to the most fundamental ideas in physics time might even be an emerging concept from something more fundamental, like quantum entanglement. In a lecture based on his new book, On Time: The Physics That Makes the Universe Tick, Jim Al-Khalili will change forever the way you think about the passage of time and your place within it.

Jim Al-Khalili is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Surrey and one of Britain’s leading science communicators. He has written numerous books that have been translated into twenty-six languages, among them The Joy of Science and The World According to Physics. A fellow of the Royal Society, he is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries and is best-known in the UK for his long-running BBC Radio program, The Life Scientific.

We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of their book from Browseabout Books. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website.

The library's “Science and Society – Making Sense of the World Around Us” lecture series is co-organized and moderated by Fred Dylla, Executive Director Emeritus of the American Institute of Physics and author of Scientific Journeys, Linda Dylla, former public information officer at the Jefferson Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, and Colin Norman, the former News Editor at Science.

NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting.

If you have need assistance with registration or getting your Zoom invitation, please email the library.

Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.