Newswise — Dr. Brian Greene, noted professor and award-winning writer, will launch the highly anticipated seventh season of Perimeter Institute's Public Lecture series on Wednesday, September 3.
The last hundred years have witnessed a panorama of stunning scientific discoveries, and among the most impressive of all are black holes: regions of space threaded by such powerful gravity that anything venturing too close is unable to escape. Time itself is so thoroughly warped by black holes that, to someone watching from afar, it appears to stop at a black hole's edge.
In his new book, Icarus at the Edge of Time, Brian Greene has woven these scientific insights into a futuristic re-imagining of the traditional Icarus myth: rather than wax wings and a journey too near the sun, a boy travels through space to challenge the awesome might of a black hole. Greene calls this an example of "science in fiction" -- using the power of narrative to communicate profound scientific ideas in the form of a story accessible to all ages.
At this event professor Greene will discuss his new book as well as the importance of storytelling in science while providing a visual tour through the history and cutting edge thinking about black hole physics. ABOUT BRIAN GREENE:
Brian Greene is a professor of Mathematics & Physics, Columbia University and author of three books - Icarus at the Edge of Time, The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe. Within the scientific community he is recognized as an accomplished string theorist. He has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public and a related PBS television special. His first book, The Elegant Universe, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books. It was later made into a PBS television special of the same name, hosted and narrated by Greene, which won a 2003 Peabody Award.
ABOUT PERIMETER INSTITUTE:
Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research and educational outreach organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The award-winning research centre provides a multi-disciplinary environment to foster research in areas of Cosmology, Particle Physics, Quantum Foundations, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Information, Superstring Theory, and related areas. The Institute, located in Waterloo, Ontario, also provides a wide array of educational outreach activities for students, teachers and members of the general public in order to share the joy of scientific research, discovery and innovation. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, Perimeter Institute continues to be a successful example of private and public collaboration in science research and education. More details are available at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/.
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