The Magicians: Great Minds and the Central Miracle of Science

The first General Interest Seminar/Webinar will be delivered by science journalist and writer Marcus Chown.

Antarctica was discovered by people who went out in ships and discovered it. Neptune was discovered by a man with a quill pen sitting at a desk in Paris. It illustrates the central magic of science: That it is possible to write down a mathematical formula on a piece of paper that predicts the existence of things never before suspected, which, when people go and look, turn out to actually exist in the real world! The idea that the real universe has a mathematical twin that mimics it in every possible way is so utterly bonkers that even the scientists themselves can scarcely believe it.

Join Marcus Chown as he tells the story of the “magicians” who demonstrated the central magic of science, not only predicting the existence of unknown planets but black holes, antimatter, the Higgs particle and invisible waves that course through the air all around us.

We will be using Zoom to run the webinar which will also be recorded if you can’t make the live event. The link for the Zoom meeting was sent to all students and staff on 28 September - check your email inbox! 

Information on using Zoom.