Public Lecture on Dark Matter on Tuesday (Bergen)

Hi!

In the course of a conference we're organizing at the university next week, there will be a lecture on dark matter at Tuesday evening that's aimed at a general audience without a physics background.

Here's more details:

Welcome to a public lecture by professor Katherine Freese about “The dark side of the universe” in Egget at Studentsenteret on Tuesday 26th July at 18.15.

The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe, from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars, constitute only 5% of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The remaining 95% is made up of a recipe of 25% dark matter and 70% dark energy, both nonluminous components whose nature remains a mystery. Freese will recount the hunt for dark matter, from the discoveries of visionary scientists like Knut Lundmark and Fritz Zwicky, the astronomers who coined the term "dark matter" in the Protected content , 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 centers of galaxies, and bending light from distant bright objects. In this talk 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.

Everybody is welcome!

The lecture is held in English.

Katherine Freese is a professor of theoretical physics. Her expertise is in cosmology and astroparticle physics. She has worked with models of the universe and how the universe was just after the Big Bang. She has worked to identify the physicists call "dark matter" (the part of the universe that is not visible because it does not emit light) and "dark energy" (a form of energy whose nature physicists still have no clue about).

Professor Freese is highly merited and has many duties, honorary titles and positions at different institutes. She was previously director of NORDITA in Stockholm and is now a professor at the University of Michigan. She has helped to bring physics research to the media and has been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American, New Scientist, NPR, BBC, and other popular media channels. Her TV appearances include "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman on Science Channel, CBC radio, TV Ontario, The World Science Festival in New York, and the Isaac Asimov Debate at the Museum of Natural History in New York.

She is also the author of the popular science book "The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter" published in Protected content , which in fact you can buy for a good price (but cash only) after the lecture.

Facebook page for the event:
Protected content

Hoping to see many of you around,
Jörn