ÉTIENNE KLEIN: "TIME ZERO" Was there ever a beginning to the Universe? [WATCH THIS VIDEO CONFERENCE ON YOUTUBE, click here: http://www.youtube.com/embed/SD7L-jgd8xc] GiovedìScienza, Thursday February the 28th, 2013 5.45 pm. Colosseo Theatre, Turin, Italy. Étienne Klein Research Director at CEA, Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission) In cooperation with Italy’s French Embassy TIME ZERO Was there ever a beginning to the Universe? For over a century we have been aware of an expanding universe: galaxies grow apart at very high speed a little like the shards after an explosion. Since 1998 we have also been aware of the acceleration of the expansion. Let us imagine showing a movie backwards, that is going back in time: if we could do it, we would see a very small universe until about 13.7 billion years ago it converged in a point no greater than an atom. It is what physicists call its initial singularity, at least this is what the Big Bang theory suggests. However is this initial singularity realistic? Can we hypothesize a point like object with infinite density and temperature? Logically there is something unconvincing in this cosmological model when we push it to the point of Time Zero. This is why research is increasingly active focussing on the very first moments of our Universe. The solution of the problem could be paradoxical and could be summarized in the questions: are we sure that the Universe ever had an Time Zero? ÉTIENNE KLEIN Klein was born in 1958 and graduate in Physics and Philosophy of Science. He is Research Director at CEA Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives in France where he is director of Larsim, the Laboratory of Science of the Matter. He is a professor of Physics and Philosophy at the École Centrale de Paris, and has written many essays on physics, especially on time. His most recent writings on popular science include Discours sur l'origine de l'Univers (Flammarion, 2012) and Anagrammes renversant, written with Jacques Perry-Salkow, also published by Flammarion (2011) and Galileo and the Indians (Jaca Book, 2010). 27th GiovedìScienza (NON-PROFIT) Live science week by week Ever since 1987 the Colosseo Theatre has been turned into a science laboratory. This weekly journey into the world of science can certainly be considered the most remarkable of its kind in Italy and also one of the most important and long-running in Europe. Each encounter is broadcast live and is then available for streaming a few days after the event by connecting to the archive. With the next edition GiovedìScienza will celebrate its 27th anniversary by making its conferences available in English. Here you can find bilingual versions of some encounters from the last edition.
More info: http://www.giovediscienza.it/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=2
