Before the big bang?

Sir Roger Penrose, prominent lecturer and author, as well as highly distinguished mathematician and theoretical physicist, will give Perimeter Institute's next public lecture on Wednesday, October 1. There is now a great deal of evidence confirming the existence of a very hot and dense early stage of the universe. Much of this data comes from a detailed study of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) - radiation from the early universe that was most recently measured by NASA's WMAP satellite.

But the information presents new puzzles for scientists. One of the most blatant examples is an apparent paradox related to the second law of thermodynamics. Although some have argued that the hypothesis of inflationary cosmology solves some of the puzzles, profound issues remain.

At this event, Prof. Penrose, in his approachable and engaging style, will describe a very different proposal, one that suggests a succession of universes prior to our own. He will also present a recent analysis of the CMB data that has a profound bearing on these issues.

ABOUT SIR ROGER PENROSE:

Sir Roger Penrose is currently emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University. His research interests span many aspects of geometry, having made contributions to the theory of non-periodic tilings ("Penrose tilings"), to general relativity theory and quantum foundations. He has also had remarkable insights in the science of consciousness. His main research programme is to develop the theory of twistors, which he originated over 30 years ago as an attempt to unite Einstein's theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics.

Penrose's 1989 book The Emperor's New Mind became a best seller and won the 1990 (now Rhone-Poulenc) Science Book Prize. His other books are Road to Reality (2004), The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (1997), The Nature of Space and Time (1996), with Stephen Hawking, and Shadows of the Mind (1994).

In 1994 Professor Penrose was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to science. He has received numerous prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their understanding of the universe, the Dannie Heinemann Prize, the Royal Society Royal Medal, the Dirac Medal and the Albert Einstein prize to name a few.

Source: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics