Upcoming Lecture: Symmetry in the Universe

    Drexel University physicist David Goldberg will speak Saturday, Nov 16 for the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking. Meetings are held at 2 pm at the Community College of Philadelphia’s Main Campus. Dr. Goldberg was interviewed last summer in this installment of Lightning Rod – On whether it’s possible to get to the end of the universe without violating the laws of physics.

    The Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking( Phact) is our local skeptics’ society. They hold monthly lectures on a variety of topics related to science or the debunking of psuedoscience. Here’s what they have to say about Dr. Goldberg and his new book:

    Despite appearances to the contrary, the universe is a very orderly, and surprisingly elegant, place. But at some level, the order of the universe is a broken one. Why does time run one way and not the other? Why are you made of matter and not antimatter? Why is Spiderman such an ill-conceived premise? Symmetry (and symmetry breaking) lie at the heart of it all. We’ll take a fast-paced tour of symmetry in physical laws, and meet one of the great unsung heroines of mathematical physics: Emmy Noether. Noether provided the connected between symmetries and conservation laws, providing the groundwork for modern work on supersymmetry and the search for Grand Unified Theories.

    Our speaker is Dave Goldberg, a theoretical cosmologist and professor of Physics at Drexel University. He is the author, most recently, of “The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality.” Dr. Goldberg is very interested in the interface between science and pop culture and is especially prone to nerdly.He has also been featured on WNYC’s Studio 360, The Leonard Lopate Show, and WHYY’s NewsWorks Tonight, and has contributed to Slate.com, Wired.com, and the L.A. Times.

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