2015 marks the centennial of General Relativity, Einstein's celebrated theory of gravitation and spacetime. He showed "that gravity is caused by objects with mass such as planets and stars warping space-time. For example, the Earth is caught in the curve in space-time caused by the Sun, and the Moon is caught in a warp created by the Earth. Similarly light is bent when it passes massive objects like galaxies" (from the BBC).
To celebrate this important year, the Quantum Gravity group here in Maths and the Particle Theory group in the School of Physics are organising a series of public lectures on the history of the theory and its scientific legacy to astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. The Institute of Physics (IOP) and the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG) have kindly agreed to sponsor this outreach event.
The first lecture, titled "The Perfect Theory: A century of geniuses and the battle over General Relativity" presented by Professor Pedro G Ferreira (Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford), is scheduled for Tuesday 24 November at 6pm.
For more information about this public lecture series, please contact Dr Thomas Sotiriou.
Posted on Monday 2nd November 2015