The State of the Universe

Coordinators: Lawrence M. Krauss

The Institute for Theoretical Physics Secondary Science Teachers' Conference

October 5, 2002

The State of the Universe

Coordinator: Lawrence Krauss


Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek, will coordinate this conference. We expect a variety of speakers with great expertise in the fields of cosmology. The primary focus of this conference will involve the following ideas.

The standard model of cosmology of the 1980\'s is now dead. Its replacement is far more bizarre. In association with the workshop to be held at the ITP entitled The New Cosmology Confronts Observation, we will be presenting three lectures describing the exciting new developments in Cosmology over the past decade. The planned concept will be that the first lecture will present an overview, describing how "Einstein\'s Biggest Blunder" might, in fact, be correct after all! We will present the growing body of evidence that the dominant energy in the Universe resides in empty space! If this is true, all our notions about the future of the Universe must be changed. The second lecture will describe what we have learned, and what we hope to learn by exploring the afterglow of the big bang, the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. The final lecture will discuss the exciting search for exotic dark matter, which seems to be the dominant form of matter in the Universe. If our current ideas are correct, we are bathed in a continual sea of invisible elementary particle remnants from the big bang. Ongoing experiments done deep underground may one day soon lead to a direct detection of these "shadows" of creation.

Application Deadline: June 1st, 2002