Media
Video
Can We Reach the End of Knowledge?
– Big Think
January 19, 2013
The more we learn, the more it pushes the boundaries of what we don't know. Marcelo Gleiser, professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth, describes this problem by using the metaphor of an island. Knowledge is an island. As this island grows, Gleiser says, the border of what we do not know also grows. So the history of knowledge will always be incomplete.
The Mind of the Cosmos: How Humans Found Our Way Back to the Center of the Universe
– Big Think
November 21, 2012
Here is one of the great existential problems that caused a lot of 20th century angst: the more we learn about the universe, the more we realize how insignificant we are.
Here is 21st century science's answer to that: Humans are very sophisticated conglomerates of materials. We are very special indeed.
Dartmouth professor Marcelo Gleiser walks us through some of the key milestones in our understanding of the universe.
Audio
Marilynne Robinson + Marcelo Gleiser on The Mystery We Are
- On Being with Krista Tippett
November 8, 2012
What do a fiction writer and an astrophysicist have in common? Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson, together with physicist Marcelo Gleiser, connect dots between the cosmos, our minds, and all the ways we discover the story of where we came from.
Lawrence Krauss & Marcelo Gleiser on Something from Nothing
- To the Best of Our Knowledge, Wisconsin Public Radio
June 3, 2012
It's the great existential mystery: Why is there something rather than nothing? Now, some physicists claim they may finally know how the big bang could pop out of nothing, though a new book by Lawrence Krauss has sparked an intellectual brawl about science, religion, and philosophy. Steve Paulson talks about our modern creation story with Krauss and fellow physicist Marcelo Gleiser.
Desperately Seeking Symmetry
- Radiolab
April 18, 2011
Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence—from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror.
Cafe Scientific: The Gloriously Messy Universe!
- Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
January 9, 2011
Is there an ultimate theory of everything? Could it be possible that after decades of searching, it may turn out that the universe is not perfectly and elegantly designed?
According to Marcelo Gleiser, the universe is gloriously messy and we hear his controversial views ... along with alternative views from our panel of astronomers. This forum was recorded at the 2010 Brisbane Writers festival and your host is Paul Willis from ABC TV's Catalyst program.
The Beginning of Space, Time and Everything
- Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
November 20, 2010
We know that the universe is expanding. Rewinding the tape points to a point in time when everything was together, with high temperatures, high pressures, and a departure from the laws of physics that we see in the expanding universe. This is a point known as the singularity. It's where the laws of general relativity break down. The theory applying here is quantum mechanics, where the behavior of the universe resembles that of an individual atom.
Cosmology & Asymmetry
- Coast to Coast AM
April 21, 2010
Dartmouth astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser discusses origins of the universe, of matter, and of life, as well as their asymmetrical properties. Current physics works with two main branches: the physics of the very big, built around Einstein's theory of relativity dealing with the universe, and quantum mechanics—the physics of the very small, which studies atoms and the particles they are composed of. The big bang, Gleiser explains, suggests that the universe was once a very tiny point that exploded in such a way that space itself was stretched out and expanded.
Grappling With Cosmic Questions
- Vermont Public Radio
April 12, 2010
The origins of the universe, what science can tell us about the meaning of life, and the convergent paths of religious and scientific thought on the creation of life. These are some of the heady subjects in the new book A Tear at the Edge of Creation: A Radical New Vision for Life in an Imperfect Cosmos, by Dartmouth physicist Marcelo Gleiser. VPR's Jane Lindholm talks with Gleiser about the shortcomings of both religious and scientific explanations about the origins of life, and how he grapples with these cosmic questions.
