The need for humanities in an AI-dominated future

Posted on Nov 11, 2022 in AI, Environment, Outreach, Science

I was delighted to return to Imperial’s Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication in early Nov to deliver the 2022 Char Brinson honorary lecture on my view regarding the future of AI and the place of humans (and humanities) in it. Here’s a short summary of the main points I raised. When we hear the […]

The Future of Life on Earth

The Future of Life on Earth

My final lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology at Gresham college looks at the threats to life on Earth,  with a reflection straddling cosmology, astrophysics, history and environmental issues. I argue that what we need to worry about are not the dangers that are out there, but the ones that are in here – inside […]

Einstein’s Blunder

Posted on Jan 3, 2022 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science, Teaching
Einstein’s Blunder

A lecture given as Visiting Professor of Cosmology at Gresham College, part of the series “The Frontiers of Knowledge” When Albert Einstein tweaked his newly invented equations of General Relativity in 1917, he had one goal in mind: to find a solution that described a closed, static, eternal universe. He therefore minted a new universal […]

The impact of Machine Learning in Cosmology

Posted on Jun 20, 2021 in AI, Machine Learning, Research, Science

An online debate hosted by the Machine Learning Club, with co-panelists Bhuvnesh Jain, Uros Seljak and Hiranya Peiris, held on Apr 28th 2021.

Space Sounds: The Music of the Cosmos

Posted on May 28, 2021 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science, universe

A Gresham College lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology, part of the series “The Unexpected Universe“. “In space, no one can hear you scream”. The chillingly accurate tagline of Ridley Scott’s 1979 space horror classic, Alien, is often belied in science fiction movies, forgetting that in space there is no air, and hence no sound. Space today […]

Mysteries of the Dark Cosmos

Posted on Mar 2, 2021 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science, universe

A Gresham College lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology, part of the series “The Nature of Reality“. Dark matter and dark energy together make up 95% of our Universe. Yet, very little is known about them.  This lecture will present the endeavours of cosmologists and particle physicists, as they attempt to explain the fundamental nature of these […]

What Has Einstein Ever Done for You?

Posted on Feb 15, 2021 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science

A Gresham College lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology, part of the series “The Nature of Reality“. Albert Einstein’s mind-boggling ideas revolutionized our view of the universe. From relativity to curved spacetime, from the Big Bang to black holes and gravitational waves, nothing could be further from our everyday experience than such esoteric concepts, right? Wrong!  This […]

Neutrino: the particle that shouldn’t exist

Posted on Feb 2, 2021 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science

A Gresham College lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology, part of the series “The Unexpected Universe“. In 1930, the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli did something that “no theorist should ever do”: he invented a new particle that he thought nobody could ever detect in order to save the principle of energy conservation in certain radioactive […]

Inaugural lecture: From the Big Bang to AI

Posted on Jun 9, 2020 in AI, Bayes, Outreach, Public lecture, Research, Science, universe

My inaugural lecture as Professor of Astrostatistics at Imperial College London on Jan 15th 2020. A truly unique opportunity for me to sum up what I’ve learnt, from dark matter to Bayes, to the the audience to taste dark matter and feel the dark matter wind (!) and to share the journey. An unforgettable, emotional […]

Weighing the Universe

Posted on Apr 17, 2020 in Gresham College, Outreach, Public lecture, Science, universe

A public lecture given on Nov 4th 2019 as Visiting Professor of Cosmology at Gresham College, London. Part of a three lecture series in 2019-2020 on “The Nature of Reality”. Surely you can’t “weigh” the Universe?!  Let us begin by clarifying the title of this lecture: “weighing” is not quite the right word. In fact, […]