STARBORN named “Book of the Week”
I’m delighted and honoured that 
STARBORN has been selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week – with the amazing voice acting of Khalid Abdalla lending emotion and intensity to the text, in the outstanding abridgement by Anna Magnusson. If you are based in the UK, you can catch the five episodes on […]
STARBORN launch events in November!
I am thrilled to announce the first launch events for my new book, STARBORN – How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them). It’s a mix of talks and conversations with amazing scholars, followed by book signing – I look forward to meeting my first readers then! Please do join me […]
From the Big Bang to AI
I’m delighted to have been invited to talk about AI in cosmology by the prestigious Accademia dei XL, an Italian learnt society. The talk (in Italian) has been delivered online – spanning some of the history of astronomy as well as AI, it explains how and why machine learning will be crucial to enable us […]
An Impossible Dialogue
I am delighted to be involved as scientific consultant in a new play by and with actress and author Diana Höbel. Diana approached me with the idea of creating an “impossible dialogue” between Alma Mahler, a fascinating character and talented musician, and her husband, Gustav Mahler, with whom she had a stormy and ill-fated relationship. […]
From Big Bang to ChatGPT: Astronomy, Data and Society
It was very special to return to Oxford after so long: meeting so many fascinating academics, students and alumni working in many different fields and walks of life reminded me of how incredibly stimulating the place always is. The opportunity was an invitation to speak Hertford College Festival, in conversation with Physics Fellow and astronomer […]
In conversation with Melanie Mitchell
As part of the activities of the Premio Cosmos 2023, for which I am a member of the jury, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing computer scientist, Santa Fe Institute professor and author Melanie Mitchell, on the topic of her book, Artificial Intelligence: A guide for thinking humans, published in Italy last year and among […]
STARBORN: my new book available to pre-order!
I’m excited to share that my new book will be published by Basic Books in the Fall 2023! For as long as humans have lived, we have lived beneath the stars. But under the glow of today’s artificial lighting, we have lost the intimacy our ancestors once shared with the cosmos. STARBORN: How the Stars […]
LIBRA – a play on satellite mega-constellations
At the end of September 2022, I’ve had the pleasure to visit Reggio Calabria, at the far South-Western tip of Italy, where the theatre play I co-wrote opened the Cosmos Festival 2022. LIBRA – The Play It is 2042, and a global corporation has taken over the market of satellite-based internet ads. The sky is […]
The need for humanities in an AI-dominated future
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
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 […]
