Scientific Controversies: One-Way Ticket to Mars

scicon6_9801To explore is an irrepressible human urge. If there is a peak on Earth, someone will try to climb it. If there is an ocean to cross, someone will sail it. If there is a hunk of solid on the other side of that ocean, someone will try to stand there. Explorers do not always come back. With current technology, we are encouraged to fantasize about the exploration of peaks, and brittle ground, and ice sheets on other planets. No doubt NASA or private agencies like Space-X could rise to the technological challenge and send an astronaut to Mars, hang the cost. But could we bring her back? Janna Levin invites her guests to consider the brazen implications of a one-way ticket to Mars.

With Guests:
Lawrence Krauss Foundation Professor, Director, Origins Initiative; Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Department of Physics; Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University.

Mike Massimino NASA Astronaut; Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University.

Host:
Janna Levin Professor of Astrophysics Barnard/Columbia, Scientist-in-Residence at Pioneer Works.

Cocktails:
Botanical cocktails inspired by the potential for Martian agriculture, by Shoots and Roots Bitters.

DJ:
Stay for DJ Black Helmet’s funky rare groove soul and breaks from here straight to space and back.

Food:
Food will be available for purchase from the Morocho food truck.

About The Series:
What Is Quantum Reality? Does Time Exist? Will Dying Black Holes Explode in Firewalls?
Major Scientific discoveries can disrupt the traditional order, leaving scientists adrift in concepts that resist familiar intuitions and beliefs. Of the new ideas that emerge, some will be wrong and some will be right. Honest and open scientific controversy helps disentangle one from the other. Eventually, one side of a debate grows in strength and finds confirmation in experiments, while the other atrophies. But both sides of a controversy contribute to the breakthrough of actual discovery – when the abstract barges into the realm of the concrete. This series celebrates that passionate spirit of scientific debate.

The series is hosted by Janna Levin, the first Scientist in Residence at Pioneer Works. When she’s not making Sci Con happen, she’s a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard/Columbia. She is the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham prize and was a finalist for some other cool awards. Janna was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer St., Red Hook, Brooklyn
http://pioneerworks.org/events/sci-con/

Free, RSVP here.











When: Sat., Nov. 21, 2015 at 7:00 pm

scicon6_9801To explore is an irrepressible human urge. If there is a peak on Earth, someone will try to climb it. If there is an ocean to cross, someone will sail it. If there is a hunk of solid on the other side of that ocean, someone will try to stand there. Explorers do not always come back. With current technology, we are encouraged to fantasize about the exploration of peaks, and brittle ground, and ice sheets on other planets. No doubt NASA or private agencies like Space-X could rise to the technological challenge and send an astronaut to Mars, hang the cost. But could we bring her back? Janna Levin invites her guests to consider the brazen implications of a one-way ticket to Mars.

With Guests:
Lawrence Krauss Foundation Professor, Director, Origins Initiative; Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Department of Physics; Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University.

Mike Massimino NASA Astronaut; Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University.

Host:
Janna Levin Professor of Astrophysics Barnard/Columbia, Scientist-in-Residence at Pioneer Works.

Cocktails:
Botanical cocktails inspired by the potential for Martian agriculture, by Shoots and Roots Bitters.

DJ:
Stay for DJ Black Helmet’s funky rare groove soul and breaks from here straight to space and back.

Food:
Food will be available for purchase from the Morocho food truck.

About The Series:
What Is Quantum Reality? Does Time Exist? Will Dying Black Holes Explode in Firewalls?
Major Scientific discoveries can disrupt the traditional order, leaving scientists adrift in concepts that resist familiar intuitions and beliefs. Of the new ideas that emerge, some will be wrong and some will be right. Honest and open scientific controversy helps disentangle one from the other. Eventually, one side of a debate grows in strength and finds confirmation in experiments, while the other atrophies. But both sides of a controversy contribute to the breakthrough of actual discovery – when the abstract barges into the realm of the concrete. This series celebrates that passionate spirit of scientific debate.

The series is hosted by Janna Levin, the first Scientist in Residence at Pioneer Works. When she’s not making Sci Con happen, she’s a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard/Columbia. She is the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham prize and was a finalist for some other cool awards. Janna was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer St., Red Hook, Brooklyn
http://pioneerworks.org/events/sci-con/

Free, RSVP here.

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