The dark beginnings of our Universe and the key questions about its formation were the subject of a Physics lecture in York on Wednesday night.
The latest in a line of free public talks held at St Peter’s School in Clifton, the lecture was well attended by nearly five hundred York residents.
The lecture, delivered by Professor Carlos Frenk FRS, expert on Cosmology at Durham University, was entitled Cosmic History: Everything From Nothing.
It set out to discuss some of the most fundamental questions in the whole of science. How and when did our universe begin? What is it made of? Why does it look the way it does?
Professor Frenk spoke about the huge amount of progress there has been in recent years towards answering these questions; for example the recent observations which established that our universe contains a mix of components that include not only ordinary atoms, but also exotic ‘dark matter’ and a new form of energy called ‘dark energy’.
The Professor revealed that vast surveys of galaxies have been undertaken to show how the universe is structured. Large supercomputer simulations recreate the cosmic evolution of the universe, and provide a link between what we see around us today, and what there would have been a micro-second after the Big Bang.
David Morris, Head of Physics at St Peter’s School, said: “We are delighted that a physicist of such world renown has come to talk to us this evening. Professor Frenk’s lecture gave the audience a fantastic insight into his work at the forefront of cosmology.”
Carlos Frenk was born in Mexico City in 1951. He obtained his first degree in Physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and went on to Cambridge where he gained a PhD in astrophysics (1981). After several years working at various universities, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Durham in 1981.
He is the founding Director of Durham’s Institute for Computational Cosmology and is one of the originators of the Cold Dark Matter theory for the formation of galaxies; currently the accepted paradigm in cosmology.
The public lecture series at St Peter’s School attracts hundreds of members of the public to each event.