Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest

6pm, 21 April
Dalhousie Building

Cosmic Quest: the Story of Astronomy

For thousands of years humankind has sought to find our place in the Cosmos. Starting with superstition, astronomy has flourished into the most all-embracing of the sciences.

And - of all the sciences - it is the one that has driven our culture. It has shaped our religion, philosophy and beliefs.

Cosmic Quest concentrates on the people and personalities who, over the millennia, have asked the biggest questions of all.

The progress of astronomy has been led by inspirational characters - and outright mavericks! - who have pushed our knowledge of the heavens forward, forever testing the limits of our imagination in the quest to understand the Universe. They range from the firebrand Galileo and moose-owning Tycho Brahe to blunt Yorkshireman Fred Hoyle, who questioned every scientific orthodoxy.

Over the millennia, the cutting edge of astronomy has driven ever outwards. While scholars once debated whether the Earth circles the Sun, they can now say how the Sun shines, what distant stars are made of, and even when the Universe began. But with each question answered, dozens appear as if from nowhere: what’s inside a black hole, what kind of planets orbit around other stars, and what will be the ultimate future of our Universe - and is there life out there?

Tickets are available from the Events Office, tel: 01382 385564 or from the University's Online Store.

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