How big is the universe?

Prof. Hermann Nicolai to hold a public talk within the framework of the “Potsdamer Köpfe” lectures Date: 24 January 2015, 11:00 a.m. Location: Bildungsforum, Wissenschaftsetage (4th floor), Am Kanal 47, 14467 Potsdam

January 19, 2015

The answer to the question concerning the size of the universe will already be different tomorrow than it is today. After all, the world is expanding – and with ever-increasing speed. And should you be asking yourself, as Woody Allen did, why, despite this expansion, it’s still practically impossible to find a parking space, you shouldn’t miss Professor Nicolai’s talk. The Director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute / AEI) will not only address the question of the size of the observable universe and our place within it. He will also report on the possibility and impossibility of wormholes (shortcuts in space, so to speak), about the Big Bang and about the theory that our universe isn’t the only one out there. Which leaves ample room for the reassuring notion that living entities in another universe always find parking spaces.

Professor Dr. Hermann Nicolai (b. 1952), after studies in physics and a doctorate at the Universität Karlsruhe, held a position as assistant at the Universität Heidelberg. From 1979 – 1986 he conducted research at CERN in Geneva. After professorships in Karlsruhe and Hamburg, he was appointed Director of the “Quantum Gravity and Unified Theories” Division at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam. In 1991 he received the Otto Klung Prize for Physics, and in 2010 was awarded the Einstein Medal of the Albert Einstein Society in Bern.

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