Many thanks to all of you who came to my talk last week at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It was a wonderful experience, with great crowd participation and terrific questions. Thanks also to the Harvard Coop Bookstore for bringing along copies of The New Cosmos — I think I signed nearly 50 of them. Altogether, we had 250 people in Phillips Auditorium and in the two overflow rooms, and I have rarely seen such enthusiasm. What a great night.
I spoke on my new book and the many science themes it contains, with results demonstrating how far astronomy has pushed forward in just the last decade. The topics included the origin of the Moon, future history of life on Earth, extrasolar planets, the Milky Way’s barred spiral structure, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, and the meaning of life in the universe.
Moreover, the talk contained themes about how society is awash in nonsense, largely on television and the Internet, despite the revolution in real knowledge that’s taking place.
You can see the talk online.
Thanks so much to Christine Pulliam and her staff from the observatory for arranging all of this, and for her enthusiasm. Thanks also to Jim Hendrickson, a wonderful guy and friend, who documented the night with numerous great photos.
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