Science, Storytelling, Magic and the Universe. It\u2019s been a starry three days at the 2017 Bluedot Festival. I would have loved to cover it all, unfortunately the TARDIS was in for repairs and so I had to make do with my, limited, human resources and the experience of time remained stubbornly linear. So, amongst all the fabulous performances, here\u2019s a brief summary of some choice picks:<\/p>\n
Friday began with, well, a big bang. Tony Walsh led us through a brief history of the Universe with his \u2018bitesized\u2019 Zeros and Ones poem. We\u2019re drawn into his starry vision of the cosmos, prompted by his \u2018but listen to the tick, tick, boom\u2019 of our creation. He lulls with his lyrical composition and the romance that comes with the promise of an \u2018epic love poem.\u2019 And then comes the turn, for Walsh has some big questions at the heart here: \u2018what happens when all the world\u2019s knowledge is the world\u2019s knowledge\u2019? Will our generation really leave \u2018Generation Why The Hell Not?\u2019 as the headline for our legacy? (I can\u2019t help but feel that the tagline to that reads \u2018meh\u2019<\/em>). It\u2019s time surely, he urges, for us to consider just how will we \u2018put the virtue in the virtual\u2019, \u2018the kind into kindly\u2019, and \u2018the her into history\u2019. The questions expand like so many little thought bubbles into the air above us; it\u2019s up to us to fill in the spaces for comment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stirring performance and a beautiful opening to the festival. <\/p>\n From the emotional gravity of our collective responsibilities to the world we inhabit, to the laws of gravity we\u2019re governed by. Our understanding of the cosmos has come a long way since Anaximander first created his mechanical model of the world and the image of earth floating in an infinite sky, (twenty-six centuries ago). On September 14th 2015 the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory (LIGO) discovered a gravitational binary black hole signal in their data – one hundred years after Einstein proposed his spacetime ripples theory. It took LIGO another five months, approximately, to confirm this was evidence of a gravitational wave and not a blip in the system. This ground-breaking discovery of the existence of gravitational waves is the fascinating subject of Dr Marcus Chown\u2019s talk: Gravity \u2013 The weakest and Strongest Force<\/em>. Along the way, he covers, in brief: the big bang, primordial black holes, the existence of dark matter and dark energy. Dark energy, fascinatingly, is tension, a paradox: repulsion vs. desire, and then there\u2019s string theory and its multiple dimensions.<\/p>\n Dr Chown speaks engagingly and eloquently on the history of revolutionary scientific discoveries, touching on Einstein\u2019s beautiful theory of relativity to quantum theory and the nature of gravitational waves. So, what exactly is a gravitational wave? Well, imagine two binary black holes locked in a dark struggle, watch them kiss and coalesce. The force of their meeting, and the resulting implosion creates a new back hole that sets off ripples in timespace. It\u2019s the implosion<\/em> at the core of the stars that creates the first explosion<\/em> and the black hole, Dr Chown stresses. No, we haven\u2019t moved into the realms of science-fiction and Dr Chown hasn\u2019t slipped into describing the latest Dr Who episode. This is an actual event, observed and recorded. The ripples emitting from the black hole are gravitational waves LIGO detected. <\/p>\n Space time, we learn, is a thing<\/em>, it can be stretched and vibrated. Gravitational waves are the voice of space. That\u2019s right, we can hear the universe. We\u2019re helped along in our understanding with accompanying illustrations: think valleys in space, spinning carousels, planets like Russian roulette balls falling at the same rate as they are spinning around the sun creating gravitational waves travelling outwards.<\/p>\n Put simply, planets circle around the sun and things fall because space curves (this is aptly demonstrated with marbles and balls in a bouncy trampoline-like contraption set up in Star Field\u2019s science marketplace, one of the many hands-on activities set up for festivalgoers). <\/p>\n We\u2019re encouraged to create our own gravitational waves – how? Just put your hands in the air and wave them about, says Dr Chown. This is amazing, we\u2019re all thinking, we\u2019re literally stirring up the universe! And then he brings us back down to reality with his simple explanation on the relative strengths of our efforts and the amount of energy needed to make a gravitational wave strong enough to register with LIGO. Combined, we\u2019re exerting less energy than that of an ant climbing a tree. Perhaps, though, sometime in the near future, say maybe 7th July 2021 or thereabouts, there\u2019ll be a tiny little blip on a graph marking our attempt \u2013 or maybe not.<\/p>\n With each new scientific discovery in our expanding universe, the music of the spheres becomes that little bit clearer. Now if we can just figure out how to manipulate timespace, next stop: wormholes.<\/p>\n Intrigued? Then check out The Ascent of Gravity<\/em>.<\/p>\n Dr Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He\u2019s the consultant for New Scientist<\/em> and the author of The Ascent of Gravity<\/em>, What a Wonderful World<\/em>, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You<\/em>, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil<\/em>. His book We Need to Talk to Kelvin<\/em> was short-listed for the 2010 Royal Society Book Prize, whilst App, ‘Solar System for iPad’ won The Bookseller<\/em> Digital Innovation of the Year. Impressive. Even more impressive is the ease with which Dr Chown presents complex scientific theories for such a varied audience, keeping us rapt, despite having to compete with the booming bass of music from the surrounding stages.<\/p>\n Bluedot, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Orbit stage, July 7 2017. Science, Storytelling, Magic and the Universe. It\u2019s been a starry three days at the 2017 Bluedot Festival. I would have loved to cover it all, unfortunately the TARDIS was in for repairs and so I had to make do with my, limited, human resources and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nUsma Malik<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"