In the Beginning

Last week, I participated in the Dana Centre’s Big Ideas series, an evening called “In the Beginning”. Former Imperial postgrad Kate Land and I gave the standard cosmology spiel, philosopher of science Roman Frigg took his remit to discuss science and religion very seriously, and Chris Lintott acted as master of ceremonies (and took charge when some of the more crackpoint-oriented participants asked about the end of the world, either from CERN’s impending black-hole-creation or as predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar).

But best — and most unexpected — was Ross Sutherland’s excellent story of a relationship riffing on cosmological theories without taking them too seriously — science as self-conscious metaphor.