Conversations with History: Institute
of International Studies, UC Berkeley
This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations
with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the
public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.
Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry
Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our distinguished
guest today is Jim Peebles, who is one of the world's foremost cosmologists
and an emeritus professor at Princeton University, where since 1984 he
was the Albert Einstein Professor of Science. Professor Peebles is the
Hitchcock Professor on the Berkeley campus for the Fall 2006 semester.
- Background ... Canadian childhood
... a father who liked to build ... University of Manitoba ... discovering
physics at Princeton ... dissertation on the variability of "constants"
- Being a Scientist ... building on
previous work ... evolution of "optimum skills" ... intellectual honesty
and introspection ... different kinds of science ... curiosity ... collaboration
and competition
- Theory and Observation ... synergy
... absolute truth ... basic vs. applied science ... intellectual excitement
... public fascination with astronomy ... the phenomenon of awe
- The Future of Science ... elementary
school education ... support for new research
- Cosmology ... matter as a hierarchy
of structures ... inflation ... elegant but wrong models ... dark matter
and dark energy ... the cosmic constant: lambda ... the mystery of dark energy's
value
- Research Leading to Current Knowledge ...
investigating cosmic background radiation ... wide-open field ... learning
to analyze large-scale structure ... uncertainty ... out on a limb ... brave
research
- Looking to the Future ... big questions
remain ... fads in astronomy ... nearby galaxies and planetary systems ...
hunches, fears, and longing ... teaching students to address the unknown
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