De Tecchnische Universiteit Eindhoven organiseert eind oktober een drietal studium generales ter gelegenheid van het World Year of Physics 2005.

Woensdag 12 oktober 11:45-13:00 door Margaret Wertheim

Space and Spirit

Blauwe Zaal, Auditorium

In the modern scientific world picture, physical space is the totality of reality. Medieval thinkers, however, saw themselves embedded in two domains of being: the physical space of their geocentric cosmology and the spiritual space of the Christian afterlife. In contrast to the materialist worldview of modern science, medieval people saw spiritual space as the primary reality, with the physical world its pale and secondary reflection.

In this talk, author Margaret Wertheim will trace the evolution of the Western conception of space from the Middle Ages to today. She will follow the development from its origins in the perspectival painting of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, through the discovery of astronomical space in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and on to contemporary physicists' bizarrely beautiful notion of hyperspace. Margaret Wertheim will discuss how the idea of a spiritual space was written out of the realm of reality.

Margaret Wertheim is an internationally noted science writer and commentator. She is the author of Pythagoras' Trousers, a history of the relationship between physics and religion (Times Books 1995); and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet (Norton 1999). Her articles about science and society have appeared in numerous publications.

Maandag 24 oktober 16:45-18:15 door dr. Carla Rita Palmerino

Physics and truth: Between experimental evidence and mathematical ideal

Collegezaal 5, Auditorium

This lecture will initiate with a demonstration of Galileo’s experiment with the inclined plane: a roll is made to roll down an inclined plane, touching little bells as it descends. This experiment, which according to Galileo helped to establish the law of free fall, has often been seen as the beginning of modern physics, because with a very simple set-up, it appears to confirm an equally simple mathematical law of general validity. However, there are a lot of difficulties surrounding this experiment. Apart from the question of why Galileo thought that it was justifiable to infer from a rolling body to a freely falling body, there is the famous problem that Galileo had no exact timekeeper to measure the intervals involved. Historians disagree about how fundamental experiments really were to the physics of Galileo, and whether he relied not much more on thought experiments.

This tension between the mathematical ideal and the experimental evidence has accompanied modern physics ever since. It poses interesting questions about the foundation of our assumption that nature must behave in a mathematical way.

Carla Rita Palmerino obtained her M.A. in Philosophy and a PhD in the History of Science.  She works at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Nijmegen.

Dinsdag 25 oktober 16:45-18:15 door prof. dr. Rietje van Dam-Mieras

Natuurwetenschappen: kennis voor de wereld?

Collegezaal 5, Auditorium

De wortels van de natuurwetenschappen liggen in de klassieke Griekse natuurfilosofie. Natuurfilosofen bestudeerden de wereld, maar stelden zich ook de vraag wat een goed leven is – in de morele zin van het woord. In de sportschool (gymnasium) of op pleinen discussieerden docenten hierover met hun leerlingen. Sinds de ‘kennisrevolutie’ van de 17^de eeuw zijn de natuurwetenschappen gesystematiseerd en theorieën met experimenten ondersteund. Het wetenschappelijk debat verplaatste zich van de straat naar de wetenschappelijke academies en tijdschriften. Dit was de basis voor de Industriële Revolutie – de periode waarin de natuurwetenschappen ook grote economische betekenis kregen.

Tegenwoordig zien beleidsmakers wetenschap, technologie en onderwijs vooral als belangrijke economische factoren voor het creëren van welvaart. De ‘oude Griekse vragen’ lijken uit het oog verloren. Wordt kennis in onze samenleving nog gebruikt om bij te dragen aan een goed leven? Hebben jongeren nog belangstelling?

De Verenigde Naties zette dit jaar onderwijs over duurzame ontwikkeling hoog op de agenda. Professor Rietje van Dam-Mieras (Open Universiteit) grijpt dit aan om stil te staan bij de rol van de natuurwetenschappen in onze maatschappij.