Talk: The Big Bang - 20th August 2015

Date and Time: Thursday 20th August at 20:00

Venue: Lecture Room 1, John Mackintosh Hall

Speaker: Tom Toughill

Topic: The Big Bang

Synopsis: 

Even though the Big Bang as a theory, did not appear until well after World War 2, evidence for its existence can be traced back to the 1910s. Indeed its acceptance by physicists came almost grudgingly, and only after all alternative explanations to the wealth of evidence that was collected from the 1920s to the late 1930s were exhausted. Even now, the theory still is divisive as it was then. Which makes it a fascinating topic. 

The aim of this talk is to introduce the theory by stepping through its historical timeline. We will look at the evidence that supports the theory as well as some of the mysteries it has thrown into the path of cosmologists. While the Big Bang theory is most often linked with the creation of the universe, we will also see how it offers us glimpses of what the future of the universe could be.