Newcastle University

In this lecture the Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project looks at how cosmologists have been able to predict  and understand entire universes. Join him as he follows the discovery of expanding, contracting, bouncing and spinning  universes to inflation, the multiverse, and the newest observations about the future fate of our own universe.

Until the early twentieth century, cosmology was more like art history than science. There were styles of universe. You could imagine what the universe should be like, with some people preferring their universe infinitely old, others wanting cosmic history to have a definite beginning, and others wanting their universe to be cyclic, with each new cycle springing phoenix-like from the ashes of the old. All these pictures had their origins in religious or philosophical images of what things should be like. 

In 1915, everything changed. Einstein’s new theory of gravity, known as the general theory of relativity, provided equations whose solutions were entire universes. This was revolutionary. Gradually, solutions were found to Einstein’s universe equations. They revealed that the universe should be expanding. Many varieties of expansion were found to be possible. In the first examples to be found, the expansion looked simple and symmetrical, like an expanding sphere. But then universes that expanded at different rates in different directions were found – even universes that rotated and allowed time travel into our past were allowed. This lecture will tell the story of these possible universes, the personalities behind them, and how they have led to the current description of the observed universe and the concept of the multiverse.

John D Barrow FRS is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project, a programme to improve the teaching, learning and appreciation of mathematics and it applications. He is a Fellow of Clare Hall College, Cambridge. Previous posts include Gresham Professor of Geometry and Gresham Professor of Astronomy, Gresham College, London. His research interests are in cosmology, gravitation physics and the interface between particle physics and astronomy. 

Professor Barrow has received many awards, including the 2006 Templeton Prize, the Royal Society’s 2008 Faraday Prize, the 2009 Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics and the 2012 Zeeman Medal of the London Mathematical Society and the IMA. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Academia Europaea. He has written more than 480 scientific papers and 22 books, translated into 28 languages, as well as many popular science articles. Recent books include Cosmic Imagery about the role of pictures in the history of science, 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know about Sport about mathematics and sport, and The Book of Universes. His play, Infinities, won the Italian Premi Ubu for best show in the Italian Theatre Awards in 2002 and the 2003 Italgas Prize.