"The perfect theory" by Prof Pedro Ferreira at the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival

Past Event

Date
 25 March 2014, 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Location
 Seminar Room 1, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street, (Corner of Catte and Holywell Street), Oxford, OX1 3BD

This book talk is part of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival 2014. Oxford Martin School is the Festival Ideas Partner.

Speaker: Professor Pedro Ferreira, Co-Director, Programme on Computational Cosmology, Oxford Martin School and Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford

Astrophysics expert Professor Pedro Ferreira offers a popular history of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. He outlines the sheer magnificence of its discovery and lays bare the infighting that theory sparked across a whole century. Ferreira describes the battles, feuds and vendettas surrounding the theory, how it is entangled with the flashpoints of history and how it has informed our understanding of what the Universe is made of.

This is a ticketed event and the tickets are £11. For more information and to purchase a ticket please visit this website: http://www.wegottickets.com/oxfordliteraryfestival/event/258700

About the book
The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle Over General Relativity

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement in modern physics. Anything that involves gravity, the force that powers everything on the largest, hottest or densest of scales, can be explained by it. From the moment Einstein first proposed the theory in 1915, it was received with enthusiasm yet also with tremendous resistance, and for the following ninety years was the source of a series of feuds, vendettas, ideological battles and international collaborations featuring a colourful cast of characters. A gripping, colourfully told story, A Perfect Theory entangles itself with the flashpoints of modern history. In this first complete popular history of the theory, Pedro G. Ferreira shows how the theory has informed our understanding of exactly what the universe is made of and how much is still undiscovered: from the work of the giant telescopes in the deserts of Chile to the way in which the latest work on black holes is providing a fresh, new perspective on what space and time are truly made of. As we near the first centenary of Einstein's iconic theory, scientists the world over are wondering once again if we have reached the limits of the theory and just how much of the universe's future it can explain.