TEDxSalford

Speaker Announcement – George Smoot

George Smoot is a man who has accomplished many things, but the cornerstone of his achievements must be when he received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize came from his work (alongside John Mather) in exploring cosmic microwave background radiation, the results of which have helped develop our understanding about the origins of the universe. The Nobel prize committee even went as far to say that his work ‘‘can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science”

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is what is known as ‘the afterglow’ of the big bang, and by studying this afterglow, scientists have been able to map the early universe ”revealing its primal form and the patterns that have shaped it.”

Because of George Smoot’s work we now know for example, that the universe is in fact a anisotropic environment, meaning the cosmos is in fact a varied and lumpy and more complex place than scientists first thought.

If you find yourself intrigued by this you should have a look at the Smoot Group website for more information and also see what research is going on right now!

You can also see George Smoot’s personally written biography from the Nobel prize website here.

Smoot has also tried his hand at other things, and of course been successful, he won the $1 million prize on ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader’ and even appeared on an episode of the hit sitcom ‘The big bang theory’ (as himself)

3 years before picking up the Nobel prize Smoot was winning another award, the ‘Albert Einstein medal” to be precise, which is awarded for  ”scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein” – an award that Stephen Hawking himself won in its inaugural year.

Suffice to say, George Smoot is a world leading astrophysicist and cosmologist, and TEDxSalford 3.0 will be privileged to have him on the stage come November 10th 2013, at the Lowry Complex in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester. And if this talk is as interesting and full of ideas as his sole TED appearance back in 2008 than we are surely in for a treat!

Human beings have had the audacity to conceive a theory of creation and now, we are able to test that theory. I believe we have discovered the fossil remnants  of the progenitors of present day structure in the universe. They tell us that we have a viable theory of the universe back to about 10-30 seconds.

At that time the currently observable universe was smaller than the smallest dot on your TV screen, and less time had passed than it takes for light to cross that dot.