The Mind of the Universe. A series of school/public lectures communicating the excitement of cosmic discovery(astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology)

宇宙之心。

• 批准号: ST/H003150/1
• 负责人: Francisco Diego
• 金额: $ 2.65万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FH003150%2F1
• 关键词: Mind; Universe.; series; public; lectures

The Mind of the Universe will be a series of lectures covering the main aspects of the origin and evolution of the Universe, aimed at communicating to young and adult audiences the excitement of cosmic discovery and its implications to the human culture of the 21st century. The Mind of the Universe concept is based on a poignant notion from Carl Sagan who said that we all are the eyes of the Universe looking back upon itself. The idea was taken as the underlying theme for an introductory course to astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology that I wrote and delivered several times at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute. The end of the course deals with life and the emergence of consciousness in the Universe, hence its title. This fellowship would allow me to re-pack and update the course material as a series of individual lectures on a variety of topics, from the origin of the Universe, the formation of elementary particles and the assembly of chemical elements, to the imaginative technology used along history (telescopes, spectrographs, non optical detectors, robotic spacecraft, etc) and the modern view of our place in a vast ocean of space and time. Major topics to update are the amazing results from the robotic exploration of the solar system, the current work on stellar and planetary formation and cutting-edge research to unravel the mystery of the dark Universe. For these, I will have the advice from UCL people like Ofer Lahav, Ian Crawford, Serena Viti, David Williams and others. An important challenge would be to bring fundamental concepts to school children, something that has already shown promising results on a small scale under the 'Astronomy in the Classroom' programme of school lectures and visits at the University of London Observatory, funded at 10%FTE by a series of PPARC/STFC small awards. The Mind of the Universe lectures will have engaging interactive demonstrations involving LINEAR scales of space and time, basic spectroscopy and the use of telescopes. In addition, I plan to produce audio visual sequences (doppler shift in sound and light, wave diffraction, the flash spectrum during solar eclipses, the morphology of the magnetic corona along the solar cycle of activity, the expansion of the Universe, gravitational lensing, etc). Following my long relationship with the Royal Institution as a lecturer within their school programmes, they have offered advice on language, general style and practical demonstrations and hosting the lectures at their refurbished Faraday Lecture Theatre (see attachments). The second part of this fellowship will allow me to promote and deliver the lectures to large school groups and relevant venues nationwide like the Royal Intitution, the BA, Cheltenham, etc. festivals of Science, museums, science centres and planetariums at Bristol, Glasgow, Leicester, Greenwich, Edinburgh, etc. I also plan to produce teacher/lecturer information packs and worskshops to be delivered mainly at the Association for Science Education conferences and events organised by the Institute of Physics. At this stage, there will be direct links to the teacher workshops planned by Dr Paul Roche, holder of a STFC SinS Fellowship. Paul and me expect mutual benefits and we plan to share some resources on the same website. I welcome a collaboration with the other S&S Fellow, Dr M.Aderin as I feel that may be some useful overlap in our activites. The extension of The Mind of the Universe project comes in good time to contribute to events for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, celebrating 400 years of telescope astronomy and the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. An important cross-curricular opportunity is the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species (1859), as the origin and evolution of life can now be framed in a cosmological context in the new science of Astrobiology,

“宇宙之心”将是一系列涵盖宇宙起源和演化主要方面的讲座，旨在向年轻和成人观众传达宇宙发现的兴奋及其对 21 世纪人类文化的影响。宇宙心灵的概念基于卡尔·萨根的一个深刻的观念，他说我们都是宇宙的眼睛，回顾着自己。这个想法被作为天文学、天体物理学和宇宙学入门课程的基本主题，我在格林威治皇家天文台和汉普斯特德花园郊区研究所多次编写并讲授这门课程。本课程的结尾涉及宇宙中的生命和意识的出现，这也是它的标题。这项奖学金将使我能够将课程材料重新包装和更新为一系列关于各种主题的个人讲座，从宇宙的起源、基本粒子的形成和化学元素的组装，到历史上使用的富有想象力的技术（望远镜、摄谱仪、非光学探测器、机器人航天器等）以及我们在浩瀚的时空海洋中所处位置的现代观点。更新的主要主题包括机器人探索太阳系的惊人结果、当前关于恒星和行星形成的工作以及揭开黑暗宇宙之谜的前沿研究。对于这些，我会从伦敦大学学院的人那里得到建议，比如 Ofer Lahav、Ian Crawford、Serena Viti、David Williams 等。一个重要的挑战是向学校的孩子们介绍基本概念，这已经在学校讲座和伦敦大学天文台参观的“课堂天文学”计划中小规模地显示出了有希望的结果，该计划由一系列 PPARC/STFC 小额奖项提供 10% FTE 的资助。宇宙思维讲座将进行引人入胜的互动演示，涉及空间和时间的线性尺度、基本光谱学和望远镜的使用。此外，我计划制作视听序列（声音和光的多普勒频移、波衍射、日食期间的闪光光谱、太阳活动周期中磁日冕的形态、宇宙的膨胀、引力透镜等）。在我作为皇家学院学校课程讲师的长期合作关系之后，他们提供了关于语言、总体风格和实践演示的建议，并在翻新的法拉第演讲厅举办了讲座（见附件）。该奖学金的第二部分将使我能够向大型学校团体和全国相关场所（例如皇家学院、BA、切尔滕纳姆等）推广和提供讲座。布里斯托尔、格拉斯哥、莱斯特、格林威治、爱丁堡等的科学节、博物馆、科学中心和天文馆。我还计划制作教师/讲师信息包和研讨会，主要在 物理研究所组织的科学教育协会会议和活动。在此阶段，将直接链接到 STFC SinS 奖学金获得者 Paul Roche 博士计划的教师研讨会。保罗和我期望互惠互利，我们计划在同一个网站上共享一些资源。我欢迎与另一位 S&S 研究员 M.Aderin 博士合作，因为我认为这可能是我们活动中一些有用的重叠。 “宇宙思维”项目的扩展恰逢其时，为 2009 年国际天文学年的活动做出贡献，庆祝望远镜天文学 400 周年和首次登月 40 周年。达尔文《物种起源》（1859）发表 150 周年是一个重要的跨学科机会，因为生命的起源和进化现在可以在天体生物学这一新科学的宇宙学背景下进行阐述，