Distinguished Lecturer: Spring 2007

General Public Lecture
“Did Life on Earth Come from Mars?”
March 7, 2007

Department of Physics Colloquium
“The Arrow of Time”
March 8, 2007

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and best-selling author. He held academic appointments at the universities of Cambridge, London and Newcastle upon Tyne before moving to Australia in 1990, first as professor of mathematical physics at The University of Adelaide, and later as professor of natural philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, where he helped establish the NASA-affiliated Australian Centre for Astrobiology. In September 2006, he joined Arizona State University as college professor and director of a new interdisciplinary research institute called "Beyond," devoted to exploring the “big questions” of science and philosophy. Davies’s research has been mainly in the theory of quantum fields in curved spacetime, with applications to the very early universe and the properties of black holes, although he is also an expert on the nature of time. His astrobiology research has focused on the origin of life; he was a forerunner of the theory that life on Earth may have originated on Mars.

Davies is the author of several hundred research papers and articles, as well as 27 books, including "The Physics of Time Asymmetry and Quantum Fields in Curved Space," co-authored with his former doctoral student Nicholas Birrell. Among his recent popular books are "How to Build a Time Machine" and "The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the universe just right for life?" He writes frequently for newspapers, journals and magazines in several countries. His television series “The Big Questions.” filmed in the Australian outback, won national acclaim, while his theories on astrobiology formed the subject of a specially commissioned one-hour BBC 4 television production screened in 2003 entitled, "The Cradle of Life." In addition, he has also devised and presented many BBC and ABC radio documentaries on topics ranging from chaos theory to superstrings. Davies was awarded the 2001 Kelvin Medal and Prize by the U.K. Institute of Physics and the 2002 Faraday Award by The Royal Society. In Australia, he was the recipient of two Eureka Prizes and an Advance Australia award. Davies also won the 1995 Templeton Prize for his work on the deeper meaning of science. The asteroid 1992 OG was renamed (6870) Pauldavies in his honor.

General Public Lecture
“Did Life on Earth Come from Mars?”
Abstract: The origin of life remains one of the great outstanding mysteries of science. How, where and when did it begin? For billions of years, Earth and Mars have traded rocks blasted into space by cosmic impacts. Could microbes have hitched a ride and seeded one planet from the other? If so, then Mars may have been the true cradle of life, with deep implications for the burning question “Are we alone in the universe?”

Department of Physics Colloquium
“The Arrow of Time”
Abstract: In daily life the world shows a marked distinction between past and future, but (with a minor exception) the laws of physics are symmetric in time. The resolution of this paradox lies with cosmology and the initial conditions at the birth of the universe. But this simple conclusion conceals some subtleties that took a new twist with the emergence of quantum cosmology and the inflationary universe scenario. The issue has still not been fully resolved, and remains one of the great outstanding mysteries of science.