A Brief History of Infinity
Wednesday 1 May 2013
Venue: Lecture Theatre 5W 2.3
Where did the idea of infinity come from? Who were the people who defined and refined this paradoxical quantity? Why is infinity, a concept we can never experience or truly grasp, at the heart of science? How can some infinities be bigger than others? An exploration of one of the most mind-boggling features of maths and physics, this talk uncovers the amazing paradoxes of infinity and introduces the people who devised and refined the concept.
For more lectures, see the full GULP programme.
Mr Brian Clegg
After graduating in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, Brian Clegg gained an MA in operational research at Lancaster University and went on to British Airways, where he worked in operational research, IT and new technologies. He left in 1994 to set up his own company providing creativity training to businesses. He is now primarily an author, specializing in popular science with titles including Gravity, A Brief History of Infinity, Inflight Science and Build Your Own Time Machine. He has also written for many publications from The Times, The Observer and the Wall Street Journal to Physics World and Good Housekeeping. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a popular speaker. He is married with two daughters and lives in Wiltshire.