#TMMOF

#TMMOF (The Many Manners Of Falling, February 24, 2019):

Why is that body heading the other way? Do different objects fall differently? Is it a mystery why bodies attract each other? What is the ontology of gravity? Did Newton find his own idea of universal gravitation absurd? When was Space first believed to be unlimited? Do belief systems and knowledge systems always influence each other? Does experience form intuition? Is a simultaneous process of falling in and falling out always ongoing in the Universe? What is it like to fall into black holes? Are they empty inside? Are their horizons smooth? Are black holes fuzzballs (or ‘string stars’)? How do they then ‘emit’ entangled radiation? Is floating a ‘kind’ of falling? Is gravity a matter related phenomenon, & not a force at all? Or, are all forces aspects of (geometric) space? How limited is our own experience of the physical world? Does reality sometimes mask itself in other ‘dimensions’? ‘How’ will you take a free kick from 30 metres outside the goal post? How much of gravity is cognizable? Can (dual) objects that appear identical in form be very different in substance? Do we also need the things we cannot explain for our existence? What is the future of our Universe? &, will we find the ‘angels’…? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from black hole physics and string theory (Prof. Samir Mathur, The Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus), & philosophy (Prof. Babu Thaliath, JNU, New Delhi).

Listen in…

SynTalk is pleased and privileged to have hosted the following SynTalkrs (in alphabetical order) on its #TMMOF show.

Prof. Samir Mathur (black hole physics, string theory) is currently the Professor at the Department of Physics, at The Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus. He was also an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1997-1999), and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard University (1989-1991) & the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, Mumbai, 1987-1991). Prof. Mathur completed his M.S. in Physics (Integrated) from IIT Kanpur (1981), and then completed his Ph.D. in Physics from University of Bombay (1987). His research interests are string theory, black holes, the AdS/CFT correspondence, and cosmology. He is best known for developing the Fuzzball conjecture as a resolution of the black hole information paradox. The Fuzzball conjecture asserts that the fundamental description of black holes is given by a quantum bound state of matter which has the same size as the corresponding classical black hole. This quantum bound state replaces the event horizon and singularity, and the classical black hole metric is claimed to be an approximate effective description. His research has been published in multiple refereed journals such as, Astrophysical Letters, Physics Letters B (Elsevier), Nuclear Physics B (Elsevier), Communications in Mathematical Physics (Springer), & International Journal of Modern Physics D (World Scientific). Prof. Mathur has also delivered lectures ast multiple conferences & workshops in various cities such as, Copenhagen (Landau Birthday Symposium, 1988), Santa Barbara (Strings, 1996, 1998), Boston (PASCOS 1998), Seoul (KIAS 2000), Paris (Strings 2004), & Canada (Perimeter Institute, 2009).

Prof. Babu Thaliath (philosophy) is currently Professor and Chairperson at the Centre of German Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He has previously pursued postdoctoral research as Visiting Scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and at St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge (2010-2013) and Humboldt University Berlin (2005 – 2009). His key research areas are early modern philosophy, epistemology, aesthetics, phenomenology, history and philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, theory of perception, late medieval scholasticism, intercultural and transnational communication processes, & film aesthetics. He completed B. Tech. (Civil Engineering) from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (1988), after which he studied German Philology and Philosophy at JNU (1992-1994). He continued his studies in Philosophy and Germanistik at the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg (1997-1999), followed by a doctoral research in the areas of Philosophy and Art History in Freiburg and Basel (1999 –2003) under the guidance of Prof. Klaus Jacobi and Prof. Gottfried Boehm, and completed his Ph.D. in 2003. He was also a Fellow at the Internationales Kolleg Morphomata of the University of Cologne (May-October 2016). Prof. Thaliath has presented in several international and national conferences. His recent publications (monographs) include: Die Verkörperung der Sinnlichkeit (The Embodiment of Senses, Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2017) and Wissenschaft und Kontext in der frühen Neuzeit (Science and Context in Early Modern Age, Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2016). [Note: Also a SynTalkr on #TLOM (The Limits Of Mathematics)]

Note: Any & all errors in the brief profiles above are SynTalk’s own.

#TMMOF mentions:  Aristotle, Nicholas of Cusa, René Descartes, Gilles de Roberval, Tycho Brahe, Nicolaus Copernicus, Robert Hooke, Richard Bentley, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Marcel Grossmann, Theodor Kaluza, Stephen Hawking, Jacob Bekenstein, Martin Kemp, & Stephen Gaukroger, among others.