From: TerryMosel@aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 17:40:29 EDT
Subject: IAA Meeting; "Time, Gentlepersons, Please"
Hi all,
1. The opening meeting of the new Irish Astronomical Association season will
be on Wednesday 24 Sept, when J Kelly Beatty, Senior Exec Editor of Sky &
Telescope, USA, will give a talk entitled "A Stone's Throw: Meteorite Transport
Between Planets". It starts at 7.30, in Lecture Room 5, Main Building,
Stranmillis College, Stranmillis Road, Belfast. Admission is free, and all are
welcome.
2. Prof Mark Bailey, Director of Armagh Observatory, has asked me to
circulate the following:
"TIME EVENT"
As a follow-up to last year's highly successful "Galileo Event", the Armagh
Observatory is arranging a second event in conjunction with the Armagh Natural
History and Philosophical Society aimed at strengthening the links between
science and the humanities, this time with a focus on Time.
The event, which is again supported by the National Lottery Fund "Awards for
All" scheme, will take place between 6.00pm and 10.00pm on Sunday 26 October
2003 in the Rotunda Lecture Theatre, St Patrick's Trian, Armagh. Tickets for
the event are free and may be obtained by contacting Mrs Aileen McKee, Armagh
Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG; Tel: 028-3752-2928; e-mail:
ambn@arm.ac.uk. For more information, please see the Armagh Observatory web-site:
http://star.arm.ac.uk/publicevents/time.html
Summary
-------
Despite our day-to-day familiarity with the word "time", the nature of Time
has remained a mystery ever since mankind's early attempts to measure it by
counting the diurnal cycle, the phases of the Moon and the slow march of the
seasons. In addition to the steady, measurable passage of "clock-time", we are
aware of the elastic, sometimes paradoxical nature of "mental-time", how its
relentless march beats out our mortality, and how its lengthening shadow
continually changes our view of the world and our understanding of the past. The
"Time Event" will explore the complexities of Time from both scientific and human
perspectives.
Programme
---------
18:00 Arrival
18:30 "Time, A Guide for Travellers"
Professor John Barrow FRS (University of Cambridge)
19:30 Light Refreshments
20:15 "Time, Chime and Rhyme"
Professor Iggy McGovern (Trinity College Dublin)
20:30 "The Personal Experience of Time"
Mr Malachi O'Doherty (Fortnight Magazine)
21:15 General Discussion
22:00 Close
Speakers
--------
John Barrow, a leading cosmologist and author, will review some of the
curious features of time in modern cosmology and physics. He will look at the
possibilities and consequences of time travel, whether time had a beginning and
whether it will have an end.
Iggy McGovern, a research physicist and poet, poses the question: "What is
the dimension of the present moment?", and takes a wry look at the treatment of
Time in selected poetry.
Malachi O'Doherty, Managing Editor of Fortnight magazine, notes that time as
measured by clocks, whether the one on the mantelpiece or the one in the sky,
passes in even measurable steps. That is not how time is experienced
subjectively. Some things in the past still seem very close, others unutterably
remote. Drawing on his memoir "I Was A Teenage Catholic", Malachi reflects on the
plasticity of time, the presence of the past, the absences from memory.
(Should be an enjoyable 4-D experience!)
Clear Skies, and Plenty of Time,
Terry Moseley
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