RocketSTEM Issue #7 - May 2014 | Page 13

ball rolling, but we are now in conversation with a number of leading scientists, in a variety of areas, who RS: What are you most looking forward to about the World Science Festival later this month? GREENE: “It is always full of surprises and great programs. I’m doing a program on quantum mechanics with a number of world renowned folks, whose The microscopic realm are so different from the ones that distinct, separate universe. And the metaphor, the Dr. Seuss story, I think is aligned well with modern thinking. Now, consider this. We think of ourselves as intelligent life. We share 99 percent of our DNA with chimps so a little tiny shift in our DNA takes you from chimp to us. Now, that suggests that if there are other creatures in the universe whose laws at work in the microscopic realm also know there is a really cool event happening on the Intrepid are so different from the ship in the Hudson river, and we are doing a screening of a ones that we experience up here, that it is its with astronauts to interact with families and audiences after the own wondrous, distinct, together of science and music and separate universe. celebration of one of the most important RS: What is your opinion of a “Horton Hears a Who” scenario for the universe? Stepping out of the science, what kind of ideas do you have about ‘what we are’? GREENE: one level of reality – whether a very tiny realm or a very big realm, there are vastly different phenomena that physics has taught us. It hasn’t taught us that little tiny people live down there, but it has taught us that the laws at work in the answer might turn out to be that there is, and that life is so intelligent that when compared to ours, they’re really not interested in us, just like we really aren’t that interested in worms or RS: What do you think is outside of space? How did something come from nothing? GREENE: well there simply may not be an outside of space. It makes sense to talk about what’s outside of your building, or what’s outside of your country, what’s truly encompasses everything. And the notion of an conceptual in the sense that the ideas are the real ideas of science, but you don’t need math background, and you don’t need to do homework – you just take in the material. illustrate the core ideas. I think they are an essential part of my mind, does a better job of teaching than I typically do in the classroom. I don’t have this type of visual resource in the classroom and that’s why this is of engagement is the university need high school Algebra and be comfortable with the place As an afterthought, Greene Brian Greene speaking at the Smithsonion National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Credit: Kurt Raschke though, is that the courses take abstract ideas and make them www.RocketSTEM .org by a few percent in the right direction, their intelligence could be so enormous compared to ours, that they would look at us as if we would look at us as if we were worms crawling around on the surface of the earth. So we always ask ourselves if understandable, by making of animations we have built to is simple to navigate with clear instructions to assist you in following your curiosity into the strange world of physics, in whichever manner you or to try out the courses, visit www. worldscienceu.com. 11 11