Mar 7, 2016
Feature Guest: Fred Adams
Could the very first moments of our universe hold the secret to the
eventual emergence of life billions of years later? And can life
exist in the unimaginably far future, or does the life of the
universe effectively die? From the deep past to the infinite
future, today we're joined at The Star Spot by Professor Fred Adams
to discuss the intersection of cosmology and life.
The Star Spot Hits the Airwaves!
Coming soon, your favourite astronomy program will be
travelling through space… well through the airwaves at least. The
Star Spot, broadcast on CJRU, The Scope at Ryerson, will be on the
air at 1280AM on the radio dial starting in April. You’ll be able
to catch the latest episode every Sunday at 8PM and Tuesday at 6PM
Eastern Time. Visit http://www.thescopeatryerson.ca/
to learn more about our partner radio station.
Thinking of moving to
Mars?
Then you better attend the upcoming panel discussion, March 16th at
the University of Toronto. The event will feature six amazing
panelists from the fields of physics, astronomy, philosophy,
commerce, environmental science, planetary protection and political
science, all brought together to explore the possibilities and
implications of Martian settlement. Come join me as I moderate this
exciting and unique debate, and meet up with members of The Star
Spot and the U of T Astronomy and Space Exploration Society
About Our Guest
Today’s episode of The
Star Spot is the first in a three part series featuring interviews
with the keynote speakers at the 13th annual Expanding Canada’s
Frontier’s symposium, this year on the topic Astronomyths: Science
or Fiction?, looking at cosmology and alien life, hosted at the
University of Toronto this past January. In our subsequent two
episodes we will speak with Professor Lynn Rothschild, senior
scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, and then Brian Trent,
award-winning science fiction author and futurist.
Today I’m excited to be joined by Professor Fred Adams. Professor Adams served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics before joining the Physics Department at the University of Michigan, where he is now Full Professor. Professor Adams has won many awards, including the the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and the Excellence in Education Award from the University of Michigan. In 2014, we was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Professor Adams has an interest in how things form, whether we’re talking the formation of stars, of planetary systems or of the universe itself. Recently he has turned his focus to how things end, with cosmological work that is considering the long term evolution and fate of our universe. Professor Adams is an author of several astronomy books for the public, including The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity and Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe.