CafeLitt 173: The Strange case of "Dark Energy": Was Einstein Right?

Thu 17 Jun 2010, 19:00, by Dr. Omid Saremi, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)

Every time we stargaze, we are humbled...We start contemplating about our "cosmic origins": Where do we come from? Was there a beginning? Will there be an end?
One of the most astonishing discoveries of humankind in the past century, is to reveal that we live in an expanding universe..
Confusingly, the expansion of universe seems to be accelerating!! This has been perplexing physicists. It will have unthinkable consequences. In particular, it implies that the vacuum itself, or the state of "nothingness", should have some weight!
Is "nothingness of vacuum" made of "something"? Is the vastness of Cosmos, filled with "some dark stuff" that physicists have just begun to comprehend? Did Einstein get this right? Or we need to ...?
In this talk, we will share our confusions.

omid.jpg

Dr. Omid Saremi
Post Doctoral Fellow in physics at McGill University

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About us

CaféLitt is not a place; it is a gathering of minds. We are a group of mostly Persian young students, scholars and professionals who gather every Thursday evening around 19h00 to discuss various subjects and share different ideas, ranging vastly from history to science, from literature to fine arts. We started these gatherings on Jan 17th, 2006 with 5 people and have reached an average weekly audience of about 40 people. Each week, one of us takes the responsibility of presenting a topic for about an hour in a subject s/he is intimately familiar with or has an expertise in. Afterwards, the evening turns into a discussion forum and all members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask their question(s) and share their points of view.

Some new and exciting ideas were born out of CaféLitt sessions. We have started a series of monthly meetings called CaféCinema during which a movie is presented and discussed in some detail afterward. This year's program of CaféCinema revolves around the history of Iranian cinema. Some Cinema students hold these sessions (mainly conducted in English) on the last Sunday of each month.

Likewise, CaféLitt BookClub is an activity where people who like books decide to read a book each month and discuss it during a cozy Café session on the second Sunday of every month.

CaféTheatre is a series of semi-rehearsed sessions in which we select a play, divide the roles among different people and read the play from the text in front of an audience. Similar to other CaféLitt sessions, each CaféTheatre session will end with a discussion of that day's play.  

CaféScience and CaféPhilo are our plans for near future. The purpose of CaféScience is to provide a forum for the public discussion and understanding of all scientific findings and ideas, with an emphasis on new, interesting and publicly relevant topics. During CaféPhilo sessions, we will talk about philosophy, its history and all its related aspects.

CaféLitt is pen to all comments, suggestion and new ideas. CaféLitt provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning about culture, science and philosophy in a relaxed and friendly environment, and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with like-minded members of your community.

CafeLitt is a nonpartisan, nonreligious and nonpolitical entity.
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