The Quantum Universe: A Home for Life - Thoughts Overlooking the Night Sky [School of Pure and Applied Sciences Colloquia Series]
by
TBD
Abstract: When the United Nations decided to declare 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, it was simply formalizing what was already commonplace: That quantum mechanics is the most successful scientific theory of all time. In our talk, we will defend quantum mechanics not as the driving force in the successive waves of technological revolutions that followed its discovery, but as a fundamental cultural achievement of our species. That it has offered us a coherent scientific narrative of our cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the emergence of life on a suitable planet. Using only the uncertainty principle – the fundamental principle of quantum mechanics – we will try to explain, in a simple and understandable way, the three basic mysteries that lie behind the most admirable feature of our world: its ability to reach self-knowledge.
Speaker: Stefanos Trachanas is an educator, author, and publisher. For over 35 years he has taught most of the core undergraduate courses at the Physics Department of the University of Crete. His books on quantum mechanics and differential equations are used as primary textbooks in most Greek University Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Engineering. He is a cofounder of Crete University Press, which he led as Director from 1984 until his retirement in 2013. His awards include an honorary doctorate from the University of Crete, the Xanthopoulos-Pnevmatikos national award for excellence in academic teaching, and the Knight Commander of the Order of Phoenix, bestowed by the President of Greece.