A Game of Mysteries: Astronomy and the Unveiling of Nature’s Secret Workings

A Game of Mysteries: Astronomy and the Unveiling of Nature’s Secret Workings

Shane L. Larson

Clarkson University

No human has ever travelled farther from Earth than the Moon. No robotic probe has ever travelled farther than the edge of our solar system. Yet huddled around a telescope at night, we regularly regale our friends and guests with tales of galaxies that are millions of light years away, and how a mini-solar system of planets whirls around nearby Alpha Centauri, and how stars are birthing themselves out of the maelstrom of the Orion Nebula.

We live in a Cosmos grand and vast with underlying rules governing its behavior, called “The Laws of Nature.” From our vantage point here on Earth, humans have spent centuries uncovering those rules — discovering what they are, what they mean, and how they work. In this talk, we’ll use astronomy to understand how we glean knowledge from the Cosmos, explore how our understanding of the Laws of Nature has changed over time, and contemplate some of the great mysteries still confronting us.

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short bio

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Shane Larson is a professor of Physics at Clarkson University and the Director of Integrated Engineering and Applied Science Projects. He works in the field of gravitational wave astrophysics, specializing in studies of compact stars, binaries, and the galaxy with both the ground-based LIGO project, and the forthcoming space-based observatory LISA. He is an award winning teacher, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is an avid amateur astronomer, observing with two homebuilt Dobsonians, a 12.5″ named EQUINOX and a 22″ named COSMOS MARINER. He contributes regularly to a public science blog at writescience.wordpress.com, and posts at Bluesky with the handle @sciencejedi .