• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search
  • About
  • Lecturers
  • Past Lectures
  • Nominate
  • Committee

The William T. Patten Foundation

  • Home
  • About
  • Lecturers
  • Past Lectures
  • Nominate
  • Committee
  • Search
  • Home
  • Past Lectures
  • The Galilean imperative: A physicist's search for understanding 1- What have we learned, and how should we teach?

The Galilean imperative: A physicist's search for understanding 1- What have we learned, and how should we teach?

Monday, October 28, 2013

7:30–9 p.m.

Presidents Hall, Franklin Hall

Lecturer

2013—William Bialek

John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professor of Physics, Princeton University

To a remarkable extent, our understanding of the natural world is built from a small set of very deep ideas. I’ll try to give some sense for the nature of these ideas, for their power and scope. I will also try to explain what we mean by “understanding” in several different contexts, and why these successes give us (measured) confidence that more complex problems may yet yield to our search for understanding. Finally, I’ll say a few words about the cultural gaps that separate scientists who have mastery of these theoretical ideas from other scientists, from the generally educated public, and from the polity as a whole. It is not too much to claim that our future quality of life will depend, crucially, on our ability to bridge these gaps by teaching.

 Watch lecture

Indiana University

Accessibility | College Scorecard | Privacy Notice | Copyright © 2025 The Trustees of Indiana University