Surprising Science — June 6, 2010

Asking Tough Questions

What are natural laws? How do scientists test them? Is time illusory or real? Do black holes make the universe expand? These questions were posed at a recent workshop for philosophers and physicists.

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What are natural laws? How do scientists test them? Is time illusory or real? Do black holes make the universe expand? These questions were posed at a recent workshop for philosophers and physicists. “Why should nature be governed by laws? Why should those laws be expressible in terms of mathematics? Why should they be formulated within space and time? These were the questions posed at a fascinating workshop two weeks ago at the Perimeter Institute, the sequel to a workshop held at Arizona State University in December 2008.” Follow the jump for video presentations of the lectures given at the conference.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

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