Starmus kicked off a spectacular live performance occasion open to the general public in Bratislava, which attracted some 25,000 to 30,000 individuals who flocked to the positioning. The sensible digital musician Jean-Michel Jarre took to the stage, aided by lasers and fireworks, and hosted particular visitor Brian Could of Queen. Credit score: David J. Eicher.
The seventh Starmus Festival happened Could 12–17 in Bratislava, Slovakia, and was a smashing success all the best way round. Starmus stands for stars and music, and this celebration has grown into the best science pageant on the planet. It’s the creation of astronomer Garik Israelian, the director, and his buddy Brian Could, who’s an astronomer and in addition the founding guitarist of the nice rock band Queen. The concept of Starmus is to train each the analytical and artistic halves of the thoughts, exploring all of the sciences and the humanities to make the world a greater place. The pageant is known for bringing collectively many Nobel Prize laureates, astronaut-explorers, and prime scientists and artists from all fields.
I’ve been delighted to be a member of the Starmus board together with Garik and Brian for years now, and was concerned with the pageant once more this 12 months. I hosted the opening day, delivered a chat on galaxies, participated in our press convention, and joined in occasions centered on the board. It was as soon as once more a spectacular expertise, this one my sixth Starmus.
The night time earlier than the pageant commenced, we staged an enormous live performance adjoining to one of many metropolis’s iconic options, the so-called UFO Bridge. The good grasp of digital music, Jean-Michel Jarre, well-known for among the largest live shows in historical past, amazed the viewers that swelled far past the sector that was constructed, spilling into the town, and maybe quantity to 25,000 or 30,000 individuals. Brian Could joined Jean-Michel late within the present for some collaborative numbers, and it was a spectacular and mesmerizing expertise with numerous lasers and a staggering variety of fireworks. Simply beautiful. I’m proud to say that Jean-Michel has joined our Starmus board.
The subsequent day, Starmus started in earnest. This 12 months’s theme was Starmus Earth, and it jogged my memory of a saying we used to have at Astronomy Journal — “Earth is a planet too.” It’s the one one within the cosmos we all know of that helps life, and so we have to deal with it for future generations hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years into the long run. Local weather change and related subjects turned an enormous characteristic of the primary day’s talks, because the science of placing a lot carbon dioxide, methane, and different compounds into the environment is reworking Earth in a nasty manner.
First-day talks included these by the nice Jane Goodall, celebrated for being the world’s main authority on chimpanzee conduct, the founding father of the Jane Goodall Institute, and now a brand new member of our Starmus board. It’s arduous to put many individuals on the planet who’re as inspiring to pay attention as than Jane Goodall. We additionally heard from local weather scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who gave us an outline of the place the local weather change drawback now stands. Nat Keohane, a former adviser to the Obama White Home, described how capitalism has contributed to local weather change and the way it could assist to unravel the issue. Mary Kaldor explored how conflict could also be an anachronism. The legendary Sylvia Earle, grasp of the oceans, delivered a spectacular speak concerning the deep frontier of oceanography.
And talks on the primary day rolled on. Steven Chu, previously Barack Obama’s Secretary of Vitality and now a professor at Stanford, described the problem of attending to net-zero GHG emissions. Columbia’s Maureen Raymo described the connection between carbon dioxide and sea degree. Lastly, panel discussions explored atmospheric rivers, the circulation of temperatures and salinity within the oceans (Ros Rickaby and Bob Bishop) and collapsing ice within the Antarctic (Svitlava Krakovska and Chris Rapley).
And all of that comprised Day 1. The pageant’s second day explored technological points, starting with Edvard Moser’s speak on whether or not people are born with a way of space. Apollo 16 moonwalker Charlie Duke then delivered a glance forward on the Artemis program that can carry people again to the Moon. Starmus board member Tony Fadell, inventor of the iPod and co-inventor of the iPhone, described how improvements might assist to avoid wasting the world. The world’s main professional on black holes, Kip Thorne, joined his artist collaborator Lia Halloran to wow the viewers with an illustrated exploration into the warped aspect of the universe.
The second day additionally included talks by Richard Marko, CEO of the pageant’s main sponsor, the Slovakian cyber-security firm ESET, on rethinking cybersecurity within the age of many world challenges. Two main authorities on synthetic intelligence then took to the stage: Bernhard Schölkopf explored how clever AI actually is, and his buddy and colleague Philip Torr delivered a lecture on AI to the individuals, exploring the way forward for this highly effective software. We concluded the second day of Starmus with a star social gathering placed on at Devin Fort, an impressive medieval construction a brief distance exterior of the town. Two dozen or so telescopes have been readily available, the outing organized partially by Scott Roberts of Discover Scientific and Franck Marchis of the SETI Institute and Unistellar, which enabled giving tons of of members nice views of the cosmos at an historic and visually overwhelming place.
The third day of Starmus was a particular one. We held the Stephen Hawking Medal Ceremony wherein we gave 4 particular individuals the prize named for our beloved colleague. I used to be privileged to provide the primary Hawking Medal to the nice musician and avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, a real lover of science and nature. We then awarded a Hawking Medal to Christopher Nolan, the nice filmmaker, after which one other to the legendary David Attenborough, one of many world’s best naturalists. The ultimate Hawking Medal went to pioneering oceanographer Sylvia Earle.
Following the Hawking Medal Ceremony, we offered the standard Sonic Universe Live performance. This time our superb rock present featured The Offspring, together with Brian Could (who provided a scorching rendition of Queen’s “Stone Chilly Loopy”), the always-incredible keyboard work of our pal Rick Wakeman, Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet (who offered an excellent rendition of the mega-hit “True,” amongst others), and extra.
On the pageant’s fourth day, we have been again to enterprise with talks. This day was heavy with Nobel Prize winners. Our good buddy Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of Britain, delivered a discuss post-human intelligence. The good cosmologist George Smoot walked us by means of the historical past of cosmological thought and the identified parameters of the cosmos. Michel Mayor, discoverer of the primary exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star, describes the paradigm change we’re present process in discovering huge numbers of planetary methods. And Laurie Anderson talked about constructing an ark for humanity.
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A press convention describing the wide selection of Starmus occasions featured board members together with Dave Eicher, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Brian Could. Credit score: Maria Friargiu. -
Rock stars aided Starmus with a collection of live shows, together with the chief and lead singer of Spandau Ballet, Tony Hadley, seen right here with Maria Friargiu and Dave Eicher. Credit score: David J. Eicher. -
The good oceanographer Sylvia Earle gave us a state-of-the-art evaluation of what’s occurring with the world’s oceans, and what we have to do about it. Credit score: David J. Eicher. -
An authority on local weather change, Katharine Hayhoe described the present state of Earth as a planet and what we’re doing to the way forward for habitability. Credit score: David J. Eicher.
We continued with an array of imaginative and entertaining displays. Anton Zeilinger explored randomness and actuality, Donna Strickland explored world environmental monitoring, and Kurt Wüthrich examined Brownian movement and protein dynamics in resolution. Late within the day the group held a spherical desk dialogue within the UFO restaurant, that includes Jane Goodall, Tony Fadell, Laurie Anderson, Chris Hadfield, Dexter Holland, Garik Israelian, Katharine Hayhoe, and Steven Chu.
Our last day of Starmus festivities ended with a bang, and with one other full slate of talks. Astronauts led off, as Kathryn Thornton described the Hubble Servicing Mission that mounted the nice space telescope’s optics within the early Nineties. Chris Hadfield adopted with an excellent discuss space junk and what we would do concerning the huge storehouse of particles in low-Earth orbit. Neil Lawrence then spoke about what makes people distinctive within the age of AI, and Garrett Reisman described innovation at each NASA and SpaceX that he has skilled.
I used to be privileged to assist my previous pal Robin Rees, writer of the London Stereoscopic Co., with introducing a movie he has produced concerning the late, nice Patrick Moore. We misplaced Patrick a decade in the past however this 40-minute movie about his life, and centered on an observational occasion for the Transit of Venus some years in the past, will assist us bear in mind him effectively.
The ultimate slate of talks this time commenced with Carole Mundell describing the wide selection of current and deliberate missions of the European House Company, laying out plans for a very thrilling future. Dante Lauretta described his analysis on Bennu and asteroid sampling missions, and delivered an excellent imaginative and prescient for asteroid analysis sooner or later. His current 3D e-book on Bennu, coauthored with Brian Could, served as a stellar instance of publicizing the asteroid outcomes. Brian Greene gave us a ahead look into the deep way forward for the universe. And a last panel dialogue wrapped the occasion, this one discussing the sense and sensibility of pushing onward to human exploration of Mars. It featured an all-star solid of Joel Parker, Patrick Michel, Scott Hubbard, and Garrett Reisman.
Thus we wrapped one other version of Starmus. I used to be exhausted on the pageant’s finish, drained by too little sleep and too many nice discussions with well-known scientists and artists from all around the world. You’ll see the outcomes of a few of these discussions in future editions of Astronomy Journal. I invite you to remain tuned for these, and for information within the coming weeks and months on the subsequent editions of Starmus, that can once more convey unimaginable surprises.
David J. Eicher is Editor of Astronomy, writer of 26 books on science and historical past, and a board member of the Starmus Pageant and of Lowell Observatory.
