In space no-one can hear you scream... but it is still a noisy
Universe. We are familiar with the many stunning images of space, but these are
only part of the whole human experience. This lecture takes a new approach to
appreciating the Universe, through the vehicle of sound. Once we understand how
sound is propagated, we can look at the how and where it can exist in space. We
examine how sound can be a diagnostic of cosmic phenomena (such as the song of
the Sun and distant stars), the way it can carry energy across vast volumes of
space (away from a black hole humming in B♭), how it can be a
useful way to illustrate processes in astronomy (such as the rapid spin of
pulsars, and other more local radio emissions) and how it is ultimately
responsible for the growth of all structure we see today in the cosmos.
For download and transcript versions of this lecture, please visit the event's page on the Gresham College website: The Sounds of the Universe
Bio
Professor Carolin Crawford
Outreach Officer at the Instituteof Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, Professor Carolin Crawford is one of Britain's foremost science communicators.
After receiving her PhD from NewnhamCollege, Cambridge, Professor Crawford went on to a series of fellowships from BalliolCollege, Oxford, Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the Royal Society. In 2004 she was appointed as a Fellow and College Lecturer at EmmanuelCollege, Cambridge, where she is now also the undergraduate Admissions Tutor for the Physical Sciences. Since 2005 she has combined her college role with that of Outreach Officer at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.
Professor Crawford’s primary research interests are in combining X-ray, optical and near-infrared observations to study the physical processes occurring around massive galaxies at the core of clusters of galaxies. In particular, she observes the complex interplay between the hot intra-cluster medium, filaments of warm ionized gas, cold molecular clouds, star formation and the radio plasma flowing out from the central supermassive black hole.
In 2009 Professor Crawford’s outstanding abilities at science communication were recognized by a Women of Outstanding AchievementAward by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, presented for “communication of science with a contribution to society.”
Appointed as the 36thGresham Professor of Astronomy in 2011, Professor Crawford looks forward to presenting her Gresham lectures wherein she plans “to showcase the very latest developments and ideas in astronomy and cosmology, whilst putting them into the context of the process of scientific discovery.”
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