Imagine an evening beginning with drinks and appetizers and a dinner with people around the table of diverse disciplinary and religious backgrounds. Imagine courteous but substantive dialogue between two presenters from different faith stances, and extended time for conversation and questions around tables. And then extra time to talk with presenters over more refreshments afterwards. Does that even sound possible? It was, recently, when over 100 university faculty from The Ohio State University and neighboring campuses … [Read more...] about Campus Report: The Faculty Roundtable at The Ohio State University
Science and Faith
Science Corner: On Creativity and Thanksgiving
I don't know about you, but like many people in the United States, a significant amount of my time and attention this week has been dedicated to getting ready for Thanksgiving. I planned the menu for our family's traditional meal -- roasted Meleagris gallopavo (turkey), mashed Solanum tuberosum (potatoes) with gravy, some type of Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberries), and Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin) and/or Theobroma cacao (chocolate) pie. I also been considered how I will spend the time when I'm not cooking --” watching the … [Read more...] about Science Corner: On Creativity and Thanksgiving
Science Corner: Who is My Neighbor?
By the time you read this, the United States will be learning the outcomes of midterm elections. Obviously I don't know the results to comment. Regardless of the outcome, though, I think it is likely we will continue to hear about the partisan divide or variations thereof. And that is a topic which science can offer some insight into, specifically the impact of social media on polarization--specifically, our increased sorting into homogeneous groups with little in common between them. If you suspect social media isn't … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Who is My Neighbor?
Science Corner: Dawn – A Proton’s Tale of All that Came to Be
Stop me if you've heard this one: a biophysicist, a writer, a theologian walk into a bar. OK, so that's not actually how Dawn was written, but the diverse backgrounds of the three co-writers--Cees Dekker, Corien Oranje, and Gijsbert van den Brink respectively--do sound more like résumés for the cast of a niche joke than for collaborators on a novel. And not just any novel, but one that spans 14 billion years--from the instants after the Big Bang until the moment the manuscript was sent to the printers (or so it seems, … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dawn – A Proton’s Tale of All that Came to Be
New Planetarium Show Highlights Catholic Priest Who Helped Establish Big Bang Theory
If you grew up in the US, odds are that the story that you were told of how Big Bang theory was developed is missing a key figure – Catholic priest and astrophysicist Georges Lemaître. After Einstein published his theory of General Relativity in 1915 and wrote his cosmological constant paper in 1917, a graduate student named Georges Lemaître became fascinated with how the new theory might have tangible insights into the cosmos and the observations that were then being made. Famously, in 1927 Lemaître presented to … [Read more...] about New Planetarium Show Highlights Catholic Priest Who Helped Establish Big Bang Theory