Splash Biography

Have you ever seen someone guess the attendance at a concert, the number of cells in the human body, or the amount of ice cream consumed daily in Boston? Do you worry that you’re not “mathy” enough to do the same? This ability is not inherent talent, or dumb luck: it’s a skill that we’ll learn! Science asks us to look analytically at the world around us— to study complexity in all its wondrous forms. We break these mysterious problems down into simple pieces that we can wrap our heads around, then we put together the jigsaw, and voila! You have done something extra-ordinary. Come ready to think outside the box and to exercise your mind in new ways. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or a nationally-ranked mathematician to have fun and flex some new mental muscles!

Is a trillion larger than ten billion? A question so obvious and yet complex. In our daily lives, we rarely deal with numbers that large, and our minds aren't tuned to understand them. Thinking about big numbers is incredibly important in science--where we must consider $$6.02\cdot10^23$$ little atoms flying around right here on Earth, or the $$10^40$$ kilograms in the biggest black holes known to man. But big numbers are also important in the real world--to understand just what a trillion dollar health plan means, or whether playing the lottery is ever a good deal. You'll learn how to think outside the box about the large and the small, using techniques developed in the scientific community, and at Harvard Law School. Expect to come out with a new perspective on just how big a trillion is, and just how improbable some events can be.

We're going to dive right in to the most massive objects in our universe--billions of times the mass of the sun. (No, we won't actually dive into a black hole--its hard to get out). When small stars die, they peter out. When massive stars die, they explode in supernovas, outshining an entire galaxy, and whats left is a black hole, a singularity of mass so dense that even light is trapped behind. We'll tour around a few black holes, study their effect on our daily lives, and of course, the seven ways a black hole can kill you. I'll venture into wormholes, white holes, and other extoics, and we'll even bring in a sporting interest and talk about how Stephen Hawking once lost a bet on black holes, and how it was related to the ultimate demise and even death of these most mysterious of objects. (Food for thought: how does a black hole die, anyway?) Be ready to open your minds, to be bent by the curvature of spacetime, and generally to lose yourself in the fun and beauty of the most amazing objects out there in the sky.

Since the end of the cold war, the United States of America has enjoyed a status as the world’s only superpower. That era is rapidly coming to a close. We will discuss the challenges facing America on military, economic, and cultural fronts, and formulate ideas for how our generation can solve them. On the military front, America’s traditional military supremacy is under threat from a reinvigorated Russia and a newly powerful China. Nuclear proliferation is rapidly changing the landscape for mutually assured destruction, providing more nation-states with a nuclear deterrent. Meanwhile, international terrorism is changing the rules, allowing individuals and small groups to challenge nations. On the economic front, America’s infrastructure is rapidly falling behind. The disaster after Katrina, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, the lack of effective mass transit, all lead to the inescapable conclusion that America is trying to build a 21st century nation on 20th century infrastructure. Financial institutions are moving from New York to Hong Kong and London. Technology companies are building facilities in China, India and Taiwan rather than Silicon Valley. We need immediate and large-scale improvements to continue our storied history of economic and technological leadership. On the cultural front, it can no longer be said that American citizenship is a passport to the world. Our country is seen more for our military than for our freedoms—people see the Pentagon rather than the Statue of Liberty. Where is our country going? And where do we fit in? What can you and I do to address these problems of the world? Let us gather to discuss these issues. If you think I am wrong, come and tell me. If you have ideas, bring them to the discussion. This is not, nor should it be a lecture, and I expect full participation of everybody in the room.