Uni In The Brewery: Session 1

"Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened" by Chris Turney

Wednesday 22nd March 2006, at 5:30 pm at Five Islands Brewery

"Time is one of the greatest of all our obsessions. Why? In many ways, it's a complete paradox. After all, time has no physical basis. We can't feel or touch it. Yet there's almost a sense that we can see it.

From as soon as we can remember we become aware that 'time flies' and 'time is money'. We religiously follow the movement of the hands on a clock; we allow them to dictate our lives. And no matter how hard we try, most of us just don't have enough of it.

Fundamentally, we love to know how old things are. Every other day an article appears in a newspaper, on the web or on television, telling us of an archaeological or geological find has been discovered and that it's so many ".years old". Big numbers are impressive so ages regularly get top billing in the press. They grab the imagination. It almost seems the further back in the past the better.

Dr Chris Turney will be speaking on how science gets these numbers to date the past.  Focusing on famous dating controversies - from the development of the modern calendar to the age of the Earth - and drawing on extensive experience including the celebrated Hobbit fossil of Indonesia, Chris explains how written records, carbon, constellations, and even tree rings help scientists to 'tell the time' and understand the future.

For this talk, Chris will draw upon parts of his new book called 'Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened' which is being published by Macmillan Science on June 13 2006.

Where: Five Islands Brewery, Eastern end of the WIN Entertainment Centre
When: 5:30 until 6:30 pm, Wednesday 22nd March 2006 Cost: FREE
RSVP and Information: Vicky Wallace on 4221 4126 or email vwallace@uow.edu.au