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Seeing the unseen: from brains to black holes
How far can we push our brains to achieve brilliance?
How does the mind conjure an idea of something that doesn't exist, or that we haven't experienced? Join us for this special Innovation Week event.
A big part of ground-breaking science is聽seeing聽what couldn鈥檛 be seen, imagining聽the聽unimaginable. Every great scientist has a fundamental capacity for creativity 鈥� crossing new frontiers of outside-the-box thinking and pushing聽their brainpower to superhuman levels.
What is聽the聽limit of our brain capacity and how can we translate potential brainpower into powerful discoveries? Hear 蹿谤辞尘听Fernando Calamante聽补苍诲听Michael Barnett聽蹿谤辞尘听聽补苍诲听the聽聽talking聽about聽how to map brain structural networks, and how networks can be affected in disease (either by聽the聽disease process or as external modified for treatment). Physicist聽颁茅濒颈苍别 Boehm聽will be talking about聽the recent images of聽black holes and dark matter. Joining聽them is philosopher聽David Braddon-Mitchell.
To close out the programme is Dr Benjamin Carey聽performing a new audio-visual performance for modular synthesiser and live visuals. His performance interactively explores some of the event鈥檚 themes through interactive sound and visuals.聽
This event was held on Tuesday 20 August at the University of Sydney during聽Innovation Week 2019, which聽celebrates landmark discoveries and transformative inventions by聽the聽University's academics and students.
The speakers
is a Professor of Neurology and a member of the聽聽at the University of Sydney.
is the Director of , the biomedical imaging Core Research Facility at the University of Sydney. He is also a Professor in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering.聽
聽joined the University of Sydney in January 2018 and is only the second woman in history to be Head of the聽. As an astroparticle physicist, 颁茅濒颈苍别 has worked around the world, most recently as Chair of Physics at the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology at Durham University, in the UK, for seven years. She has previously held academic positions in physics at the Laboratoire d鈥橝nnecy-le-Vieux de Physique Th茅orique in France, CERN in Switzerland, and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He was previously at the University of Auckland and a Research Fellow at the Australian National University.
Duncan is a political philosopher with research and teaching interests in contemporary political theory, the history of political thought and moral philosophy. He is currently聽聽at the聽. Prior to this, he was Dean of the聽聽(2010-2015) and Head of the聽聽(2007-2009). He continues to teach in the聽. He has also held appointments at the University of Toronto and the University of York (UK).
Duncan was a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow and Visiting Fellow in Ethics and Public Affairs at the Center for Human Values, Princeton University (2002-03), as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU (1993-96). He was elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2009.
Benjamin is an artist and researcher working at the聽, whose work incorporates equal parts improvised performance, composition and the development of musical software systems. His chosen instrument, the modular synthesiser, is a complex musical system which places the human performer in a symbiotic relationship with often-unwieldy networks of electricity.