Ordered Universe

The Times Higher Education Awards: Ordered Universe

We’re very pleased and proud with the news that the Times Higher Education Awards, 2014 includes the Ordered Universe project on the shortlist for Research Project of the Year. Nominated by Durham University, the project is one of six to be shortlisted. The winners will be announced on Thursday 27th November, at a ceremony which takes place at the Grovesnor House Hotel. It is a great encouragement for the project, and we hope we have shown how excited we are by the research and the different directions in which it has taken us all over the course of the project so far. Continue reading “The Times Higher Education Awards: Ordered Universe”

Grosseteste at the 1st International Conference on the History of Physics

Last week in Cambridge, the cosmological model of Robert Grosseteste, based on a fundamental coupling of light and matter, was presented as a poster at the 1^st International Conference on the History of Physics, organized by the Institute of Physics at Cambridge, Sept 4-5^th, 2014. As the main focus of the conference was “Electromagnetism: the Road to Power”, most of the papers were concerned with the history of the development of physics in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. However, there were a few papers in the poster session concerned with earlier work and the Ordered Universe poster attracted detailed attention from a number of discerning delegates. Brian Tanner, who presented the poster, was surprised to find that all the reprints that he had taken had been picked up. One delegate was even sufficiently interested to read our papers overnight…Continue reading “Grosseteste at the 1st International Conference on the History of Physics”

Institute of Physics, International Conference on the History of Physics

Trinity_College_Cambridge_1690 — Trinity College, 1690, three years after the appearance of Newton’s Principia Mathematica

The Institute of Physics, in collaboration with the EPS History of Physics Group has organised an International Conference on the History of Physics, which takes place in Cambridge, at Trinity College, September 4th-5th. The conference is the inaugural for a whole series dedicated to all aspects of the history of physics. The leading theme for this year is ‘Electromagnetism: the Road to Power’. Brian Tanner, recently honoured by the Institute with the 2014 Gabor Medal and Prize, will be taking the Ordered Universe’s work on Grosseteste’s universe to the conference, in a poster presentation on the 5th September. If you are in Cambridge, Brian would be delighted to see and talk to you about the project. Continue reading “Institute of Physics, International Conference on the History of Physics”

Physics World – Who was the first scientist?

The question ‘who was the first scientist’ crops up regularly in discussions connected with Grosseteste, a debate made famous by Crombie, with the strong rejoinders of Alexander Koyré. More often than not the question should be refined as ‘who was the first scientist in what has come to be defined as the western tradition’? There are a large number of candidates, from classical antiquity, especially within ancient Greek thought, through the Middle Ages, and into the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Continue reading “Physics World – Who was the first scientist?”

Some summer news and what to do in San Quirico d’Orcia

A short post to pass on the congratulations of the Ordered Universe research team to Ulrike Nowak, who graduated with a first class degree in Philosophy and Psychology. Ulrike’s posts on this blog are among the most read, and have contributed a great deal to record of the Porto and Durham Teachers’ workshops. I’m very grateful to her indeed.

And, if you happen to be in Tuscany over the summer and early Autumn, Cecilia’s husband, an artist and sculptor, has an exhibition throughout the town of San Quirico d’Orcia: the catalogue looks amazing, and the sculptures worthy of Grosseteste’s imagination.

Nature Physics Commentary – All the Colours of the Rainbow

Grosseteste's rainbow co-ordinates mapped onto perceptual colour plane by H. Smithson — Grosseteste’s rainbow co-ordinates mapped onto perceptual colour plane by H. Smithson

cube3 — Grosseteste’s three bi-polar qualities of light and medium plotted on a cube.

The latest Ordered Universe publication is out; a second piece in Nature, this time in Nature Physics. ‘All the Colours of the Rainbow’, which was principally authored by Hannah Smithson and Tom McLeish, with Giles Gasper, provides the outline of the way in which Grosseteste’s thought on colour moves between the De colore ‘On Colour’ and the De iride ‘On the Rainbow’, and the startling ways in which this can be mapped into contemporary models of human colour vision space.Continue reading “Nature Physics Commentary – All the Colours of the Rainbow”

Asgill Press and the Dicta of Grosseteste

Gordon Jackson’s Asgill Press has an interesting and varied list of publications, including Gorden’s own poetry and liturgical works, as well as translations of a number of Grosseteste’s sermons. He has also translated the whole of the Dicta, using the transcription of MS Bodley 798 made available by Joe Goering for the Electronic Grosseteste website, continuing the work begun by Professor Edwin Westermann. The translation makes these texts available to a general audience and will be of particular use in the classroom, perhaps alongside the transcription.Continue reading “Asgill Press and the Dicta of Grosseteste”

Campaign for a statue

The Grosseteste Chapel - an opportunity for greater celebration of Grosseteste and his life, just waiting for a campaign. — The Grosseteste Chapel in Lincoln Cathedral – an opportunity for greater celebration of Grosseteste and his life, just waiting for a campaign.

The Third International Grosseteste Conference signed a petition to encourage Lincoln authorities to commission a statue of one of their most famous sons. The campaign has already received press coverage, thanks to Jack Cunningham’s efforts, from the Lincolnshire Echo and recently taken up by the Catholic Herald and the BBC. Please be in touch with Jack to register your support. The Ordered Universe fully supports the call for a statue, Grosseteste’s influence over many centuries and in many different fields is surely worthy of this recognition.

3rd International Grosseteste conference: Day 3

The third and final day of the Grosseteste conference began with the third plenary lecture from, Christopher Southgate, on contemporary perspectives on Science and Religion, in a Christian context, and in English-speaking literature. Moving from the period 1966-2006 and the influence in particular of Barbour, Peacocke, Polkinghorne to the more recent themes and encounter and engagement between the New Atheism, the work of Sarah Coakley, and areas of positive engagement between religion and science, such as neurophysiology, the lecture ended with some of challenges and difficulties facing the way in which science is able, or not, to present its conclusions to a wider audience.Continue reading “3rd International Grosseteste conference: Day 3”