| Main Performers | Professor Stephen Hawking - speaker |
| Performance Notes | Professor Stephen Hawking talked about his life story and also his latest book 'The Grand Design' which outlined the latest research and findings into M Theory, the latest step on the path to the elusive Grand Unified Theory of Everything; M Theory presents rather than a single model, a series of different yet interlinked models for the universe, different models for different scales and views of the universe, each of which are claimed to accurately represent reality for their particular set of circumstances; Hawking explained that it is like a set of maps of the world, different maps for different scales, none of them able to accurately reflect the whole, but each of which accurately describe their part and each of which works together with the others to provide a map of the whole.
Having described his childhood and up-bringing before seamlessly moving into the minimum physics necessary to take us to M Theory and the new book, Professor Hawking finished his talk by taking three prepared questions, which included were 'Do you think it will come the time that people will learn everything about physics?', to which he replied 'I hope not!'
At the end of the lecture, an exclusive edition of 'The Grand Design' was given free to all the attendants together with 'Eureka', the monthly science magazine from The Times newspaper. |
| Related Archival Material | Digital Photographs |