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QUANTUM TO COSMOS

Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics celebrated its 10th Anniversary with Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future. This innovative festival, which took place October 15th to 25th 2009, continues to take a global audience from the strange world of subatomic particles to the outer frontiers of the universe. Watch all lectures, panel discussions, and "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" sessions on-demand!

Q2C Festival was one of the largest and most comprehensive science outreach events ever held in Canada. The scope and scale of Perimeter Institute's 10th anniversary celebration was truly impressive: lectures, panel discussions, pub talks, cultural activities, The Quantum Tamers Canadian premiere, a sci-fi film festival, and the hugely popular Physica Phantastica exhibit, a 5 000 square-foot space filled with demonstrations, hands-on activities, experiments, and an incredibly immersive 3D tour of the universe narrated by Stephen Hawking, Honorary Festival President.

 

The Festival program was exceptional for its quality and creativity—from the wonderfully clear distillations of research given by leading scientists, to films and cultural events that refracted scientific ideas through art, to provocative televised panel discussions and informal pub conversations.

 

This rich tapestry of events and online accessibility combined and recombined people with ideas in wonderful ways. In the lectures, you could learn about cutting edge science from leaders in the field who, in turn, were engaged by the many thoughtful questions from audience members in the lecture theatre and online—including email questions from across Canada, the United States and overseas. In the meantime, at the Physica Phantastica centre, you could hear animated conversations between PI postdoc volunteers and interested 9 year-olds about the Big Bang, or watch a prototype quantum computer riveting the attention of several retired engineers. Up the street, at ‘Science in the Pub’, you could listen to Q2C guest speakers and audience members sharing provocative concepts over some pints, creating an intimate swirl of heady ideas.

 

Quantum to Cosmos also provided the launching pad for several exciting new PI Outreach offerings that will gain new audiences year-over-year. These included the wonderfully whimsical Alice and Bob in Wonderland animations designed to get kids thinking scientifically, The Power of Ideas web resource on connections between theoretical physics and innovation, The Challenge of Quantum Reality in-class module to assist science teachers and their high-school age students, The Quantum Tamers broadcast documentary for general audiences around the world and additional Meet a Scientist online video clips for those who may be thinking about pursuing a life in research.

Quantum Explore the world of subatomic particles, quantum computing, and "spooky" phenomena like quantum entanglement. Watch talks and lively panel discussions on concepts and technology like nuclear magnetic resonance (used for everything from imaging your brain to processing quantum information), the Large Hadron Collider and the search for dark matter, and how to make sense of the strangest features of quantum mechanics.

Cosmos At the other extreme — the unimaginably large scales of the universe — the Cosmos theme will take in everything from dark matter and the big bang to space flight and life on other planets. Q2C is an official International Year of Astronomy event.

Ideas for the Future Delve into fascinating topics including the promise and challenge of green technology, the future of computation, and the advancement of neuroscience.

PERIMETER INSTITUTE

Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, PI also provides a wide array of award-winning outreach activities, including popular public lectures, in order to share the importance of research, discovery and innovation. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, Perimeter Institute continues to be a successful example of private and public collaboration in scientific inquiry and education.

The Q2C festival is produced on behalf of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics by Title Entertainment Inc.