Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, November 19, 2012 – Curiosity is often said to drive science, but until the seventeenth century – the age of the so-called Scientific Revolution – it was regarded with suspicion and condemnation. What happened to liberate curiosity? Why did no question seem too vast or trivial to be ruled out of bounds? And what does the freedom to be curious really mean for science today?
On Wednesday, December 5, as part of Perimeter Institute’s Public Lecture Series presented by Sun Life Financial, science writer Philip Ball will examine the rise of curiosity and its evolving role in science.
Philip Ball is a freelance writer, and previously worked for over 20 years as an editor for the international science journal Nature. He writes regularly in the scientific and popular media, and has authored many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and the wider culture, including The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature, H2O: A Biography of Water, Bright Earth, Universe of Stone and The Music Instinct. His latest book is Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books.
Ball’s lecture, entitled “Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything”, will be held on Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00 PM ET in Waterloo, Ontario. Tickets will be available starting Monday, November 19, 2012.
Further details can be found at www.perimeterinstitute.ca.