How Could We Survive the Big Bang?

The Universe started with the Big Bang, that was so democratic that it produced practically everything. The problem is that "everything" includes anti-matter, our evil cousin that annihilates us whenever we meet. How, then, could we survive the Big Bang with all the anti-matter around us? This line of research led to Nobel Prize award to Kobayashi and Maskawa the last year, but the mystery lingers on. Maybe the ghostly particles called neutrinos are our savior

About the Speaker

Internationally renowned for his work in particle theory, Hitoshi Murayama is also acclaimed as an engaging popular speaker on cutting-edge topics in physics. His research focuses on trying to understand the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces acting among them, asking questions such as “Why is the Universe so long-lived and has more matter than anti-matter in it?” and “The Universe appears to be accelerating its expansion. Why?”

Prof. Murayama received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from University of Tokyo in 1991, where he held a Fellowship of Japan Society for Promotion of Science. He joined the Physics Department at UC Berkeley in July 1995, became an Associate Professor in July 1998, and Professor in July 2000.

Appointed director of the new Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) at University of Tokyo, he will lead the effort to bring together experimental observations, theory, and new mathematical approaches "to try to understand such basic questions as how the universe started and where it's going."

The East Bay Science Café is a Café Scientifique style forum for discussing interesting and relevant scientific issues. The goal is to encourage public engagement with science by inviting members of the scientific community to present topics for a casual evening of conversation. The East Bay Science Café is brought to you by the University of California Berkeley Natural History Museums.