Tucker

The formation and growth of black holes, the accelerating expansion of the universe, the echo of the Big Bang, the discovery of earth-like exoplanets, and the possibility of other universes — these are some of the intriguing subjects of early 21st-century astronomy and cosmology. Join Yale's Priya Natarajan in exploring the radical ideas and discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of the universe over the past century.

Dr. Priya Natarajan is Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy at Yale University. She is particularly noted for her work in mapping dark matter, in gravitational lensing, and in the growth of supermassive black holes. She is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the American Physical Society.

Priya Natarajan

Time may be — simultaneously! — both the most mundane and the most mysterious feature of our universe. Wonderfest and Bookshop West Portal present The New Yorker’s Alan Burdick in discussion of his new book, Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation. What is time, really? Do children experience it the same way adults do? Why does it seem to slow down when we’re bored and speed by as we get older? How do scientists measure it, and why is probability involved? How and why does time fly?

Alan Burdick is a staff writer and former senior editor at The New Yorker; he is also a frequent contributor to Elements, the magazine's science-and-tech blog. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Best American Science and Nature Writing. His first book, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, was a National Book Award finalist and won the Overseas Press Club Award for environmental reporting. [Photo by Laura Rose]

Alan Burdick

Visionary physician and spiritual seeker Larry Brilliant helped to eradicate smallpox in South Asia and to restore sight to 3.5 million blind people in 20 countries. Brilliant has worked with global leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, the Dalai Lama, and Barack Obama. Here, he will discuss his new book Sometimes Brilliant, "a riveting and fascinating epidemiological adventure," and "a testament to faith, love, service, and what it means to engage with life’s most important questions in pursuit of a better, more brilliant existence."

Produced in collaboration with the Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley. Purchase discount tickets through THIS LINK with promo code WONDERFEST.