Authors

Featured Contributor: Paul Davies

March 20, 2013 in Featured Contributors, Hieroglyph

Paul Davies

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist and astrobiologist, and the director of the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. He is also the bestselling author of many books with shocking and provocative titles, including The Mind of God, How to Build a Time Machine and The Eerie Silence, which explores the scientific quest to find intelligent life in the universe.

Paul’s research interests range from the origin of the universe to the origin of life, and include the nature of time, the search for life in the universe and foundational questions in quantum mechanics. He helped create the theory of quantum fields in curved spacetime, with which he provided explanations for how black holes can radiate energy, and what caused the ripples in the cosmic afterglow of the big bang. In astrobiology, he was a forerunner of the theory that life on Earth may have come from Mars. He is currently championing the theory that Earth may host a shadow biosphere of alternative life forms. Paul also runs a National Cancer Institute-funded research program the Center for the Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology, and has published a new theory of cancer based on tracing its deep evolutionary roots.

Paul is chair of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-Detection Taskgroup, so if SETI succeeds in finding intelligent life, he will be among the first to know. He is the recipient of the 1995 Templeton Prize for his work on science and religion, and has twice debated scientific topics with none other than the Dalai Lama. Last but not least, Paul has an asteroid flying through the universe with his name on it.

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Author
Joey Eschrich
Joey Eschrich is the editor and program manager at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Film and Media Studies in 2008 and his master's degree in Gender Studies in 2011, both from ASU.

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Featured Contributor: Lawrence Krauss

March 14, 2013 in Featured Contributors, Hieroglyph

Lawrence KraussLawrence Krauss is a cosmologist and theoretical physicist, a leading voice for science education and literacy and the author of acclaimed popular books including A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek. Lawrence is Foundation Professor in Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Department and Inaugural Director of the Origins Project.

Lawrence’s research focuses on the Big Questions: the early universe, dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. He has investigated questions ranging from the nature of exploding stars to the origin of all mass in the universe.

Lawrence is a tireless agitator and advocate on behalf of scientific inquiry and education. In 2005 his New York Times piece and personal letter helped to prompt the Catholic Church’s reevaluation of its stance on evolution. His group Help Ohio Public Education, formed to elect pro-science school board candidates, has been wildly successful, and he has banded together with Nobel Laureates, business leaders, scientists and politicians to demand a Presidential debate on science during each election cycle.

You can follow Lawrence’s global quest to obliterate unexamined assumptions and stir up trouble in the most scientifically rigorous manner possible on Facebook and Twitter.

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Author
Joey Eschrich
Joey Eschrich is the editor and program manager at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Film and Media Studies in 2008 and his master's degree in Gender Studies in 2011, both from ASU.

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Featured Contributor: Bruce Sterling

March 14, 2013 in Featured Contributors, Hieroglyph

Bruce Sterling is a science fiction author, journalist, globetrotter, professor of Internet studies, design fiction maven and Visionary in Residence at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination.

Bruce was one of the chief instigators of the cyberpunk subgenre, and continues to be its most eloquent spokesperson. His book The Difference Engine, written with William Gibson, was critical in the evolution and cultural prominence of steampunk. He has written influential works of nonfiction about material culture and commodity production, futurism and hacker subcultures. Bruce delivers an epic state-of-the-planet rant to close each year’s SXSW Interactive conference, challenging the tech industry and everyone else to do a better job imagining and building our future.

Bruce Sterling

Bruce travels the globe launching movements, coining neologisms and disrupting settled ideas about design, reality, and our shared future. You can follow his misadventures with design, storytelling and technology at his Wired blog Beyond the Beyond and observe how he uses Tumblr to create new forms of digital mischief.

During his residency at ASU, Bruce used lasers to carve what he calls “twenty-teens petroglyphs” into Arizona desert rock. The results are on display at his rock Tumblr.

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Image courtesy of Abode of Chaos, used under CC BY 2.0 license. Thanks Abode of Chaos!

Author
Joey Eschrich
Joey Eschrich is the editor and program manager at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Film and Media Studies in 2008 and his master's degree in Gender Studies in 2011, both from ASU.

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Featured Contributor: Neal Stephenson

March 13, 2013 in Featured Contributors, Hieroglyph

Neal StephensonNeal Stephenson is an author of historical and science fiction, a technology consultant, a video game designer and the principal provocateur behind Hieroglyph. Answering Arizona State University president Michael Crow’s challenge to create alternatives to the dystopian visions that pervade our stories about the future, Neal is helping us pioneer new methods of radical collaboration between the storytellers who dream our future and the scientists and engineers that build it.

Neal is perhaps best known for his novels The Diamond Age and Snow Crash, which presented compelling, socially and culturally rich visions of human futures while also prefiguring the development of major technologies such as social networking, nanorobotics and 3D printers. He also penned The Baroque Cycle, a sprawling three-volume work about the history of ideas in 17th and 18th century Europe, and co-created The Mongoliad, a collaborative work of transmedia fiction produced in collaboration with filmmakers, martial artists, computer programmers and video game designers. His most recent novel, REAMDE, transforms the now-quotidian realm of MMORPGs into a global minefield of criminality, religious extremism and geopolitical intrigue.

Neal studied physics and geography at Boston University, and graduated with a BA in 1981. He has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, which is developing a manned sub-orbital launch system. His most recent triumph is the successful conquest of Kickstarter through his venture CLANG, an epic pursuit of the perfect controller for swordfighting video games.

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Image courtesy of foxgrrl, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. Thanks foxgrrl!

Author
Joey Eschrich
Joey Eschrich is the editor and program manager at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Film and Media Studies in 2008 and his master's degree in Gender Studies in 2011, both from ASU.

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