Vatican convenes astrophysicists to discuss black holes, quantum theory
The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 lightyears away. (Image credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScl)
Renowned physicists, including two Nobel Prize winners, will gather at the Vatican Observatory near Rome next week to ponder the unresolved mysteries of the cosmos and to honor the legacy of Georges Lemaître, the priest who first theorized the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe.
“We think we have put together a dream team that we vehemently hope will lead to some innovative thinking,” said Fabio Scardigli, a theoretic physicist from the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and one of the organizers of the event, during a news conference Tuesday.
The workshop June 16-21 will bring together experts from two sides of the scientific community: those who study cosmology and the theory of relativity, and those physicists who study quantum theory. Organizers of the event hope that the gathering will foster dialogue about these two different and at times irreconcilable theories.
