Theme 7

Time and space

Image of a supermassive black hole from ESO’s VLT array from its Paranal Observatory facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert, April 2019.

No, we haven’t suddenly become theoretical or observational physicists (except for CJ, John and Carole)

Within this research theme, we will examine how temporality and physicality impact our lives, how we think about them and how they will change in the future.

Our view of the future is. clearly, scoped by time. As Augustine of Hippo observed of time, there is a three-fold present: (i) how, presently, we precieve and understand our past; (ii) how we experience the present moment; and (iii) our present expectations about the future.

What is time? The wisdom of St Augustine

Every now and then, one has cause to encounter the work of the ancients and get to marvel anew at the timeless insight of great minds pondering big questions. Such is the case with Augustine of Hippo as he ponders the nature of time. His challenge to us: describe time. It sounds easy, even trivial. But when you try, it takes on, appropriately, another dimension of complexity.

Our understanding of time, in all its manifestations, is of critical importance, even as we consider quotidian matters — the day to day. Our lives are inextricably entwined with time, but we, most of us, scarcely give the nature of time a second thought. This — the centrality of time at scales from pecoseconds to billions of years — will be a recurring theme across our research.

Cosmology: How big a bang?

In just a couple of hundred years, our understanding of the magnitude of space and of the origins of the universe has grown from ill-informed speculative wonder to clearly hypothesised wonder. There is much we do not know about the universe, but the hypothesis of a violent creation 14 billion years ago fits with the evidence we have been able to observe through cosmic backgr