The Portsmouth Grammar School and the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth present a free public lecture:

“Gravity: From Newton to Einstein and beyond”
Dr. Kazuya Koyama, Reader in Cosmology, ICG, University of Portsmouth

The Universe is expanding at an increasing rate, but is this really due to some mysterious “Dark Energy”, or were these great scientists simply wrong about gravity?

Date: Monday 2nd December 2013
Time: 7.30pm
Location: Portsmouth Grammar School
Free tickets: Email j.thomas@pgs.org.uk to reserve a seat.

About 300 years ago, Newton theorised how gravity works and Newton’s theory is still used today to describe gravity in our daily life . In 1916, Einstein put forward his general theory of relativity and revolutionised our concepts of time and space. General relativity is now precisely tested in the Solar System and our modern technology such as the GPS relies on his theory. Einstein’s theory also provided the basis for our understanding of the Universe. In 1998, astronomers made a surprising discovery that the expansion of our Universe is accelerating. In the framework of Einstein’s theory, the acceleration would originate from a mysterious “dark energy”. Alternatively, there could be no dark energy and Einstein’s theory itself is in error on cosmological scales. In this talk, I give an overview of the development of our understanding of gravity and explain the exciting challenge facing modern scientists after nearly 100 years since Einstein proposed his theory of gravity.