Vancouver-based Quantum Gravity Society leads international quest to discover Theory of Quantum Gravity
VANCOUVER, BC, July 21, 2022 /CNW/ – More than two dozen of the world’s top physicists, including three Nobel Prize winners, will gather in Vancouver this August for a Quantum Gravity Conference that will host the launch a Vancouver-based Quantum Gravity Institute (QGI) and a new global research collaboration that could significantly advance our understanding of physics and gravity and profoundly change the world as we know it.
For roughly 100 years, the world’s understanding of physics has been based on Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (GR), which explored the theory of space, time and gravity, and quantum mechanics (QM), which focuses on the behaviour of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale. GR has given us a deep understanding of the cosmos, leading to space travel and technology like atomic clocks, which govern global GPS systems. QM is responsible for most of the equipment that runs our world today, including the electronics, lasers, computers, cell phones, plastics, and other technologies that support modern transportation, communications, medicine, agriculture, energy systems and more.
While each theory has led to countless scientific breakthroughs, in many cases, they are incompatible and seemingly contradictory. Discovering a unifying connection between these two fundamental theories, the elusive Theory of Quantum Gravity, could provide the world with a deeper understanding of time, gravity and matter and how to potentially control them. It could also lead to new technologies that would affect most aspects of daily life, including how we communicate, grow food, deliver health care, transport people and goods, and produce energy.
“Discovering the Theory of Quantum Gravity could lead to the possibility of time travel, new quantum devices, or even massive new energy resources that produce clean energy and help us address climate change,” said Philip Stamp, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, and Visiting Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech. “The potential long-term ramifications of this discovery are so incredible that life on earth 100 years from now could look as miraculous to us now as today’s technology would have seemed to people living 100 years ago.”
The new Quantum Gravity Institute and the conference were founded by the Quantum Gravity Society, which was created in 2022 by a group of Canadian technology, business and community leaders, and leading physicists. Among its goals are to advance the science of physics and facilitate research on the Theory of Quantum Gravity through initiatives such as the conference and assembling the world’s leading archive of scientific papers and lectures associated with the attempts to reconcile these two theories over the past century.
Attending the Quantum Gravity Conference in Vancouver (August 15-19) will be two dozen of the world’s top physicists, including Nobel Laureates Kip Thorne, Jim Peebles and Sir Roger Penrose, as well as physicists Baron Martin Rees, Markus Aspelmeyer, Viatcheslav Mukhanov and Paul Steinhardt. On Wednesday, August 17, the conference will be open to the public, providing them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend keynote addresses from the world’s pre-eminent physicists. (See schedule below.) A noon-hour discussion on the importance of the research will be delivered by Kip Thorne, the former Feynman Professor of physics at Caltech. Thorne is well known for his popular books, and for developing the original idea for the 2014 film Interstellar. He was also crucial to the development of the book Contact by Carl Sagan, which was also made into a motion picture.
“We look forward to welcoming many of the world’s brightest minds to Vancouver for our first Quantum Gravity Conference,” said Frank Giustra, CEO Fiore Group and Co-Founder, Quantum Gravity Society. “One of the goals of our Society will be to establish Vancouver as a supportive home base for research and facilitate the scientific collaboration that will be required to unlock this mystery that has eluded some of the world’s most brilliant physicists for so long.”
“The format is key,” explains Terry Hui, UC Berkley Physics alumnus and Co-Founder, Quantum Gravity Society. “Like the Solvay Conference nearly 100 years ago, the Quantum Gravity Conference will bring top scientists together in salon-style gatherings. The relaxed evening format following the conference will reduce barriers and allow these great minds to freely exchange ideas. I hope this hundred-year-old problem will be solved soon in relative terms.”
“As amazing as our journey of scientific discovery has been over the past century, we still have so much to learn about how the universe works on a macro, atomic and subatomic level,” added Paul Lee, Managing Partner, Vanedge Capital, and Co-Founder, Quantum Gravity Society. “New experiments and observations capable of advancing work on this scientific challenge are becoming increasingly possible in today’s physics labs and using new astronomical tools. The Quantum Gravity Society looks forward to leveraging that growing technical capacity with joint theory and experimental work that harnesses the collective expertise of the world’s great physicists.”
About Quantum Gravity Society
Quantum Gravity Society was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 2020 by a group of Canadian business, technology and community leaders, and leading international physicists. The Society’s founding members include Frank Giustra (Fiore Group), Terry Hui (Concord Pacific), Paul Lee and Moe Kermani (Vanedge Capital) and Markus Frind (Frind Estate Winery), along with renowned physicists Abhay Ashtekar, Sir Roger Penrose, Philip Stamp, Bill Unruh and Birgitta Whaley. For more information, visit Quantum Gravity Society.
About the Quantum Gravity Conference (Vancouver 2022)
The inaugural Quantum Gravity Conference (August 15-19) is presented by Quantum Gravity Society, Fiore Group, Vanedge Capital, Concord Pacific, The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver and Frind Estate Winery. For conference information, visit conference.quantumgravityinstitute.ca. To register to attend the conference, visit Eventbrite.com.
SOURCE Quantum Gravity Society
For further information: Media contact: Greg Descantes, [email protected], 604-417-1379
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
