A Celebration of Discovery from the Universe to Humanity

Provisional Schedule (as of March 26)

PROGRAM UPDATE (APRIL 6): ILLNESS REQUIRES STEPHEN HAWKING TO VIRTUALLY ATTEND ORIGINS SYMPOSIUM AT ASU; PLANNED LECTURE TO BE DELIVERED VIA ELECTRONIC MEANS; HAWKING’S DAUGHTER, LUCY, TO PARTICIPATE ON PANEL ON SCIENCE AND CULTURE. Read More

** Public events are starred
All events will be webcast live and videotaped for future release.

Thursday April 2: Pre-Symposium Events

  • 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Public High School Event, Nobel Laureates Baruch Blumberg, David Gross, and Steven Weinberg visit North High School
    North High School contact: Assistant Principal Moody Jackson, 602-764-6514
  • 2:30 - 4 p.m. Workshop on Science Writing at Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication: Panel moderated by Claudia Dreifus (New York Times): Dennis Overbye (New York Times), Sharon Begley (Newsweek), Ira Flatow (Science Friday on NPR), Marc Kaufman (Washington Post), Charlie Petit (Knight Science Journalism Tracker)

Friday April 3 (At ASU, Tempe Campus)

Live webcast. Also simulcast can be seen live on Cox Channel 116 and Quest Choice TV Channel 138 (ASUtv).

  • 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. Workshop for Journalists: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
    Forefront questions in Evolutionary Biology – Richard Dawkins
    Forefront questions on the beginning of time – Lawrence Krauss
  • **11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Science Friday, Live from ASU, Katzin Concert Hall,** (Approximately 150 seats will be available for students, staff, faculty and the public, to be distributed on a first come first served basis. Once broadcast begins, no further seating will be made.)
    Two Panels:
    1. Physicists and the Origin of the Universe
    2. Origins and Evolution of Life
  • 1 - 2 p.m. Lunch with students from Barrett, The Honors College at ASU
  • 2 - 5:30 p.m. Katzin Concert Hall, Session 1: Origins of the Universe, Multiverse, Physical Laws
    2 p.m. Welcome: Sid Bacon, Lawrence Krauss
    Frank Wilczek: The Big Questions
    • 2:10 - 3:10 p.m. Panel 1: How Far Back Can We Go?
      Moderator: Michael Turner
      1. Steven Weinberg: How Can we probe inflation?
      2. James Peebles: Is all well with the Universe?
      3. Brian Greene: What can string theory do?
      4. Lawrence Krauss: Are there fundamental theoretical limits?
      5. Stephen Hawking: The Origin of the Universe
    • 3:10 - 3:25 p.m. Break
    • 3:25 - 4:20 p.m. Panel 2: Is Our Universe Unique, and how can we find out?
      Moderator: Paul Davies
      1. Andrei Linde: Inflationary multiverse and string theory landscape
      2. Alan Guth: Eternal Inflation, Measures and Anthropics
      3. David Gross: What is wrong with Anthropics
      4. Sheldon Glashow: Is Particle Physics Over?
      5. Alex Vilenkin: Mediocrity as a principle
    • 4:20 - 5:25 p.m. Panel 3: New Windows on the Universe: What is knowable?
      Moderator: Wendy Freedman
      1. Barry Barish: LIGO and ILC: Which first? Which Best?
      2. Adam Riess: Do Supernovae have anything else to tell us?
      3. John Ruhl: Is the CMB a tool whose time is up?
      4. John Mather: The Next Generation Space Telescope: So what?
      5. Maria Spiropulu: The LHC: When will it work, what will it do?
      6. Roger Blandford: The gamma ray sky

Saturday April 4: Symposium (Conference Rooms at Symposium)

  • 8:30 - 11:35 a.m. Session 2: The Galaxy, Planets and Life
    • 8:30 - 9:20 a.m. Panel 1: Do we have a successful theory of Galaxy and star formation and how will we know
      Moderator: Lawrence Krauss
      1. Ben Moore: How low can we go? Can we understand galaxy formation in a CDM Universe?
      2. Carlos Frenk: Dark matter rules
      3. Joe Silk: Outstanding Puzzles, IMF etc
      4. Rogier Windhorst: JWST and its promise
    • 9:20 - 10:20 a.m. Panel 2: How common are Earth-like planets?
      Moderator: Ariel Anbar
      1. Alex Halliday: When do solar systems form Earth-like planets?
      2. David Stevenson: Can moonless "Earths" support life?
      3. Ed Young: What are the building blocks of Earth-like planets?
      4. Steve Desch: Where do planets get their water, and where can most liquid water be found?
      5. Phil Christensen: Was Mars ever "Earth-like"?
      6. Jade Bond: Is the chemistry of our Solar System unusual or unique?. TBD.
    • 10:20 - 10:35 a.m. Break
    • 10:35 - 11:35 a.m. Panel 3 How Does Life Originate and How Do We Recognize It?
      Moderator: Kip Hodges
      1. Baruch Blumberg: What will it take to know about life elsewhere in the universe?
      2. Paul Davies: Is the life we know the only life there is?
      3. Antonio Lazcano: How do we define the transition from a pre-biotic to a biotic Earth?
      4. Steve Mojzsis: Paleontologic evidence notwithstanding, what was the earliest life on Earth?
      5. Everett Shock: Are there definitive biosignatures for life on other planets and, if so, what are they?
  • 2:15 - 5 p.m. Session 3: Origin of Species, Evolution, Human Origins
    • 2:15 - 3:10 p.m. Panel 1: Origin and Evolution of Life and Phenotypic Innovations
      Moderator: Manfred Laubichler
      1. George Poste: Can we design new cells from scratch?
      2. Doug Erwin: Extinction and the Origin and Diversification of Body Plans
      3. Kevin Peterson: Complexity and Constraints in Animal Evolution
      4. Randy Nesse: Disease as a by-product of social organization?
      5. Peter Ward: Evolution
    • Break 3:10 -3:20 p.m.
    • 3:20 - 4:05 p.m. Panel 2: Origin and Evolution of Sociality
      Moderator: Jürgen Gadau
      1. Richard Dawkins: Darwin´s Dilemma: How can we explain altruistic behavior?
      2. Bert Hölldobler: The Origin of Eusociality as a Major Transition in Evolution
      3. Joan Strassmann: Cooperation and Conflict: Two Intertwined Themes in Social Evolution
      4. David Queller: Are the Basic Evolutionary Principles that Explain the Evolution of Social Life True for Bacterial Mats, Slime Molds, Eusocial Insects, and Primates, including Humans?
    • 4:05 - 5 p.m. Panel 3: What is the origin of human uniqueness?
      Q: What, from the point of view of your specialty, does it mean to be human?
      William Kimbel moderator.
      1. Alan Rodgers
      2. John Fleagle
      3. Ian Tattersall
      4. Don Johanson
      5. Curtis Marean

Sunday April 5

Moderator: Roger Bingham (Salk Institute)

  • 9:30 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. Session 4: Consciousness, complex cognition, and language to Culture, cooperation, morality and institutions
  • Panel 1: Consciousness, complex cognition, and language
    1. Steven Pinker (language and cognition)
    2. V. S. Ramachandran (neuroscience and cognition)
    3. Patricia Churchland (philosophy of consciousness)
    4. Robert Seyfarth (theory of mind in primates)
    5. Jerrold Seigel (The idea of Self)
    6. Sue Rosser (Gender consciousness)
  • 10:40 - 10:50 a.m. Break
  • Panel 2: Human Uniqueness
    1. Kim Hill: What makes humans unique?
    2. Rob Boyd: What are the unique features of human cultural capacity that allow individually learned innovations to "stick" and be transmitted
    3. Robert Kurzban: Some have said that humans uniqueness lies in our capacity for large scale cooperation and moral behavior. What are the origins of these human traits?
  • Panel 3: Culture and morality
    1. Polly Wiessner: How did our ancestors maintain significant cooperative ties across much larger stretches of space and time than any other organism?
    2. Jonathan Haidt: What is morality, and why does it vary?
    3. A.C. Grayling: What does Philosophy have to contribute to a more "human" understanding of the implications of evolution by natural selection?
  • 11:50 a.m. - 12 p.m. Break
  • Panel 4: The State, social norms, and Institutions
    1. Michael Macy: what are the origin and impact of social norms on individual and collective outcomes?
    2. Margaret Levi: what is the origin of the state, and what are the causes of its failure?
    3. Peter Bearman: what are the origin and impact of social networks on individual and collective outcomes?

Monday April 6

Public Symposium, Gammage Auditorium**
All seats will be ticketed. Various options will be available, including morning only, afternoon only, all day, evening, and morning afternoon and evening tickets. Tickets for the this event are discounted for the ASU Community and can be purchased at ASU Gammage Box Office (ASU ID required). Regular priced tickets for the general public may be purchased through Ticketmaster or at ASU Gammage. Some seats will be reserved for Arizona public school students and their teachers. Visit our ticket information area for further details.
Live webcast. Also simulcast can be seen live on Cox Channel 116 and Quest Choice TV Channel 138 (ASUtv).

Public Symposium: 9:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m., Gammage Auditorium, ASU Tempe Campus

  • 9 a.m. Welcome
  • 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
    Steven Pinker
    Don Johanson
    Brian Greene
  • 1:45 - 5:45 p.m.
    Richard Dawkins
    J. Craig Venter
    Lawrence Krauss
  • Nobel Panel, moderated by Ira Flatow
    Baruch Blumberg
    David Gross
    Walter Gilbert
    Sheldon Glashow
    John Mather
    Frank Wilczek
  • 7:15 - 9:45 p.m.
    World Champion of Magic, Jason Latimer
    Panel on Science and Culture:
    Hugh Downs, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lucy Hawking...
  • Stephen Hawking (virtual presentation)

A limited number of tickets will be available on and after March 6th at reduced prices for high school teachers and students with ID’s

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