11th May 2004: "Symmetry"

We think of symmetry as being about beauty, but it also underlies the entire natural world. It pervades everything from art and music to galaxies and molecules. Symmetry has been at the heart of many scientific quests, and other discoveries. Symmetry, or the lack of it, in the concrete or the abstract, underpins everything science must confront in its effort to understand the universe.

Peter Atkins is Professor of Chemistry at Lincoln College Oxford. He last spoke at the Cafe in October 2001, in a discussion which should have been entitled "The Second Law of Thermodynamics Made Very Simple". Atkins' talent for communication makes him a natural Cafe speaker and we are delighted to welcome him back again.

His title this month - Symmetry - is based on a chapter from his hugely successful science book, "Galileo's Finger - Ten Great Ideas of Science", which has just been issued in paperback.

The speaker: Peter Atkins is professor of chemistry in the University of Oxford and Fellow of Lincoln College. He has written numerous books. Many are textbooks (Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Chemical Principles, etc) and others are books for the general reader (Molecules, The Second Law, The Periodic Kingdom, and Creation Revisited).

Come along and join us at 7pm in Blackwells Main Bookshop, Broad Street, Oxford.
No ticket, no booking, no scientific background required.