The astrophysicist Mario Livio spent 24 years at the Space Telescope Science Institute working with the Hubble Telescope, which has revealed the reality and beauty of the Universe to scientists and citizens in whole new ways. The Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Telescope, will become fully operational in 2022, and will further some of the questions about the early formation of the Universe and the origins of life to which Mario Livio has been devoted. Krista spoke with him in 2010, and this conversation has become an On Being Classic, imparting a thrilling sense of all we are learning about the cosmos in this generation in time, our terrible earthly woes notwithstanding. Also: how scientific advance always meets recurrent mystery, from the emergence of life in the Universe to the very heart of mathematics and the puzzle of dark matter and dark energy.
Mario Livio is the author of seven books, including Galileo: And the Science Deniers, The Golden Ratio, and Is God a Mathematician? His current research centers on the emergence of life in the Universe.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
This show originally aired in May 2010.
Pico Iyer and Elizabeth Gilbert – The Future of Hope 3
Bessel van der Kolk – How Trauma Lodges in the Body, Revisited
[Unedited] Bessel van der Kolk with Krista Tippett
Bryan Stevenson – Finding the Courage for What's Redemptive
[Unedited] Bryan Stevenson with Krista Tippett
Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson – “So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars”
[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson with Krista Tippett
Katharine Hayhoe – "Our future is still in our hands"
[Unedited] Katharine Hayhoe with Krista Tippett
Darnell Moore and dream hampton — The Future of Hope 2
Mike Rose – The Deepest Meanings of Intelligence and Vocation
[Unedited] Mike Rose with Krista Tippett
Priya Parker — Remaking Gathering: Entering the Mess, Crossing the Thresholds
[Unedited] Priya Parker with Krista Tippett
Stephen Batchelor – Finding Ease in Aloneness
[Unedited] Stephen Batchelor with Krista Tippett
Kate Bowler and Wajahat Ali — The Future of Hope
Suzanne Simard — Forests Are Wired For Wisdom
[Unedited] Suzanne Simard with Krista Tippett
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn – Truth, Beauty, Banjo
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
Selected Shorts
This American Life
The Frank Skinner Show
Judge John Hodgman