Go here to get tickets for world science festival!

Partial listing below:

The James Webb Space Telescope

Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 9:00 AM – Sunday, June 6, 2010, 9:00 PM

Battery Park

The world’s most powerful future space telescope is coming to New York

City as part of the World Science Festival. NASA’s James Webb Space

Telescope will allow us to unveil the very first galaxies formed in

the Universe and discover hidden world’s around distant stars when the

mission launches in 2014. For six days in June, a full-sized model of

this successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope will be on public

view in Battery Park.

LIGO on View

Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

Free for all ages

Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one

that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light

years away.

LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory, is made up of two installations in Louisiana and

Washington. Operated as a single powerful observatory, LIGO is at the

cutting edge of our exploration of the cosmos. By delving into the

fundamental nature of gravity, the massive physics experiment is

hoping to open an entirely new window onto the universe.

2010 Kavli Prizes

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU

Winners of the prestigious 2010 Kavli Prizes—biennial international

awards, with a cash prize of $1 million that recognize seminal

advances in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience—will be

announced via live satellite from the Norwegian Academy of Science and

Letters, in Oslo. Following the announcement, a panel of

internationally renowned scientists will discuss the scientific

achievements of the 2010 Kavli laureates and provide insightful

commentary on the next wave of research and opportunities being

pursued in these dynamic fields.

LIGO on View

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

Free for all ages

Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one

that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light

years away.

LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory, is made up of two installations in Louisiana and

Washington. Operated as a single powerful observatory, LIGO is at the

cutting edge of our exploration of the cosmos. By delving into the

fundamental nature of gravity, the massive physics experiment is

hoping to open an entirely new window onto the universe.

Machover and Minsky

Making Music in the Dome

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Hayden Planetarium Space Theater

How does music help order emerge from the mind’s chaos? How does it

create and conjure thoughts, emotions and memories? Legendary composer

and inventor Tod Machover will explore these mysteries with Artificial

Intelligence visionary Marvin Minsky.

Eye Candy: Science, Sight, Art

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

TBD

Are you drawn to Impressionism? Or more toward 3D computer art? Beauty

is in the eye of the beholder. Or is it? Contrary to the old adage,

there may be universal biological principles that drive art’s appeal,

and its capacity to engage our brains and our interest. Through

artworks ranging from post-modernism to political caricature to 3D

film, we’ll examine newly understood principles of visual perception.

The Moth: Gray Matter

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

The Moth (Webster Hall)

Presented with New York’s innovative storytelling organization, The

Moth, scientists, writers and esteemed artists tell on-stage stories

about their personal relationship with science. In keeping with Moth

tradition, each story must be true, and told without notes in ten

minutes. The result is a poignant, hilarious and always unpredictable

evening of storytelling and science.

The Search for Life in the Universe

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Galapagos Art Space

Are we alone? It’s a question that has obsessed us for centuries, and

now we have the technology to do more than wonder. Scientists on the

hunt for distant planets and extraterrestrial intelligence will take

us on their expeditions into faraway galaxies and barely visible

realms. We will journey to the brink of discovery and contemplate what

it would mean to have company in the cosmos.

Good Vibrations

The Science of Sound

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College

We look around us – constantly. But how often do we listen around us?

Sound is critically important to our bodies and brains, and to the

wider natural world. In the womb, we hear before we see. Join

neuroscientists, biophysicists, astrophysicists, composers and

musicians for a fascinating journey through the nature of sound—how

we perceive it, how it acts upon us and how it profoundly affects our

well-being—including a demonstration of sounds produced by sources as

varied as the human inner ear and gargantuan black holes in space.

Our Genome Ourselves

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium

There is a revolution underway in the world of medicine. As

researchers identify the genetic variants responsible for cancer,

schizophrenia and diabetes, and doctors tailor medications and

diagnostic tests specifically for your genomic makeup, we inch closer

to personalized medicine. But what does this mean for you today? And

how will it impact your health care ten, 20 or 30 years in the future?

Join scientists standing on the leading edge of genomics to learn the

promise, pitfalls, and realities barreling toward us.

Black Holes and Holographic Worlds

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

NYU Skirball Center

Black holes are gravitational behemoths that dramatically twist space

and time. Recently, they’ve also pointed researchers to a remarkable

proposal—that everything we see may be akin to a hologram. Join

renowned researchers on an odyssey through one of nature’s most

spectacular creations, and learn how they are leading scientists to

rewrite the rules of reality.

Brutality and the Brain

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Baruch Performing Arts Center (Engelman)

Why do humans commit violent crimes and go to war? How to explain Abu

Ghraib? Is human violence wired into our brains and genes? What role

does it play in human evolution? Join scientists who are using brain

imaging and the study of psychopaths to explore the science of moral

judgment and behavior, shedding fresh light on the dark side of human

nature.

LIGO on View

Friday, June 4, 2010, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

Free for all ages

Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one

that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light

years away.

LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory, is made up of two installations in Louisiana and

Washington. Operated as a single powerful observatory, LIGO is at the

cutting edge of our exploration of the cosmos. By delving into the

fundamental nature of gravity, the massive physics experiment is

hoping to open an entirely new window onto the universe.

Pioneers in Science

Friday, June 4, 2010, 11:00 AM

Pioneers in Science gives middle and high school students the rare

opportunity to interact with world-renowned scientists. In this

installment, Nobel laureate and NASA astrophysicist John Mather—whose

groundbreaking research has greatly advanced our understanding of the

origin of the universe—will meet live and online with both local New

York City-area students and others joining from Africa and Asia. This

event is by invitation only.

This event is free. Admission will be first-come, first-served.

FREE

Einstein’s Messengers

Listening to the Universe

Friday, June 4, 2010, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

It’s taken nearly a century, but technology has finally caught up to

Einstein’s brilliance. His 1916 General Theory of Relativity predicted

the existence of gravitational waves—undulations in the very fabric

of space and time—and scientists are now poised to detect them. Two

observatories on opposite sides of the country, called LIGO (Laser

Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), have embarked on a

joint experiment, seeking whispers of far-away violence—like the

collision between distant black holes—rippling through the cosmos.

The Science of Star Trek

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Galapagos Art Space

The original Star Trek and its numerous successors were far ahead of

their time, but just how far? Will science eventually catch up to this

series’ nearly five-decade-old creations? Explore the plausibility of

scientific phenomena from the Star Trek universe, including warp

speed, time travel, humanoid aliens and whether anyone in our universe

will be “beamed up” by transporter anytime soon.

To the End of the Earth and Beyond

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

LeFrak Theater at AMNH

At the dawn of the last century, two intrepid explorers—Norwegian

Roald Amundsen and British Captain Robert Falcon Scott—famously

competed to be the first to reach the magnetic South Pole.

Feeding a Hungry World

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Baruch Performing Arts Center (Engelman)

By 2050, one of every four people on Earth will go hungry unless food

production more than doubles. Science-based agriculture has proposed

unconventional new tools — earthworms, bacteria, and even genes from

sunny daffodils — to meet this towering challenge. But will such

innovative ideas be enough? And can we bridge the ideological divide

over genetically modified foods that separates scientists and

environmentalists? What role does eating and farming locally play in

the next green revolution?

Armitage Gone! Dance

in the New York Premiere of “Three Theories”

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Cedar Lake Theatre

Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a

stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and

shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The

Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary

physics into a thrilling kinetic ride.

From the City to the Stars

Star-gazing with the Webb Telescope

Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Battery Park

Join professional and amateur astronomers at the base of the

full-scale, tennis court-sized James Webb Space Telescope model for a

free evening of star-gazing in Battery Park. Dr. John Mather, Nobel

laureate and the Webb telescope’s senior project scientist; Dr. John

Grunsfeld, astronaut, physicist and “chief repairman” of the Hubble

Telescope and planetary astronomer Dr. Heidi Hammel will be with us to

talk about the discoveries anticipated when the world’s most powerful

space telescope, the successor to the Hubble, launches in 2014.

The Limits of Understanding

Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Tishman Auditorium, The New School

This statement is false. Think about it, and it makes your head hurt.

If it’s true, it’s false. If it’s false, it’s true. In 1931, Austrian

logician Kurt GÀÜdel shocked the worlds of mathematics and philosophy

by establishing that such statements are far more than a quirky turn

of language: he showed that there are mathematical truths which simply

can’t be proven.

Mind And Machine

The Future of Thinking

Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

NYU Skirball Center

Creative thought is surely among our most precious and mysterious

capabilities. But can powerful computers rival the human brain? As

thinking, remembering and innovating become increasingly interwoven

with technological advances, what are we capable of? What do we lose?

Join experts in cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and

computer science for a thought-provoking program about thinking.

This program is made possible with the support of the John Templeton

Foundation as part of the Big Ideas Series.

LIGO on View

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

Free for all ages

Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one

that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light

years away.

LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory, is made up of two installations in Louisiana and

Washington. Operated as a single powerful observatory, LIGO is at the

cutting edge of our exploration of the cosmos. By delving into the

fundamental nature of gravity, the massive physics experiment is

hoping to open an entirely new window onto the universe.

Mathemagician

and the Mathemagician’s Apprentice

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Tishman Auditorium, The New School

Mix math with magic and the result is thrilling. Mathemagician Arthur

Benjamin returns in an encore presentation, with mesmerizing feats of

mental mathematical gymnastics. Followed by Mathemagician’s

Apprentice, at Wollman Hall, where Benjamin will divulge his secrets

of doing lightning-fast mental math.

Tickets to Mathemagician’s Apprentice available for an additional fee;

Apprentice limited to 50 people.

Einstein, Time and the Explorer’s Clock

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium

Back by popular demand, Nobel prize-winning physicist William Phillips

takes us on a voyage to the lowest temperatures ever recorded. What is

an atomic clock and why do they keep better time when they’re cold?

And just what is the relationship between speed, temperature and

relativity? Phillips will show us with jaw-dropping experiments what

happens when ordinary objects are taken to the edge of absolute zero.

Back To The Big Bang

Inside the Large Hadron Collider

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Tishman Auditorium, The New School

Come venture deep inside the world’s biggest physics machine, the

Large Hadron Collider. This extraordinary feat of human engineering

took 16 years and $10 billion to build, and just weeks ago began

colliding particles at energies unseen since a fraction of a second

after the big bang. We’ll explore this amazing apparatus that could

soon reveal clues about nature’s fundamental laws and even the origin

of the universe itself.

This program is made possible with the support of the John Templeton

Foundation as part of the Big Ideas Series.

All Creatures Great And Smart

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

NYU Skirball Center

Does your dog really think and feel like a human? Do our closest

primate relatives have brains and emotions similar to ours? What about

the storied intelligence of dolphins and singing humpback whales? And

do other species hold surprises for us if we’re willing to look

closely? Join leading scientists whose research is challenging

long-held assumptions about the differences between “animal” and

“human”—and learn about pin-sized brains that can count, categorize,

and hold a grudge against those who’ve tried to swat them.

Faith and Science

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Baruch Performing Arts Center (Engelman)

For all their historical tensions, scientists and religious scholars

from a wide variety of faiths ponder many similar questions—how did

the universe begin? How might it end? What is the origin of matter,

energy, and life? The modes of inquiry and standards for judging

progress are, to be sure, very different. But is there a common ground

to be found? Leading thinkers who come at these issues from a range of

perspectives will address the evolving relationship between science

and faith.

Armitage Gone! Dance

in the New York Premiere of “Three Theories”

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Cedar Lake Theatre

Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a

stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and

shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The

Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary

physics into a thrilling kinetic ride.

Illuminating the Abyss

The Unknown Ocean

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

The Paley Center for Media

The oceans remain a realm of mystery, with an astonishing 95% still

unmapped, but their secrets are starting to be revealed. Journey into

the deep to explore exciting discoveries like sea sponges with

cancer-fighting potential and underwater mountain ranges that may hold

the clue to life’s origin. Rare footage of pioneer Jacques Cousteau

will take us back to the early days of passionate ocean exploration;

the premiere of “behind-the-scenes” footage from Jacques Perrin’s new

film Oceans will inspire with a vision of what lies ahead.

Cool Jobs

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium

Imagine hunting extraterrestrial life for a living. Or getting paid to

study South African penguins. Meet scientists with some of the coolest

jobs in the world; watch as a neuroscientist scans a brain and a robot

inventor brings his complex and novel creations to life. Get inspired

by the possibilities.

Spotlight

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Rubin Museum of Art (Cabaret)

Strip away the trimmings of a traditional science presentation, add

cocktails, and you have the WSF Spotlight. An intimate, cabaret-style

setting provides an unobstructed glimpse into the minds of some of the

world’s most inspired thinkers. It’s a science happy hour featuring

cutting edge science and one-of-a-kind talks that promise to

entertain, engage and enlighten.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Rubin Museum of

Art.

Armitage Gone! Dance

in the New York Premiere of “Three Theories”

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Cedar Lake Theatre

Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a

stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and

shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The

Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary

physics into a thrilling kinetic ride.

Hidden Dimensions

Exploring Hyperspace

Saturday, June 5, 2010, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

NYU Skirball Center

Extra dimensions of space-the idea that we are immersed in hyperspace

— may be key to explaining the fundamental nature of the universe.

Relativity introduced time as the fourth dimension, and Einstein’s

subsequent work envisioned more dimensions still—but ultimately hit a

dead end. Modern research has advanced the subject in ways he couldn’t

have imagined. Join leading thinkers on a visual tour through wondrous

spatial realms that may lie beyond the ones we experience.

World Science Festival Street Fair

Sunday, June 6, 2010, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Washington Square Park

The New York University/Washington Square Park area will become a

science wonderland when the World Science Festival Youth and Family

Street Fair returns to New York City on Sunday, June 6. This free,

day-long extravaganza showcases the intrigue and pure fun of science

with a non-stop program of interactive exhibits, experiments, games,

and shows, all meant to entertain and inspire. Join us for a day of

family fun. Some highlights of this year’s Fair include:

This event is free. Admission will be first-come, first-served.

FREE

LIGO on View

Sunday, June 6, 2010, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Broad Street Ballroom

Free for all ages

Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one

that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light

years away.

LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory, is made up of two installations in Louisiana and

Washington. Operated as a single powerful observatory, LIGO is at the

cutting edge of our exploration of the cosmos. By delving into the

fundamental nature of gravity, the massive physics experiment is

hoping to open an entirely new window onto the universe.

Astronaut Diary: Life in Space

Sunday, June 6, 2010, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium

Astronauts who’ve lived on the International Space Station and

“walked” in space tell all: what it’s like to ride on a space ship,

and to eat, sleep, exercise, and even do science – in space. Come hear

firsthand from the world’s most intrepid explorers about what it’s

like to soar upward and leave our home, planet Earth, behind.

Icarus at the Edge of Time

Sunday, June 6, 2010, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

NYU Skirball Center

What if Icarus traveled not to the sun but to a black hole? This

40-minute 62-piece orchestral work is a mesmerizing adaptation of

Icarus at the Edge of Time, Brian Greene’s book for children. A

re-imagining of the Greek myth, which brings Einstein’s concepts of

relativity to visceral, emotional life, it features an original score

by Philip Glass, script adapted by Greene and David Henry Hwang and

film created and directed by Al and Al. Performed live with narrator

and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Brad Lubman.