The St Cross Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics (HAPP) will be holding a lecture by bestselling author and astrophysicist Dr Mario Livio (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) entitled “Brilliant Blunders – Mistakes by Great Physicists that Changed Our Understanding of the Universe”.

William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Albert Einstein and Fred Hoyle are amongst the greatest physicists in history and some of the mistakes that these towering figures made led to major scientific advances. Dr Mario Livio will analyse these errors and the psychology which made such “brilliant blunders” part of these celebrated scientists’ genius and part of the scientific process whereby science thrives on error and advances when erroneous ideas are disproven.

Zoom details for the event will be sent to registered attendees after the registration deadline has closed at 12:00 (GMT) on Thursday 24 February.