Science meets fiction in lectures

Rough Magic Theatre Company and Science@Culture have combined to present two public meetings linked to Michael Frayn's award …

Rough Magic Theatre Company and Science@Culture have combined to present two public meetings linked to Michael Frayn's award winning play, Copenhagen, now running at the Project Arts Theatre in Dublin.

The play deals with a meeting in 1941 of two giants of 20th-century physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

The first talk at the Project tomorrow at 6.30 p.m. explains some of the advanced science, quantum physics, at the heart of the play. This "beginner's guide to quantum theory" is by Dr Sara McMurry of Trinity College and precedes that night's performance of Copenhagen. While the lecture is free and open to the public, access to that night's performance is only open to ticket-holders.

The second is a panel discussion scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Project Arts Theatre to explore "Complementarity and Uncertainty - Exploring Michael Frayn's Copenhagen as a crossroads between physics and history, science and the arts".

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The panel includes Prof Declan Kiberd of UCD's English Department; Prof Denjoe O'Connor of the School of Theoretical Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; Ms Lynne Parker, director of Copenhagen and artistic director of Rough Magic Theatre Company and associate director of the Abbey Theatre; and Dr McMurry and Prof Iggy McGovern of Trinity College.

It is free and open to the public.

Both talks are sponsored by the Institute of Physics in Ireland. The play runs until May 11th.

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom, a contributor to The Irish Times, is the newspaper's former Science Editor.