2025 Misel Family Public Lecture: Professor Kip Thorne, California Institute of Technology
Public Lecture
"Exploring the Warped Side of our Universe: from Black Holes, Wormholes and the Big Bang to Gravitational Waves and Time Travel"
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center, Memorial Hall
In 1964, when Thorne was a student, there were hints that our universe might have a Warped Side: Objects and phenomena made from warped space and warped time instead of from matter. Thorne and his colleagues have spent these past sixty years turning those hints into clear understanding. They have explored the Warped Side through theory (using mathematics and computer simulations to probe what the laws of physics predict) and through astronomical observations (primarily with gravitational waves). In this lecture he will describe what they have learned about Warped-Side phenomena: black holes, wormholes, gravitational waves, our universe’s big-bang birth, and the possibility of time travel.
Can't make it to the lecture?
Stream live on our YouTube channel
Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
"The Physics of the Cult Movie Interstellar"
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 3:35 p.m.
Christopher Nolan’s cult science fiction film Interstellar (2014) sprang from a treatment co-authored by physicist Kip Thorne, and so had real science — both firm and speculative — embedded in it from the outset. The film’s venue is The Warped Side of our Universe: objects and phenomena made, at least in part, from warped spacetime, such as black holes, wormholes, spacetime singularities, time travel, gravitational lensing, gravitational slingshots, solitary ocean waves driven by tidal gravitational forces, and braneworlds (general relativity in five macroscopic spacetime dimensions). In this colloquium, Thorne (who was Interstellar’s executive producer and science advisor) will discuss the science and scientific speculations underlying the movie, its visual effects, and connections to contemporary physics issues.
Please register through the UMN Events Calendar (registration is encouraged but not required).
Read more about Professor Thorne on his webpage or watch one of his previous lectures on YouTube.
