New webcast series brings cutting-edge physics talks to the world

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics launches the 2014/2015 season of its renowned Public Lecture Series in October with a new twist – live, interactive webcast talks featuring some of the world's pre-eminent scientists.

"You are each a participant in this adventure of science." With those words, Sylvester James Gates Jr., renowned physicist and member of President Barack Obama's Scientific Advisory Council, captured the spirit and the future of the Perimeter Institute (PI) Public Lecture Series.

The upcoming season of the long-running lecture series presented by Sun Life Financial will epitomize Gates' words by allowing viewers everywhere to truly participate in the adventure through free, interactive webcasts featuring some of the world's pre-eminent scientists.

Starting in October, all eight of the monthly talks will be accompanied by online chat sessions with PI scientists, opportunities to ask the speakers questions via Twitter, supplementary online content, and more. PI has also made a video trailer promoting the season available for viewing and sharing.

The new webcast format is the best way to share the power and wonder of theoretical physics with the largest audience worldwide – a founding mission of Perimeter Institute. It also carries on a proud tradition of scientific outreach dating back generations.

"Albert Einstein toured the world to explain general relativity and to answer questions from the public," says Greg Dick, PI's Director of Educational Outreach. "The Perimeter Institute Public Lecture Series is the successor to those talks – using technology to share the live talks worldwide, and to give people the chance to ask leading physicists questions about their cutting-edge work."

The live webcasts can be easily embedded on any Facebook page or website, allowing like-minded organizations to freely share talks with their audiences.

"Physics is for everyone, so we're making these talks as accessible and shareable as possible," says Dick.

The upcoming talks will be delivered in front of a live audience at Perimeter Institute's state-of-the-art Mike Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas, an acoustically rich auditorium with broadcast-quality recording equipment, which has hosted Nobel Laureates and renowned classical musicians.

"We're so grateful to Waterloo Collegiate Institute, which has hosted the Public Lecture Series for the last decade," says Dick. "We've enjoyed every minute of it, but the best way to make these talks accessible to everyone is to webcast them from our on-site theatre."

The 2014/2015 season will feature world-leading scientists probing every facet of the universe, from the infinitesimal to the infinite. The Series runs from October 1, 2014 through June, 2015, on the first Wednesday of each month, at 7:00 PM ET.