For immediate release: October 28, 2003
For more information, contact Susan Griffith at 216-368-1004 or susan.griffith@case.edu

CLEVELAND—While the universe has given up some of its secrets, it continues to instill wonder and speculation as scientists develop new instruments and gain information to unravel its past.

For some, their search goes beyond this universe to theorize about a space filled "a multiverse" that might leak strange matter from a foreign universe into our own, thus affecting the way our universe expands, evolves over time and eventually may disintegrate like a burst bubble on a collision course with other ones.

The cosmic forces of 14-billion years of universe history brought together more than 70 of world's greatest thinkers, October 10-12, for the Kavli-CERCA Future of Cosmology conference, hosted by Case Western Reserve University's new Center for the Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics, a collaboration between the department of physics, the department of astronomy and the Shafran Planetarium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Scientist projected where the next 25 years of research might take astrophysicists and cosmologists in their scientific quest.

Among those astrophysicists were Nobel Laureate Steve Weinberg, who opened the conference with his talk at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge University professor and best-selling author of A Brief History of Time and other works, who received honors and gave this year's Michelson Morley Award Lecture to a sold-out audience at Severance Hall on October 13.

During the Michelson-Morley event, an Ohio Historical Marker was unveiled on stage at Severance. Eventually the marker will stand before Adelbert Hall where Edward W. Morley had his chemistry lab. The award, as well as the marker, honor the scientistsAlbert A. Michelson and Morley for their experiment that led to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

"It is clear that there remain outstanding theoretical puzzles that will keep us busy for many years, even beyond the 25-year time scale," says Tanmay Vachaspati, Case professor of physics and a physicist who studies cosmic string theory. The topic of cosmic strings, suspected defects on the topology of the early universe development, was among the discussions.

The conference shed new light on the universe's early development as Adam Riess, a scientist from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, reported that the universe jerked about five billion years ago to shift from a slow speed into a higher acceleration in its expansion. He used ground images from observational telescopes as well as space pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope to look three-quarters of the way across the universe to detect the expansion rates.

Also argued was whether the universe was round like a soccer ball, somewhat flat like a pancake or some other unique shape. Case Physicists Glenn Starkman, a professor of physics on a research leave to Switzerland this year, refuted a newly published study in Nature that says the universe is ball-like shape.

Another big area of research in cosmology is the search for dark matter—one suspected form of which is Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS). Daniel Akerib, who heads a team at Case that has built a NSF-funded detector,led a session with Christopher Mihos, Case assistant professor of astronomy, about new research into dark matter. They had the opportunity to hear from Joe Silk of Oxford University, who co-authored a new paper published a week before the conference on the discovery of a modified form of WIMPS, emanating from the center of the galaxy. Silk encouraged researchers like Akerib in their exploration for dark matter to use their detectors to search for these new particles, too.

Corbin Covalt, Case associate professor and CERCA conference committee member, moderated discussions on ultra high energy cosmic rayshis area of expertise.

Lawrence Krauss, the chair and Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and conference chair, stated that he believes that the conference will be "long remembered as one of the most exciting meetings in cosmology in recent times. As well as the exciting new results presented, the frank discussions of such exotic ideas as the anthropic principle and the possibility of extra dimensions really clarified these issues in the minds of many participants. We have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from those at the meeting."

Krauss, with Case Physicist John Ruhl, will be the director and co-director of CERCA, respectively. The new center will provide research opportunities in cosmology as well as designing new planetarium programs to educate the public. Krauss plans to raise $25 million for the new center.

About Case Western Reserve University

Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, and service. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. http://www.case.edu.

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