Claudia Fritz, recipient of the first cotutelle degree awarded by UNSW and the Université Paris VI.

Have you ever wondered what a black hole is? Or what other solar systems might look like? Could there be life elsewhere in the Universe? What indeed might be the fate of the Universe? Over October and November 2005 a group from the Astrophysics department gave four lectures attempting to answer these questions as part of the Eastern Suburbs Community College course: “The Big Questions in Astronomy”. Each two-hour session was run by a different researcher who tackled one of the Big Questions. These UNSW lecturers were Michael Burton, Marton Hidas, Steve Longmore and Matt Whiting.

The majority of the participants were from a non-science background so the sessions were centred around a talk aimed at providing members of the public with an understanding of the current research in the area. Demonstrations to illustrate key-concepts such as the doppler effect, wave interference and the expansion of the Universe were really well received. The small class sizes were great, creating an informal and friendly atmosphere which was reflected in the numerous questions and open debate at the end of the sessions. The varied backgrounds of the participants (from poets to lawyers) added to this and it was refreshing but certainly challenging to answer the non-conventional (yet often insightful) questions. Following its success, the course will be extended to include more of the Big Questions and will be run again at the start of 2006.

Steve Longmore