Complex life (and our plastic brains), a beautiful fluke

Argh! My computer was playing up, now I have limited time, and so much to blog!

In short:

* the universe is expanding
* some people have alien hands
* Michael Robotham and I went to the same highschool

I really enjoyed being introduced to physicist, astronomer and philosopher Marcelo Gleiser yesterday, in conversation with Cosmos editor Wilson Da Silva. Gleiser spoke about the problems with, and reasons why, scientists for years have been going after a theory that incorporates ‘oneness’, a synchronicity to the universe, a ‘theory of everything’ (one reason being of course a religious cultural hangover). Gleiser’s book Imperfect Creation partly argues the evidence for a much more chaotic universe – it’s a kind of antithesis to super string theory. He says matter, and life itself, both came about through’ asymmetries and imperfections’ – a bit of chance, in other words. But on a philosophical level, this is something to be celebrated – ‘life is an amazing phenomenon, but its extremely rare’, and life existing for such an extended period that it can complexify, this is even more of a fluke. So this means we can rethink our role in the universe – as our being here is rare and precious.

There was so much more to this session, and I apologise to Gleiser for my limited explanation. Gleiser’s discussion was animated by metaphor and gesture, so those of us in the audience without a science background could still understand everything. We got to be galaxies, for example. Which was cool. Gleiser was a beautiful speaker (with his Brazilian-American accent) and has such lovely eyes…

Moving on. It was a bit of a mistake to go from one mind-expanding session to another, I think. My lovely boyfriend and I went to see Norman Doidge and Perminder Sachdev speak with Natasha Mitchell (from ABC Radio’s All in the Mind) and it was fascinating, but our brains weren’t feeling very plastic at this stage, just a bit crammed. Doidge’s book has been extremely popular – talking about revolutionary discoveries in neuroplasticity. Sachdev’s book describes his work in neuropsychiatry and tells stories of some of the patients and cases.

Last night was the opening party of the festival – a blur of lovely faces, and so much fun.

I have an hour until my panel A Wordsmith’s Dream, which has moved from the tiny ACMI Studio into BMW Edge! A slightly intimidating thing, but a wonderful one… Can’t wait to see you there.

Space, brands and brains (some things I’m looking forward to)

So today I’ve put together my little schedule for the festival, and I thought I’d share with you just a few of the sessions I’m looking forward to this first weekend coming up. Sometimes I pick sessions just on who sounds the most interesting – someone I’m curious about and might be able to learn from in session, or later on, reading their book.

One such person is Marcelo Gleiser, an American professor of physics, astronomy and natural philosophy. Apparently his lectures are as popular with literature students as they are with science students. (Well, he’s pretty good lookin’ too, hey?) This Saturday, the 28th of August, I’ll be seeing him In Conversation with Editor-in-Chief of Cosmos, Wilson da Silva.

Neuropsychiatrist-authors Norman Doidge and Perminder Sachdev are going to tell me all about these heavy, complex things in our heads (and their changeability) on the same day, in their session The Amazing Brain.

That brain of mine had a part to play in this personal ‘brand’ I partly by accident constructed – Ms LiteraryMinded. I’m very curious to hear Kathy Charles, James P Othmer and Karen Andrews talk about The Author as Brand – the professional self as commodity, the online persona and so on. This panel really could take many different directions.

And on Sunday afternoon Sandy Jeffs offer us A Privileged Insight into writing with, and through, mental illness.

What are you guys looking forward to this weekend?

Oh, and, of course, do come along to the sessions I’m chairing! A Q&A on Friday with global nomad and self-confessed chameleon Mohezin Tejani. Mo’s life story is fascinating, and the event is totally free. And on Sunday I’m chairing ‘A Wordsmith’s Dream’ with word-nerds Ursula Dubosarsky, Davis Astle and Kate Burridge.