Today’s show will introduce a guest who is also a friend, Dr. Ed Belbruno, an artist and mathematician researching at NASA, Boeing and Princeton University. Recently, a documentary called Painting the Way to the Moon (https://www.facebook.com/PaintingTheWayToTheMoon) was created to illuminate his career and life. Looking at one of his own paintings, he found a way to the moon that uses less fuel. However, the Ed Belbruno I met goes further than mapping a less expensive route to the moon. He’s entering the field of cosmology, the study of the beginnings of the universe without delving into the existence of God. Princeton’s favorite adopted son, Albert Einstein, looked into cosmology, too. He thought of time in the universe as endless and beginningless, and the universe is eternally oscillating between a rapid expansion and collapse. Ed Belbruno is currently working on the math of a such a universe.
The beauty of my friend’s thoughts clearly expresses itself in his art. As an educator, I could not help but wonder how the poetry started. The story he tells will surprise you. I hope you enjoy today’s show, as we consider how art, freedom and play in childhood form the universe of an artist mathematician.
Tonight at 7pm www.princetontv.org
Education Roundtable 