May 2025 edition of the Space Cafe Tokyo will host a Special Public Lecture ‘What is science?’ by Prof. Mark Harrison of UCLA.

Surprisingly, there is no agreed-upon definition of “science”,“scientists”, or “scientific method”. Yet science has dramatically transformed our understanding of the world since the Enlightenment. Still, some fields—such as deep time geology—have struggled to gain public trust, raising deeper questions about what we really mean by “science”. Join us this month as we explore these foundational questions with Mark Harrison (UCLA).

Speaker info:

After being tossed out of college, Mark Harrison kicked around the world for a few years and in the process discovered a love of geology. He went on to receive a B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia and Ph.D. from the Australian National University (ANU). After a postdoc at the Carnegie Institution, he spent 8 years at SUNY Albany before moving to UCLA where he has served as chair of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. He took a 5 year leave from UCLA to serve as Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU from 2001 to 2006. Harrison pioneered 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology and later developed interests in the evolution of the Tibet-Himalaya orogenic system and the very early Earth. Harrison is a member of both the Australian Academy of Science and the U.S. National Academy of Science.

Date: Thursday, 15 May 2025

Time: 20:00 (doors open at 19:30)

Venue: Good Heavens, Shimokitazawa

Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1219828449053682/

Space Cafe Tokyo is hosted by members of ELSI, Kavli-IPMU, UTokyo, and NAOJ. Space Cafe Tokyo brings science a bit closer to the public in a cosy environment in Shimokitazawa. The event is held monthly where we invite experts, scholars, and students in the field of space/astronomy-related to present a research project or a topic that they are working on.