The Power of Wonder: Modern Marvels in the Age of Science

The feelings of awe and wonder engendered by astonishing or mysterious natural phenomena are as old as humanity itself. According to the classical account of rationality, the end of inquiry — the production of a viable explanation — should also serve to diffuse these emotions. Yet, the cultural and spiritual significance of wonder and its psychological underpinnings seem to suggest a different story, one in which the rational and the irrational, nature and the supernatural, and science and religion keep trading places and eclipsing one another. Historically, wonder has also played an important role in relation to moral insights about human nature and self-transcendence.

In an age enchanted with its own scientific and technical achievements, our sense of awe and wonder has seemingly shifted from nature to science, as we marvel at our capacity to know and manipulate our natural environment. Nonetheless, the realization of the sheer extent of how much we still do not understand is not only humbling, but in many cases, the source of great wonder as well. These gaps of knowledge account for our continued interest in a range of scientific theories that are increasingly detached from practical concerns, while fueling the motivation and imagination of scientists working on the cutting-edges of their disciplines.

Led by Steve Paulson, Executive Producer of Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, this three-part series on the power of wonder and the role of marvels in the age of science brings together leading scientists and writers for an interdisciplinary exploration of the broader implications of wonder, from its role in inspiring scientific breakthroughs to the many ways in which it connects to aesthetic experience, religious attitudes, and ethical concerns. Beyond the fascination with modern marvels, can the experience of wonder offer a deeper understanding of ourselves and our timeless pursuit of meaning and truth?

Unpacking Wonder: From Curiosity to Comprehension
Thursday, October 10, 2019 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

From the macrocosm of the universe to the microcosm of the human body, the more we discover and learn, the more our experience of awe and wonder is reinforced. How do we define the experience of awe and wonder? What is the historical and cultural impact of this emotion in the development of science and the standards of rationality? Social psychologist Michelle “Lani” Shiota, writer Caspar Henderson, and astrophysicist Alex Filippenko unpack the emerging science behind the emotions of awe and wonder. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

Beyond Oneself: The Ethics and Psychology of Awe
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

At its core, awe and wonder appear to be powerful emotions that can inform and shape our attitudes toward ourselves and others, especially in relation to the larger meaning and purpose of our lives. What are the psychological underpinnings of these universal emotions? How does awe relate to self-knowledge and the process of self-transcendence we call “ethics”? Does this emotion lie at the root of the religious impulse in humans? Prof. of religious studies Lisa Sideris joins psychologists Jennifer Stellar and Piercarlo Valdesolo to explore how awe shapes our views on science and morality alike. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

The Enigma of Life: Confronting Marvels at the Edges of Science
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Einstein claimed that “the most inexplicable thing about the universe is that it is explicable.” Given this statement, which suggests that no scientific explanation can make sense of the situation of the human mind within the universe, what is the role of awe and wonder from the perspective of contemporary scientists? Physicist Marcelo Gleiser, experimental psychologist Tania Lombrozo, and physician Gavin Francis analyze the impact of awe and wonder on the mindsets of their scientific colleagues. Learn More
Webcast Podcast

The Power of Wonder: Modern Marvels in the Age of science

Unpacking Wonder:
From Curiosity to Comprehension
October 10, 2019

Beyond Oneself:
The Ethics and Psychology of Awe
December 4, 2019

The Enigma of Life:
Confronting Marvels at the Edges of Science
February 5, 2020

Tania Lombrozo s a Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, as well as an Associate of the Department of Philosophy. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University in 2006 after receiving a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and a B.A. in Philosophy from Stanford University. Dr. Lombrozo’s research aims to address foundational questions about cognition using the empirical tools of cognitive... Read More

Piercarlo Valdesolo is an associate professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College and the director of CMC’s Moral Emotions and Trust Lab (MEATLab). His research studies the mechanisms underlying moral judgment and behavior with a particular focus on the role of emotions in our moral lives. His work asks questions like: What drives moral hypocrisy? How does awe influence our belief in God? For whom do we.... Read More

Michelle "Lani" Shiota is an associate professor of social psychology at Arizona State University. Her studies of positive emotions, emotion regulation, and emotional mechanisms of close relationships use multiple methods including cardiovascular, electrodermal, and EEG measures, behavioral coding, cognitive tasks, and narrative analysis as well as self-reports. Shiota's research has.... Read More

Caspar Henderson is a writer and journalist. He was educated at Westminster School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Independent, New Scientist, the New York Review of Books, as well as other publications. He is a past recipient of an IUCN-Reuters award for best environmental reporting in Western Europe, and has worked as a.... Read More

Alex Filippenko is he Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, and a Miller Senior Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Filippenko developed and runs the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT), a fully robotic telescope which conducts the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS). His accomplishments.... Read More

Jennifer Stellar is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the impact of prosocial emotions—including awe, compassion, and gratitude—on health and well-being. She explores how these emotions work in.... Read More

Marcelo Gleiser, PhD is a world-renowned theoretical physicist and award-winning author, and is currently the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He obtained his PhD from King's College London in 1986 and received the 1994 Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House. He is a Fellow and General Councilor of the American... Read More

Gavin Francis is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He lives and practices medicine in Edinburgh. Dr. Francis studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After qualifying as a physician, Francis spent ten years traveling, during which time he visited all seven continents. His first book, True North: Travels in Arctic Europe.... Read More

Lisa Sideris is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. Previously, she taught both at Pace University in New York City and at McGill University in Montreal. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University in 2000. Her areas of research include environmental ethics and the environmental humanities and the science-religion interface. Much of her early research focused on conflict and compatibility.... Read More

The Power of Wonder: Modern Marvels in the Age of Science

SPEAKER PROFILES