Dr. Philip Eisner is a 1955 Physics graduate of MIT, he has earned his Ph.D. from NYU in 1969, and served as a research scientist for Exxon Mobil for many years.

Dr. Eisner will give an illustrated history of our effort to understand gravity. This search for important knowledge about gravity presented both practical and conceptual problems throughout our history. Way before our time on Earth, gravity shaped life’s structure through through the processes of evolution and natural selection. Ancient Greek philosophers wrestled with the concept of gravity from an astronomical viewpoint. Democritus, Anaximander, Bramagupta, Lucretius, and Aristotle published their ideas, but it was not until Galileo, then Newton, and in modern times, Einstein, that the puzzle has been apparently solved. Now we observe gravity waves from colossal collisions of black holes; we can use gravitational lenses to see practically to the end of our universe!