October 4, 2024 By The Hingham public Library
The Harold and Avis Goldstein Lecture, sponsored by the Hingham Public Library, returns Sunday November 17, 2024 at 2 p.m., with an illustrated presentation by Alan Lightman, internationally renowned novelist, physicist, essayist, and humanist.
Drawing upon his recent three-part PBS documentary, “Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science,” and his book The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science, Dr. Lightman will explore what he calls “spiritual materialism,” the reconciliation of a scientific world view with our complex human experiences, such as our consciousness, our feelings of connection to nature, and our appreciation of beauty. Part of this exploration will include extraordinary discoveries in astronomy, physics, and the life sciences and how those discoveries impact our understanding of ourselves.
Alan Lightman, Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is an engaging speaker as well as a prolific writer. In addition to research and publications in physics, his fiction includes his first novel — the international best-seller Einstein’s Dreams — and the novels Good Benito, The Diagnosis, Reunion, Mr. G: a Novel about Creation, and Three Flames. He has also written two children’s picture books (Ada and the Galaxies and Isabel and the Invisible World) and a fiction in verse, Song of Two Worlds. Besides The Transcendent Brain, his nonfiction books include The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Individual Spirit, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine, In Praise of Wasting Time, Screening Room: A Memoir of the South, and Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings.
Besides his teaching, research, and writing, Alan Lightman is founder of a nonprofit called Harpswell, which is dedicated to encouraging and supporting girls’ education and women leaders in Southeast Asia. He and his wife live near Boston and on a starlit island in Maine. The Goldstein lecture, generously supported by the Harold and Avis Goldstein Trust, will be held at the Larson Auditorium at Hingham’s Derby Academy, 56 Burditt Avenue, Hingham. Books for purchase and signing will be available at the event courtesy of Buttonwood Books & Toys, Cohasset. Space in this event is limited and advanced reservations are required. Reservations open on October 15, and can be made at hinghamlibrary.org or by calling the Library at 781-741-1405