Avi Loeb

I know that you have a heritage, Italian heritage.

I was actually in Pisa.

I gave a series of lectures in honor of Galileo Galilei.

It's called Cattedra Galileana, and my wife loves Italy.

But the Vatican misbehaved.

And it was not a good public relations stunt for them to do that.

Is that why you've named it Project Galileo?

Yes.

Is history repeating itself?

Well, there are several connections that I have with Galileo.

First, I gave this set of lectures in a cathedral I held on his name.

That was at Scuola Normale Superior in Pisa, one of the finest academic institutions in Italy.

And then the name Galileo is also after the northern part of Israel.

Obviously, this connects to the Christian religion in a very deep way.

And so I feel connected in that way, but most importantly, attending to data that you see through telescopes or otherwise,

is a principle that you would expect all scientists today to abide by, okay?

And Galileo pioneered it.

But what do I see around me?

The mainstream of the physics community, theoretical physics community for 50 years, by the way, which is as long as I was practicing physics, half of the history of modern physics is 50 years, okay?

During that time, the mainstream of theoretical physics was focused on the idea that extra dimensions will allow us to unify quantum mechanics and gravity.