Why science?
My favorite game growing up was Clue. I’ve always enjoyed piecing together evidence to solve a mystery. Science is basically just a big detective game -- the Universe leaves you a bunch of random clues, and you have to tease out the underlying perpetrator. It’s good fun, and as a bonus it’s gratifying to be part of humanity’s never-ending quest to push the frontiers of knowledge.
Why this book?
Many people view science as grand proclamations from a cabal of eggheads in white coats. But as scientists our day-to-day work is almost the polar opposite - a semi-blind stumble through a maze of wrong turns and dead ends. I wanted to show how simulators like myself spend their days reasoning through roadblocks, designing and running numerical experiments, learning new skills as unexpectedly needed, and fighting through the daily frustrations of failure. I wanted to show that despite all this, we inch ever closer towards answering some of humanity’s deepest questions. This book was my homage to this scientific journey, as told through the twisting story of the development of cosmological simulations.
Do you think simulations tend to be viewed as the poor cousin of science?
When I started my career, that was definitely true. Now the situation is very different. Not just in astronomy, but in physics, biology, or just about any science you look, simulations are slowly replacing traditional theory as the preferred way to interpret experimental or observational data. The recently-inaugurated Flatiron Institute in New York is an example of this, where the Simons Foundation has invested hundreds of millions in new centres in fields from computational neuroscience to computational quantum to computational astrophysics. Simulations are revolutionising the way we do science, and arguably nowhere is this more apparent than in galaxy formation and cosmology.
What’s next?
When I started my career 30 years ago, my pie-in-the-sky dream was to run a simulation including all the known physics of galaxy formation within a cosmological context, from dust grains and molecules forming deep within the interstellar medium of galaxies to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by black holes pervading the universe on large scales. I genuinely believe that within the next five years or so, we will achieve this, albeit using sub-grid models. My group’s planned next generation of simulations, called KIARA, has this soup to nuts works that I envisioned so long ago, and even a few things that I hadn’t anticipated. Other groups are working on similar things. Although there would still be lots left to do, this would be major milestone in the field, and for myself a nice career capstone.
What’s exciting to you at the moment?
The obvious answer in astronomy is the James Webb Space Telescope, which has already been transformational in understanding the distant universe; I’m involved in several big JWST programs. But a lesser-known revolution is afoot in the radio: South Africa’s new MeerKAT radio interferometer will likewise be transformation for enabling studies of distant galaxies in the under-explored radio bands. MeerKAT is the core of the upcoming Square Kilometre Array project, an international coalition headquartered in Manchester aiming at building next-generation radio facilities around the world. I am still very connected to South African astronomy from my time as a SARChI Chair there, and I am going back to South Africa in 2024 for my sabbatical to help better understand how to use MeerKAT’s novel data to constrain our simulations for galaxy formation and cosmology. It is always exciting to be able to probe into a new regime; the Universe never fails to surprise!
Interview by Brian Clegg - See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a digest free here
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