The appearance and evolution of the universe from nothing to its present form is certainly the deepest question ever asked. After thousands of years of naive, mystical, religious and similar attempts, we seem for the first time in the history of mankind to have a clear big picture of what's going on. The new picture is based on experimental and observational, and thus reproducible, data and solid theoretical explanations. Modern cosmology has joined the sector of precise science and a general framework has been established. Science has a long way to go, but it is apparent that questions like "What is the Big Bang?" and "What is the energy balance of the universe?" will be succesfully answered, if they are not answered yet. Our view of this new universe, how it informs our every-day lives and beliefs, and how it inevitably influences our notions of creativity and innovation, will form the basis of the discussion.

Piet Hut is Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he heads the Program of Interdisciplinary Studies. An astrophysicist with an interest in the history of the Universe and computational science, he is the author of many books and articles that explore these areas.

Janna Levin is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College. Her work focuses on the Early Universe, Chaos and Black Holes. She is the author of How the Universe Got its Spots and of the novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines.

Charles Liu is Professor of Astrophysics at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island, and Associate in Astrophysics at the Hayden Planetarium and the American Museum of Natural History. His research focuses on the star formation history of the universe. He is the author of Black Holes, Quasars, Time Warps and co-author of One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos.

Dimitri Nanopoulos (moderator) is Distinguished Professor of Physics and Mitchell/Heap Chair in High Energy Physics at Texas A&M University. He is a fellow of the Academy of Athens, Greece.

Tu Weiming is Chair Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and Confucian Studies at Harvard University. He is the Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research interests are Asian philosophies, comparative religion, and dialogue among civilizations. He has published extensively on the modern transformation of Confucian humanism.

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