Nancy Carrigan's cosmologies     updated May 7, 2007  D. Carrigan carrigan@fnal.gov (subject line must be sensible)

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Cosmology Cosmology as used generally and in this web site refers to the nature of the universe, our universe. While we understand many aspects of the universe, there are  unaswered questions. That means that scientists - cosmologists - can have many different ideas on how our universe works. Our seat-of-the pants notion of our universe is a universe with four space time dimensions. But many theorists now study universes with more dimensions. Perhaps inappropriately, the word cosmology is sometimes used for other all-embracing systems. One way this can happen technically is when something like "our universe" turns out to be narrowly defined, perhaps by being called the "Big Bang" when new theories or even facts might suggest many bangs. Nancy Carrigan's dyptich "Astrophysics and the Ant" contrasts two cosmologies, the astrophysicist's who asks "can I unweave the gauzy fabric of stars?" and the ant that ponders "can I untangle the matted carpet of earth?" This web site tries to highlight some of the important links between the perspective of the astrophysicist (particle physics, cosmology ) and the ant (biology).

Nancy Carrigan Nancy Carrigan is a well known artist and poet in the Chicago area. Her art has ranged over many media and topics. For a time she worked heavily in art associated with dance including some costuming, stage design, and even choreography. One dance "charmed quarks", was pictured in a story on particle physics and Fermilab in National Geographic. Through her long time association with Fermilab including the Fermilab Auditorium series she came to know many prominent cosmologists including Dave Schramm, Rocky Kolb, and Mike Turner as well as a moonlighting particle physicist, BJ Bjorken. The dyptich may have been partly inspired by these associations. A personal memoir, a poem - "The Eagle's child" A painting by Nancy Carrigan