A Stellar Line Up At Teamwork Arts’ ‘BE INSPiRED’

India is a land of diversity, contradictions, paradoxes, impasses and potential. There is a tremendous range of human endeavour at the core of our multi-faceted democracy. Endeavours which, if given a clear path to fruition, can transform our country’s future and be game-changers for the world at large. What these endeavours need is organised enterprise, a plan which can look at both the micro and macro, and above all, a far-reaching and inclusive vision. Be INSPiRED is a series which is truly futuristic in the sense that it will look ahead into the decades through the proverbial crystal ball with innovative inventions which hold unbridled potential, engender equality, commitment to both technology and nature and encompass a slew of genres.

As part of the Be INSPiRED series that looks at an India of the future, Teamwork Arts brings a set of discussions – to envisage a better and safer future for India & to find clear, cohesive solutions for our present with insights from experts and thought leaders from the world over whose expertise and acute insight can help us find a future of hope, innovation and equal opportunity for all. The series spanning Healthcare, AI, Science, Agriculture, Economics, Environment, Education with technology as its springboard, the series will be launched virtually in 2021 with biweekly or weekly online episodes to begin with, a possibility of live television episodes as we go along, and hopefully a physical, on-ground event in 2022 with an exclusive and niche audience and high-profile thought leaders as speakers. A discerning audience who will register for a 2-day programme of talks, launches and debates will be in for a bespoke experience and a leap into the future.

The much-awarded science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, known widely for his acclaimed Mars Trilogy, feels that human beings are doing more to change the planet than any other force, ‘from bedrock up to the top of the troposphere’ and ‘by no means do we have godlike powers on this planet’. Is the human urge for space exploration a similar attempt fuelled by hubris and selfish ambition to colonise space? Can we become explorers in the real sense and realise our miniscule place in the gigantic order of things that is the universe, which remains at once our life-force as well as our deepest mystery? In this session, Robinson will be in conversation with journalist Vishnu Som, answering these questions and more. This episode will be broadcasted on 20th October 2021.

In another episode scheduled for 27th October 2021, astrophysicist and Professor at Yale Priyamvada Natarajan will be in conversation with eminent journalist Michael Lemonick. The universe is full of matter and gravity pulls all matter together. The Hubble Space Telescope’s phenomenal observations of very distant supernovae showed that, a long time ago, the universe was actually expanding more slowly than it is today. The universe therefore is in accelerated expansion. But what is causing this? Theorists have determined this to be dark energy, of which more is still unknown than known. It turns out that roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy; dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest – everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, adds up to less than 5% of the universe! Einstein was the first person to realise that empty space has incredible properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood. What human beings are struggling and indeed racing to understand are the mind-boggling possibilities of dark energy – and for that, what is needed is more data and yet more data, that can be accorded by instruments and theories together. This session will delve into that realm of possibilities in space research that both ideas and instruments together can enable.

The series is in collaboration with the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister, The United Nations India Office and Science Gallery – Bengaluru

The series has garnered over 1 million views in 6 weeks.