FIAS Director Jan Wörner gave a Christmas lecture entitled “Advent in the Universe.” He reflected on the period from the creation of the universe over the course of a year and the Advent season, right up to an outlook for the new year.

If the time from the Big Bang to Christmas Eve had elapsed in one year, the dinosaurs would have appeared on the third Sunday of Advent – and disappeared again on the fourth Sunday, said Wörner. Our Milky Way was formed in March, but the sun and Earth did not appear September of this cosmic year. Humans did not show up until the last minutes of Christmas Eve. 

According to this time scale FIAS is only fractions of a second old. But Wörner also looked to the future: he presented the initial results of his survey of all FIAS members and the resulting prospects for the further development of the institute. Exciting developments are therefore in store for the new year.

After the lecture, commited members of the Triesch and Kaschube groups had prepared a delicious buffet, fascinating Iranian music, and a fun pub quiz. The evening ended with spontaneous musical performances. There is a lot of talent slumbering at FIAS!