Janna Levin

Janna Levin in 2019

Janna J. Levin (born 1967) is a theoretical cosmologist. Much of her work deals with looking for evidence to support the proposal that our universe might be finite in size due to its having a nontrivial topology.

Quotes

• "(By moving) I'm making sounds on the drums of spacetime"… "Space itself wobbles and rumbles like a drum... Black holes can bang on spacetime like mallets on a drum"
  • (2010) http://youtube.com/watch?v=eLz9TvxGoKs

• People used to try to hijack quantum mechanics and its inherent mystery to cast a cloud around determinism, in the hope that free will could survive modern physics. But that never worked very well. Since when does random chance equal free will? The only salvation for volition is a soul and faith and you’re not allowed to ask me about that.
  • How the Universe Got its Spots (2002)

• It might seem limited to impose our human perception to try to deduce the grandest cosmic code. But we are the product of the universe and I think it can be argued that the entire cosmic code is imprinted in us. Just as our genes carry the memory of our biological ancestors, our logic carries the memory of our cosmological ancestry. We are not just imposing human-centric notions on a cosmos independent of us. We are progeny of the cosmos and our ability to understand it is an inheritance.
  • How the Universe Got its Spots (2002)

• Topology and number theory are my faves.
  • Barnard Physics Mechanics PHYS BC2001 (Autumn 2010)