About

Our vision for BEYOND

• To create new and exciting ideas that push the boundaries of research a bit “beyond”
• To conduct research that transcends traditional subject categories
• To answer foundational questions in science, and explore their philosophical ramifications – what might be called “the big questions”
• To present science to the public as a key component of our culture and of significance to all humanity

The picture shows a representation of a Calabi-Yau manifold - a higher-dimensional geometrical and topological construction that arises in string theory. The picture is reproduced with kind permission of JeanFrancois Colonna.

Mission Statement

For thousands of years, people have gazed in wonder at the world about them and asked the big questions: How did the universe came into existence? What is it made of? Where do human beings fit in this great cosmic scheme? Is there a meaning to it all?

Such questions have mostly been restricted to religion and philosophy. Now scientists are addressing them too, following spectacular advances in cosmology, subatomic particle physics, molecular biology, genetics and neuroscience. Physicists are busy seeking a way to meld the disparate laws of physics into an embracing mathematical scheme. Biochemists are on the verge of making life in the laboratory, while Biologists are looking for signs of a second genesis on Mars. On every front, science is transforming our world view and challenging age-old assumptions about the nature of the physical universe and our place within it.