Do you think we are alone in the universe?  What is the nature of consciousness? Will Artificial Intelligence ever come close to matching the human mind?  Do parallel universes exist?  Science deals in facts and evidence, but the most interesting ideas in science are those that surround the unknown.  We ask some big thinkers what they believe to be true, even though they cannot prove it, and why.

Join Professor Gavin Brown, Professor Fiona Wood, Prof David Boger,

Dr Suzanne Miller and host Wilson Da Silva

Gavin Brown AO FAA FRSE is Director of RiAus since August 2008. Previously Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University he has honorary degrees from St Andrews, Dundee, Unitar, Waseda and Sydney and serves on the boards of Events NSW, Global Foundation, Joanna Briggs Foundation, Experimental Arts Foundation. He is a fellow of the AICD and AIM. He is past Chair of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and his present task is to bring science to the people and people to science by raising scientific awareness and the level of debate on issues arising from science and technology.

Professor Fiona Wood is a plastic surgeon and currently Director of Burn Service of Western Australia working at Royal Perth Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. Fiona's research through the McComb Research Foundation involves several collaborative research projects focused on the multidisciplinary clinical & scientific team approach to the treatment of burn injury. The ultimate aim is scarless healing to ensure the quality of the outcome is worth the pain of survival

Suzanne Miller  Director of the South Australian Museum, is a geologist by training and an Affiliate Professor in the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

David Boger is Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He has received many awards including The Prime Minister's Science Prize in 2005. He was elected to the Royal Society in 2007. He is a Chemical Engineer.

Wilson da Silva is the editor and co-founder of COSMOS, Australia’s #1 science magazine. He has a long history as a journalist and editor, including as a science reporter on ABC TV, as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, as a a staff journalist on The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and as editor of the magazines Newton and 21C. A former president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, he is the winner of 23 awards, including two Editor of the Year trophies for his work on COSMOS and an AFI Award for Best Documentary.