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11/12/07

SLU PHYSICS PROF EXPLORES SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN NEW BOOK

CANTON - The Sky Is Not A Ceiling, a new book by St. Lawrence University Priest Associate Professor of Physics Aileen O'Donoghue, is the story of her personal spiritual journey, as she struggles to answer the question, "what's out there?"

What was it about the stars that drove O'Donoghue back to morning Mass? And how did the universe enrich her faith? Her discoveries are both scientific and mystical, certain and mysterious. As an astronomer and seeker, O'Donoghue learned that one can find a resting place among the stars and vast stretches of intergalactic space as comfortable as one among the branches of a favorite tree or the rocks of a favorite mountain. The Sky Is Not A Ceiling is a rich mix of science and spirituality that goes beyond religion, and beyond the new physics, to a universe without limits.

A regular guest on National Public Radio, O'Donoghue also writes for Living Faith and contributed the "Mountain Skies" column in Adirondac, the magazine of the Adirondack Mountain Club. She earned her associate's degree from Colorado Mountain College, her bachelor's degree from Fort Lewis College, and a master's degree and Ph.D. from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; she has been on the faculty at St. Lawrence since 1988.

O'Donoghue spent the 2001-2002 academic year on sabbatical at the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona, and has been a visiting associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University. In 2001, she participated in the physics and cosmology group of the Science and the Spiritual Quest discussions sponsored by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Paris. O'Donoghue also serves on the board of directors of the Adirondack Public Observatory.

The book, O'Donoghue's first, is out November 15 from Orbis Books and has already received critical praise. A review in the national Catholic magazine America states "The soul-searching of this woman astronomer is inspiring, refreshing and at times deeply poetic. Anyone who seeks to make sense of science and religion as two sides of the same conjugate will appreciate O'Donoghue's story."

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More: Read the first chapter of The Sky Is Not A Ceiling (.pdf Format)

Science at St. Lawrence