6. Dr. Stephon Alexander — The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe
The Michael Shermer Show
Michael Shermer
4.3 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2016
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe, physicist and jazz saxophonist Dr. Stephon Alexander revisits the ancient realm where music, physics, and the cosmos were one. This cosmological journey accompanies Alexander's own tale of struggling to reconcile his passion for music and physics, from taking music lessons as a boy in the Bronx to studying theoretical physics at Imperial College. Playing the saxophone and improvising with equations, Alexander uncovered the connection between the fundamental waves that make up sound and the fundamental waves that make up everything else. As he reveals, the ancient poetic idea of the "music of the spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics. Dr. Alexander is the Royce Family Professor at Brown University's Physics Department. In 2013, he won the prestigious American Physical Society Bouchet Award for "his contributions to theoretical cosmology." He is also a jazz musician, and recently finished recording his first electronic jazz album with Erin Rioux.
Transcript
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| 0:30.0 | This is your host, Michael Sherman, and you're listening to Science Salon, a series of conversations |
| 0:40.5 | with leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers about the most important issues of our time. |
| 0:50.0 | First of all, it was a real pleasure honor to be here and especially to see some young faces in the audience. |
| 0:55.0 | Hopefully I can learn something from your questions today. |
| 0:58.0 | So yeah, that story began with this teacher well first all let me establish that |
| 1:05.3 | How many of you know what the word truant is a truant? |
| 1:09.2 | That's something good. I assume that they don't know that |
| 1:12.3 | Some fellow truants in the audience. |
| 1:15.0 | So I kind of was like a truant. |
| 1:18.0 | School board me. |
| 1:20.0 | I prefer to sneak off and play basketball. |
| 1:22.0 | Every young man at that time in the Bronx. I prefer to sneak off and play basketball. |
| 1:22.5 | Every young man at that time in the Bronx |
| 1:25.1 | dreamt of being the next Michael Jordan, |
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