Sheldon Glashow: The Power of Useless Ideas! (#099)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2020

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sheldon Glashow is a theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at Harvard, where he also earned his Ph.D. He was the first to propose a grand unified theory and also worked as a visiting scientist at CERN. Glashow shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg. He is a member of the Board of Sponsors for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It was an honor to have Sheldon Glashow on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast. He joins our Nobel Minds playlist, having won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, for his “contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current.” Shelly recounts a remarkable life as the son of a plumber who went to the acclaimed Bronx Science high school and then worked his way through some of the most notable laboratories in the world, meeting colleagues and forming collaborations along the way. Having won science’s top prize over 40 years ago didn’t slow him down, as he only recently retired from research and teaching. Shelly’s 1988 book, “Interactions: A Journey Through the Mind of a Particle Physicist and the Matter of this World,” holds up decades later as one that asks important questions about physics and guides future generations of scientists. I recommend that everyone curious about the field read it. His writing style is enviously humorous and accessible. I was interested to hear about how his love of science fiction encouraged his career as a physicist. Considering many of the topics we cover would have been considered science fiction even in the time that Shelly has been alive, he is properly impressed and optimistic about the benefits technology can have on scientific discovery. It was also encouraging to see how interested and engaged he still is in the pursuit of knowledge. Though he does express some pessimism about the future of humanity. Perhaps it’s hard not to during the pandemic, combined with the grim news about climate change and other threats. Hopefully, the fields he and I know and love – “useless fields” as he calls them – can continue that Nobel legacy of bettering humankind. You will enjoy this Full course: Quantum Field Theory by Sidney Coleman (1975) [Havard Physics 253 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhsb6tmzSpiwrZuDMyweABm7FShZu3YUv Brian Keating’s most popular Youtube Videos: Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1 Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1 Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1 Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM Host Brian Keating: ‍♂️ Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating Buy my book LOSING THE N Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic.
0:04.4	Five, four, three, two, one. on. A lot. Hey friends, I'm here at my office at U.C. San Diego, and I just recorded an episode with none other than Sheldon Glashow, young Sheldon, old Sheldon, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics.
0:30.0	He's a towering figure in physics and a generous gentle soul. I had so much fun with him.
0:35.0	I asked him to give a report card about the state of physics how it's changed since 1979
0:40.0	when he won his Nobel Prize and you won't want to miss his answer to that question.
0:45.0	You'll be surprised at the letter grade he gives to physics.
0:48.7	And you'll get a fascinating glimpse into a very, very interesting character who is going to play a role in my upcoming book,
0:55.5	which is coming soon, tentatively titled Lessons from L'Oriots, and you'll find out more about that
1:01.1	and all the good stuff you are going to learn from these brilliant
1:05.0	guests that I'm so privileged to have on the show.
1:09.2	Stick to the end of the episode if you want to hear how Shelly lost a dollar and 27 years worth of interest to
1:15.1	Eric Weinstein. You'll also find out Shelly's answer to the question that I
1:19.3	asked him which I consider the most important question I've ever asked a guest in my show.
1:27.0	Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I am your fearful host, Ryan Keating,
1:44.7	co-director of the Arthur C. Clark Center
1:46.6	for Human Imagination.
1:47.8	And today we have a very special guest
1:50.2	who is not only a really an icon in the field of physics of all different varieties,
1:57.0	but also a huge science fiction fan, and I hope to discuss with my guest Sheldon Glashow
2:04.8	Emeritus Professor at Harvard
2:07.2	and currently the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics
2:10.7	and Physics at Boston University.
	...

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