4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
The Life Scientific returns with a special episode from the USA; Princeton, New Jersey, to be precise. Here, the Institute for Advanced Study has hosted some of the greatest scientific minds of our time - Einstein was one of its first professors, J. Robert Oppenheimer its longest-serving director - and today's guest counts among them. Edward Witten is professor emeritus at the institute and the physicist behind M-Theory, a leading contender for what is commonly referred to as ‘the theory of everything’, uniting quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity. He talks to Jim al-Khalili about a career that’s spanned some of the most exciting periods in modern theoretical physics - and about one particular problem that has obsessed and eluded him since his days as a student.
Producer: Lucy Taylor
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Want to learn something new? If you're looking for tactical deep dives and mind game strategies, |
0:06.7 | then you'll love the traitors, uncloaked. I know it's a game of deception, but it's a game of trust. |
0:11.7 | You have to get people to trust you very quickly. |
0:15.4 | I'm Ed Gamble. |
0:16.3 | Join me as we discuss all the latest drama from the Traiters castle, with exclusive access |
0:20.8 | to the banished and murdered contestants. |
0:22.8 | No. |
0:23.8 | I would have never expected him at all. |
0:25.8 | The traitors uncloked. |
0:27.4 | Listen only on BBC Sounds. |
0:30.7 | Hello, today I'm in the USA, in Princeton, New Jersey to be precise, a place that's hosted |
0:36.4 | some of the greatest scientific minds of our time. My guest is one of them, the physicist behind |
0:41.8 | M- Theory, a leading contender for what is commonly referred |
0:44.8 | to as the theory of everything, one that combines the two current mathematical descriptions |
0:50.4 | of the advanced study just down the road from here. Einstein was one of its first professors |
1:04.7 | and J Robert Oppenheimer, its longest serving director. |
1:08.4 | Over a career that spans some of the most exciting periods in modern theoretical physics, Edward Whitten has become |
1:14.1 | known as the originator of many significant ideas and breakthroughs in our current understanding |
1:19.7 | of the nature of reality itself. So hold on to your hats people. But even he has his challenges. |
1:26.6 | A fascination since his student days has been the problem of quark confinement, a subject that |
1:32.0 | still eludes our full understanding even today. |
1:35.0 | Don't worry, we will come to that. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.