The Universe Speaks in Numbers

Apr 02 2020 2.9k
The Universe Speaks in Numbers Podcast artwork

In The Universe Speaks in Numbers award-winning science writer Graham Farmelo is in conversation with some of the great names in modern physics and mathematics. Among the interviewees are Michael Atiyah, Ruth Britto, Lance Dixon, Simon Donaldson, Freeman Dyson, Juan Maldacena, Michela Massimi, Roger Penrose, Martin Rees, Simon Schaffer and Edward Witten.To read more see Graham's book The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Maths Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets.
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The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Phil Anderson interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Apr 02 2020 45 mins  
Phil Anderson was one of the most creative theoretical physicists of the past century. Among dozens of key contributions, he pioneered our understanding of symmetry breaking and paved the way to our modern understanding of weak and electromagnetic interactions, and the prediction of what became known as the Higgs boson. He did all this without state-of-the-art mathematics and was w

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Nima Arkani-Hamed interviewed by Graham Farmelo (part 2)

Jan 16 2020 18 mins  
The second part of leading theoretical physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed's inspiring interview with Graham about the mysterious harmony between pure mathematics and fundamental physics.This is one of a series of interviews given by world-class experts to Graham on the themes he explores in his new book The Universe Speaks in Numbers.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Martin Rees interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Jan 02 2020 22 mins  
Cosmologist Martin Rees, a pioneer of multiverse concept, is one of the most productive and respected thinkers about the origins and development of the universe. A former president of the Royal Society, he is also famous for his wise and thoughtful commentary on the state of science, and his thinking about the future. In this interview, he ranges widely over many themes, including

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Karen Uhlenbeck interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Dec 12 2019 15 mins  
The interplay between fundamental physics and pure mathematics has led to many remarkable mathematical insights over the past fifty years. Karen Uhlenbeck is one of the mathematicians who made pioneering insights into geometry when studying the physicists' gauge theory of particle interactions. In this podcast, she talks candidly about how many mathematicians came only grudgingly t

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Steven Weinberg interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Nov 28 2019 65 mins  
Steven Weinberg is perhaps the most accomplished living theoretical physicist. Now based at the University of Texas at Austin, he has made substantial contributions to our understanding of all the fundamental forces of Nature. In this podcast, he reflects on his career in physics, the 'golden years' in which he and others put the finishing touches to the Standard Model of particle

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Zohar Komargodski interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Nov 07 2019 18 mins  
Much of understanding of the universe at the finest level is based on modern field theory, rooted in the pioneering contributions of the nineteenth century British natural philosophers Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. In this podcast of most brilliantly creative young field theorists, Zohar Komargodski tells us why this subject is still so rich in potential, and why he is q

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Simon Donaldson interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Oct 24 2019 16 mins  
The discoveries the Simon Donaldson made in the early 1980s about four-dimensional spaces 'stunned the mathematical world', his research adviser Michael Atiyah later recalled. Donaldson was using the physicists' theory of particle interactions to study space itself – with truly remarkable results. In this podcast, Donaldson recalls how he became interested in physics, remembers h

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Douglas Stanford and Pedro Vieira interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Oct 10 2019 32 mins  
Douglas Stanford and Pedro Vieira are two of the most brilliant young theoretical physicists who are seeking to understand nature at its finest level. In these two interviews, Stanford and Vieira talk about their work and explain why they are content to spend their times developing fundamental theories of nature, with little or no surprising new inputs from new observations and exp

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Luis Álvarez-Gaumé interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Sep 26 2019 21 mins  
Fundamental physics and pure mathematics have never been so closely intertwined. Over the past few decades, some of the world’s leading theoretical physicists and mathematicians explored these connections at the Simons Center at Stony Brook University. In this podcast, the director of the Simons Center, the Spanish string theorist Luis Álvarez-Gaumé, talks about how best to exp

The Universe Speaks in Numbers: Lenny Susskind interviewed by Graham Farmelo

Sep 23 2019 21 mins  
'Black holes have become one of the liveliest areas of theoretical research. By thinking about these cosmic objects, using quantum theory and relativity, theorists are clarifying our understanding of information, gravity and the other fundamental forces of nature. Stanford University’s Lenny Susskind is one of the leaders in this field. In this lively interview, he describes how