Edward Witten: On the Shoulders of Giants

Acknowledging the scientists who blazed intellectual trails before him, Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen a little further it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.” In this special annual series, we invite our audience to stand on the shoulders of a modern-day giant.

In 2015, we were honored to present an address by a titan of physics, Edward Witten. Professor Witten is a leading light of superstring theory and the only physicist to have won the vaunted Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor. Known for advancing a number of novel approaches in mathematics and physics, Witten opened up new vistas in 1995 when he unified five seemingly competing superstring theories into M-theory, which seeks to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics.

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PARTICIPANT: Edward Witten
PROGRAM DATE: Saturday, May 30, 2015

Nature Rhymes. 00:00

Waves. 1:00

Progress from the 17th century 6:55

Kinetic energy and the distance from the sun. 11:58

Lagrangian mechanics 16:09

Richard Feynman contributions to physics 22:45

The world line of a particle. 28:00

Newton and Einstein working together. 37:03

What if string theory is correct? 44:44

Видео Edward Witten: On the Shoulders of Giants канала World Science Festival