Edward Witten: On the Shoulders of Giants

Video Description

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. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for all the latest from WSF. Visit our Website: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldsciencefestival Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldSciFest 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