AI Summary
5 min read“If you find yourself to be the smartest person in the room, change rooms,” Neil deGrasse Tyson says, quoting a piece of advice he dislikes. “I have worked my entire life to be the smartest person in the room.” He’s joking, but the setup is real: he and Jordan Klepper are about to talk string theory with Virginia Tech physicist Lara Anderson, and they are not the smartest people in this room. Anderson is an associate professor of physics and an affiliate in the math department, and her research includes the geometry and particle phenomenology of string theory. The episode is a guided tour through the hardest open questions in fundamental physics, with Anderson explaining what string theory actually claims, why it has been stuck for decades, and what it would take to test it.
The Higgs boson and the problem of higher energies
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:14) **Opening and Guest Introduction** - Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jordan Klepper welcome back string theorist Lara Anderson from Virginia Tech.
- 2 (04:57) **Status of the Higgs Boson** - Lara explains the Higgs boson is "thoroughly discovered" and its properties are confirmed.
- 3 (07:10) **Probing Higher Energies** - Neil and Lara discuss how higher energies are needed to see smaller scales, using wavelength analogies.
- 4 (09:37) **The "40-Year Problem" with String Theory** - Neil challenges Lara on why string theory hasn't solved its core problems after 40 years of work by many theorists.
- 5 (13:41) **What Actually Is a String?** - Answering a listener question about the dimensionality and vibration of strings.
- 6 (21:40) **Visualizing Higher Dimensions** - Lara offers a trick for thinking about dimensions beyond three, using shadows as an analogy.
- 7 (24:46) **Black Holes and Extra Dimensions** - A listener asks if extra dimensions could resolve black hole singularities.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Why does string theory need ten dimensions? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Jordan Klepper sit down with Lara Anderson, string theorist and associate professor of physics at Virginia Tech, to tackle intersecting dimensions, the nature of gravity, and a unified field theory.
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Thanks to our Patrons Robin Billings, PhD, Christine Sizemore, Aine DeMoss, Crispy Wisp, Branden Rucker, Rowena Smith, Cory Strauss, Aubrey Etheridge, Aldarien, Philip Arno, Daniel, Kendall Rohach, ChiliPepper, Jim Phelan, Lonnie Draper, Ryan Stanley, Ziad Farhat, Idan Cohen Epstein, Marie Lauzon, Eduardo Larranaga, Dr. DJ Kehoe, Mike Greer, Karen Henton, Pixi, Kari, Mandy, That Geezer, Victor T, Susanne Otero, Dingus Fringus, Jean, Barrie Parkman, Nathaniel Naranjo, Agentm0o, Jason Adair, MJ Jamal, Gianna Williams, Philip B Stanley, Sarabjit Singh, Chuck, Antonio Macias, Kevin Sayet, Braden Gibson, Toms Grinbergs, Andrew Brodbeck, Mr. Pinky, Adam Prentice, Rich Wilkinson, Frejya of Fòlkvangr, Eric Spray, Ian Ledington, Ilona Freeman, Tarsha Fewell, and SuperKamiGrayson for supporting us this week.
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