Media :
Availability:
Available to listen.
Last broadcast on Sat, 13 Nov 2010, 13:32 on BBC World Service (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
There is an enigma which haunts modern physics: Einstein described how gravity works on the scale of stars, galaxies, and the universe itself and Schroedinger gave us the equation that explains the mechanics of the tiny quantum realm.
Both theories work to wonderful effect in their own world but if they are laws of nature why is it that planets behave nothing like particles and that gravity is so strangely absent from the quantum realm?
In order to make sense of reality the great purpose of 21st Century physics is to find a way to unite them with a Theory of Everything.
The leading contender in what has become the holy grail of modern physics is String Theory.
Once an eccentric pursuit by an artful and impassioned minority it has become the leading contender to unite the forces of nature into one elegant, imaginative and multidimensional suggestion.
It is now absorbing some of the greatest minds of this generation.
What are its claims?
When will it be finished and how - if ever - can it be proved correct?
The most famous of String Theory’s proponents is the best-selling author and Co-Director of Columbia University’s Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Professor Brian Greene.
He talks to AC Grayling and an audience at the Wellcome Collection.
Broadcasts
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Wed 10 Nov 201010:32
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Wed 10 Nov 201015:32
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Wed 10 Nov 201020:32
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Thu 11 Nov 201001:32
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Sat 13 Nov 201013:32
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