Podcasts about universe's hidden dimensions

On this week’s Little Atoms podcast, Neil Denny talks to Theoretical physicist Lisa Randall about her new book Dark Matter and The Dinosaurs, and then Francesca Kay on her latest novel The Long Room. Lisa Randall is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists and the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. She has received numerous awards and honours and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics. She is the author of numerous books including Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, and Knocking On Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate our Universe. Her latest book is Dark Matter and The Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe. Francesca Kay's first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the Orange Award for New Writers... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Lisa Randall, the Harvard theoretical physicist and one of the most heavily cited and influential researchers in her field. She's a member of a number of distinguished scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences—but she's also a very popular science author, behind the bestselling Warped Passages: Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, and more recently Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World, which is just out in paperback. Between the hardback and paperback release of Knocking on Heaven's Door, a subject much discussed in the book—the quest for the discovery of the Higgs boson—was actually completed. Or at least, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider found a particle that sure looks like the Higgs. Randall has a new e-book about this entitled Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space. So we were thrilled to speak with her about the Higgs, and what the discovery means about the ability of physics to continually peel back new layers of the universe.

Warped Passages, extra dimensions, particle physics, gravity, branes. Professor Lisa Randall's new book, Warped Passages -- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, was included in The New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2005. Professor Randall has worked on a wide variety of ideas for what might lie beyond established particle physics and cosmological theories, including grand unified theories, supersymmetry, cosmological inflation, baryogenesis, string theory, and most recently, extra dimensions of space. She has made seminal contributions in all these areas, and as of Fall 2005 was the most cited theoretical physicist of the past five years.

Warped Passages, extra dimensions, string theory, branes. Professor Lisa Randall's new book, Warped Passages -- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, was published recently by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. Warped Passages was included in The New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2005. Professor Randall's research concerns the fundamental nature of particles and forces and how matter's basic elements relate to the physical properties of the world that we see.