Special EFI Seminar - The Universe Speaks in Numbers, Graham Farmelo, Cambridge

2:00 pm MCP 201

933 East 56th Street
Chicago IL 60637

The Universe Speaks in Numbers
Graham Farmelo, Cambridge

The supreme task of the physicist, Einstein believed, was to understand the universe in terms of the most basic mathematical laws of nature. Most physicists believe that it is best to seek these laws by trying to understand surprising new experimental findings. Einstein and his peer Paul Dirac disagreed and controversially argued that new laws are best sought by developing the underlying mathematics. In this talk. I describe how this approach has, over the past 150 years—led to insights into both fundamental physics and advanced mathematics, which appear to be inextricably intertwined. Some physicists and mathematicians believe they are working towards a giant mathematical structure that encompasses all the fundamental laws of nature. But is this an illusion? Might mathematics be leading physics astray?

Graham Farmelo is a Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, the author of a biography of Paul Dirac, 'The Strangest Man,' and of ‘The Universe Speaks in Numbers’.

Event Type

Seminars

Apr 2