Physicist Brian Greene, a Columbia University professor and an expert in String Theory, spoke at the Memorial Union Theater Tuesday night to discuss the central topic of his books and research with UW-Madison students.
UW-Madison junior Jon Atwell, an associate director of the Distinguished Lecture Series, said bringing Greene to speak was important because for the three years he had been on the committee, they did not bring in any physicists.
'Brian has something important to say and it's disappointing that we have neglected science in our events,' Atwell said.
In his two books, Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe, which is also a Nova special, Greene attempts to elucidate for the general public the mysteries of modern physics.
He used analogies ranging from ants crawling on a garden hose to explain extra dimensions and children trapped in warehouse basements to convey the photoelectric effect.
Greene said he chose to target the general public with physics books and lectures because the math of physics has left the general public behind.
'For most of the journey of the unraveling of the universe, whether you understood mathematics or not, you could pretty much follow along,' he said. 'That's changed. The major developments are phrased in the language of mathematics, which is a language that most people don't understand.'
He said he tries to strip away the math to make the ideas accessible, so that anybody with an interest can catch a glimpse of what is going on.
Greene's talk followed the same formula as his book, as he explained, via movie snippets, the fundamental concepts of String Theory. In elementary UW-Madison physics classes, students learn that matter is composed of point particles such as protons and electrons and the equations of quantum mechanics describe the motion of these particles.
String Theory proposes a new entity for the fundamental constituent for all of matter, which is a tiny loop of vibrating energy that vibrates in at least nine different dimensions. Greene said physicists hope to reconcile the differences between quantum mechanics and general relativity, and said he he believes String Theory is the best hope for a unified theory, which Einstein was looking for, but never found.
UW-Madison sophomore Brandon Harris, a physics major, said he is ecstatic that Greene came to speak.
'It popularizes physics,' Harris said. 'It is important that people know the contributions that physicists are making to the public.'
