Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
scienceJan 1, 202426:28pending

The Life Scientific: Edward Witten

Discovery

About this episode

The Life Scientific returns with a special episode from the USA; Princeton, New Jersey, to be precise. Here, the Institute for Advanced Study has hosted some of the greatest scientific minds of our time - Einstein was one of its first professors, J. Robert Oppenheimer its longest-serving director - and today's guest counts among them. Edward Witten is professor emeritus at the institute and the physicist behind M-Theory, a leading contender for what is commonly referred to as ‘the theory of everything’, uniting quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity. He talks to Jim al-Khalili about a career that’s spanned some of the most exciting periods in modern theoretical physics - and about one particular problem that has obsessed and eluded him since his days as a student.

Producer: Lucy Taylor

Get every episode summarized

Each time Discovery publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Hosts & guests

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

The Life Scientific: Edward Witten

Discovery

0:00
26:28

More episodes

More from Discovery

View all episodes →