Is There a Way to Simplify Things?

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Is there a way to explain why it's so difficult? I mean, shouldn't the real world be the easier one to explain. Well, I kind of suspect that sometimes you don't always understand the simplest things first. But also, the real world is a very, very complicated place. A lot of stuff happens,. and now complexity, of course, can arise out of simplicity, and often does. We're looking at the end product to see through this very, very simple end product to some simple structure - but we haven't succeeded yet.

Quantum gravity research is inspired by experiment — all of the experimental data that supports quantum mechanics, and supports general relativity — but it’s only inspiration, not detailed guidance. So it’s easy to “do research on quantum gravity” and get lost in a world of toy models and mathematical abstraction. Today’s guest, Andrew Strominger, is a leading researcher in string theory and quantum gravity, and one who has always kept his eyes on the prize: connecting to the real world. We talk about the development of string theory, the puzzle of a positive cosmological constant, and how black holes and string theory can teach us about each other.

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Andrew Strominger received his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Among his awards are the Dirac Medal, the Klein Medal, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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