Quantum Anomalies with Lara Anderson
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What is string theory trying to explain about the universe?
So, Jordan, I'm just convinced I'm a string theory ignoramus. You know what? Hearing you say that makes me realize I maybe don't know as much about string theory as I could. But if you know nothing, I can't wait to find out how little I truly know. Coming up,
one of the world's experts on that subject. Check it out. Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk, Cosmic Queries edition. I got with me Jordan Klepper. Jordan, daily show, Jordan Klepper. What would that show be without you?
It would still be daily. It would replace me probably pretty
quick.
I had no illusions.
I'd
like
to come at you with more confidence. What would it be? It would be
fine. They would be fine. They get along just fine. Oh, my God. They really have a formula.
They don't need me whatsoever. Why
do you give me such a gotcha at the top
of the interview here, Neil? Sorry, sorry. I take it back. I take it back. And you've got a touring show, I just learned. Yes. Jordan Klepper Live. Jordan Klepper Live. Live. And we find you on...
Well, you find me at Stages. You'll find my information at OfficialJordanKlepper.com.
OfficialJordanKlepper. And
then you'll see me up on Stages telling stories about my time at The Daily Show, time on the road. Cool.
Time
growing up. You'll get a lot
of me. All right. All right. That's how we like it. So this Cosmic Queries is... All the physics that I never learned in graduate school.
So this is sort of an attempt for you to get smarter because you didn't want to pay the extra money or because there was just a failing at the higher education level.
Well, so there's a saying that I first heard from my sister who got it when she worked for Michael Dell of Dell Computers, now Dell whatever, Industries, whatever. It's, if you ever find yourself to be the smartest person in the room, change rooms.
terrible advice. I have worked my entire life to be the smartest person in the room. Here's the opposite advice. If you find yourself the smartest person in the room, stay in that room. Lock
the
doors.
You are king. Enjoy being king.
If you find yourself in a room where you are not the smartest person, try another room. There's a lot of rooms. I'm sure there's smaller rooms. There's other rooms you can find an advantage. Intellect is an advantage that you can wield for your own advancement. Get in a room where you can wield that. So, potato, potato.
So... What we have here, we went to Virginia Tech. We found a string theorist. She's been on before. Associate professor of physics and an affiliate in the math department. The physics wasn't enough. Throw in some extra math.
It's a definite brag. Oh, that's not enough at a cocktail party.
Everyone help me welcome back to StarTalk, Lara Anderson. Lara, welcome back to StarTalk. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Excellent, excellent. And you not only do research there, but you also teach classes?
I do indeed, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, there it is. I teach
from beginning level all the way up through graduate students.
There you go. And it says here, your research includes the geometry and particle phenomenology in string theory.
Yes, it does.
Duh, obvious.
Yeah, yeah. I'm mostly interested in the particle phenomenology. Okay. The geometry, that's old hat. So we're just going to skip by that. We're phenomenology the entire time.
So I got some questions for you, Laura, because occasionally some questions come up that are a little beyond my reach or a lot beyond my reach. What's the latest on the Higgs boson? Can you just catch us up on that?
Well, the Higgs boson, I would say, is thoroughly discovered. In the recent years since the detection of this, this was something that theory had predicted roughly 50 years before. So my experimental colleagues would be annoyed at me for saying this, but by the time of the actual discovery of the Higgs boson, N years ago, roughly, Yeah, 15 years ago, you know, this was something that we really expected to be there.
What could particle accelerators reveal beyond the Higgs boson?
The thing that everybody is waiting for is, is there any physics beyond the Higgs boson that we can discover with accelerators like the LHC?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is string theory trying to explain about the universe?
0:00–4:12
2
What could particle accelerators reveal beyond the Higgs boson?
4:12–6:47
3
Can string theory provide a unified theory of quantum gravity?
6:47–11:43
4
What is a string in string theory, and how does it vibrate?
11:43–20:26
5
Could an object from a higher dimension appear as a black hole?
20:26–27:02
6
Can experiments detect extra dimensions or explain why gravity is so weak?
27:02–40:30
7
Could holography explain how gravity and the universe’s boundary are connected?
40:30–46:44
8
Are dimensions real features of nature or useful ideas for describing physics?
46:44–54:01