{"id":761,"date":"2006-04-19T13:25:02","date_gmt":"2006-04-19T18:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/04\/19\/string-theory-with-a-view-towards-reality\/"},"modified":"2006-04-19T13:25:02","modified_gmt":"2006-04-19T18:25:02","slug":"string-theory-with-a-view-towards-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/19\/string-theory-with-a-view-towards-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"String Theory, With a View Towards Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/efi.uchicago.edu\/events\/compton_lectures.shtml\">Arthur H. Compton Lectures<\/a> are a great tradition at the <a href=\"http:\/\/efi.uchicago.edu\/index.shtml\">Enrico Fermi Institute<\/a> here at the University of Chicago.  Twice each academic year, a postdoc (!) from the EFI gives a series of 8-10 lectures on Saturday mornings, aimed at the general public, on a topic of current scientific interest.  The EFI focuses on research in particle physics, astrophysics, and gravitation, so that&#8217;s what the lectures tend to cover.  They are a great resource, and it&#8217;s amazing to see over a hundred people from the community trudge to a lecture hall every Saturday morning to hear about modern physics.<\/p>\n<p>This Spring&#8217;s lectures are being given by <a href=\"http:\/\/theory.uchicago.edu\/%7Ehalmagyi\/index.html\">Nick Halmagyi<\/a>, a string theorist whose office is right across from mine.  The title is <a href=\"http:\/\/theory.uchicago.edu\/%7Ehalmagyi\/compton.html\">String Theory:  With a View Towards Reality<\/a>, and Nick is gradually putting notes and slides online.  With two lectures gone by, reality itself has been the focus thus far, as Nick sets up the current state of particle physics.  String theory will undoubtedly follow, and when the moment comes to draw the connection between the two time will probably have run out.<\/p>\n<p>Previous Compton lecturers are a distinguished lot, including our very own Risa.  The EFI does a terrible job at keeping them online, but I was able to dig up slides from a few recent lecture series.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/kicp.uchicago.edu\/%7Erisa\/compton\/\">The Story of Galaxy Formation in Our Universe<\/a>, Risa Wechsler<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/hep.uchicago.edu\/%7Eagupta\/compton.html\">The Origin of Mass in Particle Physics<\/a>, Ambreesh Gupta<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cfcp.uchicago.edu\/%7Emmhedman\/compton1.html\">The Age of Things: Sticks, Stones and the Universe<\/a>, Matthew Hedman<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cococubed.com\/talk_pages\/compton.shtml\">Cosmic Fireworks<\/a>, Frank Timmes<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/find.uchicago.edu\/%7Epryke\/compton\/flyer.html\">Sketching the Biggest Picture&#8212;The Adventure of Experimental Cosmology<\/a>, Clement Pryke<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/theory.uchicago.edu\/~smaria\/compton\/lectures\/schedule.html\">Invasions in Particle Physics<\/a>, Maria Spiropulu<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/flash.uchicago.edu\/%7Ebrown\/Compton\/\">Brown Dwarfs and Extrasolar Planets<\/a>, Edward Brown<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/astro.uchicago.edu\/home\/web\/mohr\/Compton\/lectures.html\">Unravelling the Mysteries of our Evolving Universe<\/a>, Joseph Mohr<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any recent ones with online slides that I missed, let me know.  And if you&#8217;re in the neighborhood, anyone is welcome to come to Nick&#8217;s lectures, which are at 11 a.m. most Saturdays.  He speaks with a distinct Australian accent, but it&#8217;s ususally possible to understand him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Arthur H. Compton Lectures are a great tradition at the Enrico Fermi Institute here at the University of Chicago. Twice each academic year, a postdoc (!) from the EFI gives a series of 8-10 lectures on Saturday mornings, aimed at the general public, on a topic of current scientific interest. The EFI focuses on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}