Lisa Randall, Harvard physicist
WGBH broadcast this ThoughtCast interview, and also features it on their “Science Luminaries” series, as part of “WGBH Science City.” It was also broadcast on WCAI/WNAN, public radio stations for the Cape and Islands.
Lisa Randall
Now while this might sound like so much Greek — just wait. Randall’s latest book, written for the layman, is called “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions” — so she’s had plenty of practice explaining these high-flying ideas to English majors.
Click here: 
to listen (28:30 mins).
Click here to listen to Lisa Randall’s lecture at IDEAS Boston on the WGBH Forum Network.
Tags: CERN, extra dimensions, feminism, harvard, jenny attiyeh, large hadron collider, lisa randall, string theory, thoughtcast, warped passages
April 12th, 2006 at 6:13 am
Thank you very much, the podcast was very enjoyable.
Especially where you asked Dr Randall about her belief in extra dimensions, and she replied:
“But I’m still skeptical … I’m willing to be proven wrong.”
This is a very exciting subject, and I hope you will visit it again.
Nigel
September 15th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Lisa Randall reminds us that ideas come from “warped passages.” It is not always that we come to understand by following someone else’s line of reasoning. We can come across ideas accidentally; it is a lot of ideas flowing in and across from different directions, and how someone reaches a particular point can be very different. Secondly, we can honor Adonis and Aphrodite, and be pleaseantly surprised that Prof. Randall reflects Aphrodite, and is not another non-Adonis male professor. For both of these reasons, how refreshing her appearance is!
Paul
November 12th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
If Lisa Randall is not a super-symmetric twin of mine then i guess no one is. ed.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:04 am
Communication has its own multitude of branes here in this puny three dimensional pocket. Sometimes I can’t believe how many branes I feel exist; When this one is so bleepin’ ignorant and hard to cope with, it makes the Universe(s) so grand. You go girl, uh-um I mean Dr. Randall.
~ NMR
(not Nuclear Magnetic Resonation)
~ Nicholas Michael Roach
January 7th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Mercy me!
Although I have seen this woman expounding some of her theories several times on various cable networks I have not had so much information from her all at once. That has made me inquire further into her ideas regarding gravity (or the lack therof), string and brane possibilities. Amazing!
Kind of like backward engineering applied to hypothetical inversities.
Although her preponderences are certainly boggling to me, she strikes a wonderful chord. Strings resonating?
March 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
If gravity is stronger in other dimensions, life would be very different. Humans would have to be more strong to support the pressure of it…
March 19th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Have heard lisa on a couple of interviews and i do think she’s a genius!
if gravitons really do exist and escape to other dimensions then maybe there’s a way of trapping some just before they do escape and using them to communicate with anyone that might be in there!
mind blowing.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I think Dr Randall is a great physicist. I now have a whole new world opened up to me, thanks to her. Unfortunately my Husband does’nt have a clue what I’m talking about, quite honestly nobody does! I’m really hooked on her theories.
Kind Regards
Amelia.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Lisa Randall is a leading expert in extra-dimensionality. Having read her book, she has surpassed everyones expectations, and what charisma. It is very pleasing listening to her.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:26 am
All the good stuff happening in particle physics and cosmology makes me wish I could rewind the clock about 30 years. I’m sure if I could I’d wind up in particle physics or cosmology. Very exciting times. While I don’t have the advanced mathematics, I do have the interest. Keep up the good work!!!
February 19th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
This is the first book like it I have bought. I avoided hard stuff like this when I was in school, and over the years my work kept me too busy to just read things for fun. What is really hard for me is reading about things where there is no answer to why something is doing what it’s doing. Dr. Randall’s book seems to be saying that all she can do is describe how things do what they do, and while that is very cool, I’m left with kind of an empty feeling afterwards–like I’m missing the end of a story.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I cannot wait to read what the LHC will present when they collide protons. It would be great if they detect the Higgs particle as well as the graviton. They may also find out if gravitons spend most of their time in other dimensions.
Regards, Amelia.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I knew I wasn’t smart enough, but I slogged, with considerable discomfort, through “Warped Passages,” which is about two brains separated by an infinite dementia.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’m interested in this comment from an interview with Dr. Randall in the London Sunday Times from purely novice curiosity, “Yet Einstein, she points out, had little idea about the practical uses of the general theory of relativity but it now forms a key component of GPS (global positioning satellite) technology.”
The idea that the theory of relativity “forms a key component of GPS” might answer a question I have about GPS signals.
Again, I write this as a non-scientist who uses GPS for mapping and other environmental pursuits.
Thank you.
Bruce Amaro
November 16th, 2008 at 12:42 am
i saw lisa on charlie rose, so i read warped passages. it was fascinating. the brane stuff.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I am a reader, not a physicist, but I am entranced, captivated and obsessed with wanting to understand gravity (the what and the how). I read and read and search and search for better and better material and explanations and theory as to why gravity is and why it is as it is.
I like to read books written by as many authorities on the subject of gravity, as well as all other branches of physics, as I see all branches related in on way or another and I do not want to leave one particle unturned under which may lay the answer.
I had wanted to read a book written by you for some time and I finally picked up a copy of your book “Warped Passages” which I am reading now.
While reading your book, I was once again thinking about gravity and, for the thousandth time, listening to what another physicist had to say regarding that perplexing question as to why gravity is the weakest of the four forces, and I thought to myself, “what if there are really only three forces and gravity is merely residue of the strong force.” What if the reach of the strong force extends further then believed. What if the strain of holding matter together is so great that, like an evaporating-black hole, matter and the strong force holding it in shape, “leaks.” And, what if that “leak” is what we experience as gravity. Of course, thinking like that is not only off the known path of physics, but over the cliff. Just a thought, though.
respectfully,
gregory p. lomb,
PS: “Warped Passages” is a well-written book and very enjoyable reading for lay people like myself.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:47 am
What I like most about Professor Randall is the effort she brings to the game. She remains the enthusiast. She is obviously exceedingly bright. There is also something of a slugging it out smart about “Warped passages”. I liked Nigel’s observation. One wonders how completely willing she would be to abandon the current theories. She’s blessed with talent.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Large Hadron Collider whilst colliding particles, what of leaks to other dimensions at such high energy? Consider magnetic eddys along the paths that reconnect with the resonant megnetosphere/Earth dipole. Would this indeed provide a path to another dimension? Once initiated could such a leak be controlled? I am not convinced the reconnect issue is as controlled as we have been led to believe.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
While listening I kept thinking about Ouspensky’s “A New Model of the Universe” where 3 dimensions of space and 3 diemensions of time expand and contract in accordance with the size of the reference body. The 80 year life of a man is “a moment of perception for the sun”.
The second dimension of time is the “eternal now” and the third dimension of time is the set of all the possibilities at any moment. I don’t know how well his ideas hold up under modern experimental physics, but they always have resonated with me.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Hello, again Dr Randall,
Thank you for signing my soft cover “Warped Passages”, 02/22/08, SLC. I’ve learned a lot by reading your book. ‘Till we meet again, JSP, “unexpected particle”.
October 15th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Hi Jenny,
I happened to stumble into your website ‘Thoughtcast’ and found it very informative and educative, considering you focus on some very interesting people and topics. I just listened to your interview of Prof. Lisa Randall. It was very well conducted, especially when you ask some of those tricky questions so artfully. I intend to follow your website with more regularity in future.
I am writing from Karachi, Pakistan.
Regards.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:55 am
Hi Lisa may I ask you one question? Are you thinking “BOSONS” or “FERMIONS”? I really want to know. Please give me the way it should be. My target is ‘THEORY OF EVERYTHING’. Your appriciate. “NIRVANA”
February 8th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Como aficionado a la Astrofísica, he leído en monografias.com el tema Neutrinos y las 11 dimensiones, que se refiere a los experimentos efectuados en los últimos años a altas energías (1016 millones electrón voltios), los cuales demostraron que las fuerzas electromagnéticas, la fuerte y la débil, obedecían las mismas leyes. Desde entonces se postula que, a 1019, todas las fuerzas de la naturaleza -incluyendo la gravedad- obedecerían las mismas leyes. En los interrogantes expuestos se basa uno de los tantos intereses por construir Colisionadores de potencias elevadas como las LHC-CERN.
En la nota se indica que desde otra instancia,la Dra. Lisa Randall, tiene una teoría revolucionaria para comprender la elusiva gravedad. Ella piensa que esta desarrolla una fuerza enorme en la dimensión 11, a consecuencia de lo cual, sus efectos son relativamente débiles en nuestro universo demostrando interrelaciones interdimensionales y que la resolución de ciertos problemas de nuestro universo están fuera de el.
La teoría de las supercuerdas plantea la existencia de un espacio-tiempo con 11 dimensiones, un hecho que de probarse cambiaria la física, porque las dimensiones extras, podrían albergar universos sin electrones, sin protones, sin o con otro tipo de humanos, con leyes físicas diferentes a las nuestras,
El planteamiento es fascinante, y aparte del interes personal en seguir investigando, deseo expresar mi admiración, felicitando a la la Dra. Randall por enaltecer a la mujer y sembrar una semilla en la juventud femenina para que decidan en su momento, decidir su destino estudiando una carrera tan hermosa.
March 31st, 2010 at 1:33 am
saw her on charlie rose – ordered book -anxiously awaiting
March 31st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Hi Lisa,
I’m a Jersey Guy with plenty of time to think, especially on my walks on Allamuchy mountain. Regarding the Hadron Collider research and that marvelous billion million megapixel camera detection thingie, which is in our bane and bound by our rules. How can it measure and detect something that isn’t? Don’t we have to detect singularities instead? Shouldn’t we build instrumentation that detect finite gravity disruptions? In other words paint a gravity detection matrix around the event and attempt to detect disruptions caused by a singularity as it LEAVES our bane, in which it cannot exist anyway. There should be some kind of “rip” or ripple in the gravity fabric. If you need help with anything feel free to email me… I’m going to order your book right now… Have a great Day!