Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well yourself.”
If he were to come alive today, Einstein would be particularly proud of Brian Greene’s work in bringing modern physics concepts to the general audience. You see, understanding how physics works is one thing, making other people understand it is quite another.
Read more: Brian Greene: Your friendly neighborhood physicistBrian Greene can explain quantum mechanics using a dart game, gravity with a trampoline, string theory a guitar, and black holes with only a little more than his wits. He has written books, hosted shows, and appeared in films, podcasts, interviews, lectures, and in many other spaces all in the name of popularizing physics.
If you are the type that hangs out on the wrong street corners of the internet where they discuss quantum physics and black holes, then the name ‘Brian Greene’ is not at all new.
Who is Brian Greene?
I first came across Brian Greene on YouTube about 10 years ago. I stumbled on a video titled, “Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality” in which Brian Greene hosted a panel of physicists including David Z. Albert, Sean Carroll, Sheldon Goldstein, and Ruediger Schack.
In the video, Brian Greene discusses the measurement problem in quantum physics, one of the unsolved problems in physics today, and then proceeds to moderate a discussion of different theories attempting to address the problem.
Despite the video being over an hour and a half long, I found myself watching it all in one sitting largely because of Brian Greene’s charisma.
Impressed with his passion for explaining physics, I looked him up.
Brian Greene is a physicist. He is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, New York. He went to Harvard in the 1980s in pursuit of physics and earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1987.
Dr. Greene developed an interest in mathematics from an age, apparently, he could multiply 30-digit numbers before he entered kindergarten. By the time he was in the sixth grade his math skills had advanced beyond the high school level!
Talk about child prodigy.
What does Brian Greene do now?
Brian Greene does a lot of things. According to his website, Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Colombia University and the director of Colombia’s Centre for Theoretical Physics.
He is also a writer, presenter, and host, and conducts his own research which you can find here.
However, to the general audience, he is an explainer and presenter of physics’ most complex ideas to the general audience. In fact, some of his presentations are theatrical, such as the Spooky Action performed at the World Science Festival in 2013.
He also contributes editorials and essays for publications such as The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, Wired Magazine, and others.
How many books has Brian Greene written?
As of 2022, Brian Greene has written five books: The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, Icarus at the Edge of Time, and his latest published in 2020, Until the End of Time.
You can find Brian Green’s books and other writings on his website.
His books are popular among the general audience. His first book, The Elegant Universe was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and won Britain’s top prize for a book on science. Greene’s books have spent 68 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over two million copies worldwide.
What is it like listening to Brian Greene?
It’s like watching a show!
There is a reason The Washington Post calls him, “the single explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.”
Listening to him leaves you feeling like, “you are more of a physicist yourself.”
No seriously, Brian Greene will make you feel like you can write a paper on quantum theory.
You can’t, but he will make you feel like it.
In 2015, scientists first detected gravitational waves using a very sensitive instrument called the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory).
Listen to Brian Greene explain this discovery.
Now, don’t you feel like a scientist already!
What has Brian Greene discovered?
Brian Greene’s primary area of research is string theory, one of the leading candidates of quantum gravity, a unified theory of quantum physics and gravity.
According to string theory, the fundamental constituents of all matter are one-dimensional “strings” rather than point-like particles. And what we perceive as particles are actually vibrations in loops of string, each with its own characteristic frequency. If this whole idea seems utterly crazy to you, wait until you hear Brian Greene explaining it…
As a scientist, Brian Greene has contributed to string theory with the co-discovery of mirror symmetry and the discovery of topology change. I’m not even going to pretend like I know what those are!
What is Brian Greene working on now?
According to his Wikipedia page, Brian Greene is currently studying string cosmology, with a special focus on trans-Plackian physics on the cosmic wave background and brane-gas cosmology.
In layman’s terms, his current work could explain why space has three large dimensions (according to string theory, there are at least 10 dimensions 🤯) and determining the possibility of a black hole electron. Really interesting stuff!
Where can I see Brian Greene?
Brian Greene does plenty of talks and presentations all over the world.
If you live in New York City, you can definitely catch him at one of his World Science Festival events, the annual week-long event in New York.
Although Brian Greene doesn’t post much on social media, he is a regular tweeter user, posting updates and upcoming events – and occasionally some cheeky physics tweets that some would find amusing.
Related: Three little secrets about Isaac Newton you didn’t know
