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Caltech

Humanities Job Candidate

Wednesday, April 23, 2025
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Dabney Hall 110 (Treasure Room)
A Short History of (the Theory of) Everything
Alex Blum, Research Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science,

Abstract: I will present an overview of the history of the search for a "theory of everything" in modern physics, from its 19th century roots to modern-day string theory. I will discuss in more detail two major (but, obviously, failed) attempts at such a theory by John Wheeler and Werner Heisenberg in the 1950s, their historical context and their relation to experiment and empirical knowledge.

For more information, please contact Joanna Poon by phone at 626-395-1724 or by email at [email protected].