The scientific community may be on the cusp of discovering methods for sending particles into previously unperceived dimensions, said world-renowned physicist Brian Greene at the Rhode Island School of Design Thursday.
Greene, a Columbia professor of physics and math as well as a best-selling author, spoke as part of RISD's "Perception of Space" lecture series.
"The one lesson I hope you will take away is that in the last 150 years or so, physics has basically taught us that there is so much to the universe that isn't apparent to our human senses," he said.
Greene traced a changing understanding of time and space throughout history, which began with Newton's laws and culminates in string theory. However, string theory is radically different from its predecessors, he said.
"Superstring theory begins by trying to address a question that seems to be somewhat separate from the one we have been studying thus far," he said. "What is stuff made of? There is at least one more layer to this story. Inside an electron or a quark, there is something else, something finer," he said.
Greene called strings the fundamental building block of the universe, describing them as "little filaments of vibrating energy." He explained how this theory bridges the disparity between Einstein's placid "macroworld" and the turbulent "microworld" of quantum physics.
String theory explains the origins of the universe and suggests that it has 11 dimensions, he said.
"When (I) first heard it, I was like, man that's cool," he joked. "But then, I was like: Where are the other dimensions? Why can't we see them?"
Human sensory perception is based in natural selection, he said. "There are elements of reality that appear to be largely irrelevant when it comes to survival. ... You don't need to know much about quantum physics to get the next meal."
