Big Ideas

Acknowledging the scientists who blazed intellectual trails before him, Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen a little further it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.” In this special annual series, we invite our audience to stand on the shoulders of a modern-day giant. In 2015, we were honored to present an address by a titan of physics, Edward Witten. Professor Witten is a leading light of superstring theory and the only physicist to have won the vaunted Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor. Known for advancing a number of novel approaches in mathematics and physics, Witten opened up new vistas in 1995 when he unified five seemingly competing superstring theories into M-theory, which seeks to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics.Learn More

View Additional Video Information

TOPICS: Art & Science, Biology & Origins of Life, Earth & Environment, Mind & Brain, Physics & Math, Science in Society, Science Unplugged, Space & The Cosmos, Technology & Engineering, Your Daily Equation, Youth & Education

TAGS: 2016, best science talks, Edward Witten, General Relativity (Field Of Study), Institute for Advanced Study, mathematical physics, New York City, NYC, On the Shoulders of Giants, physics, Quantum gravity, string theory, Superstring theory, supersymmetric quantum field theories, theoretical physicist, Theory Of Relativity (Literature Subject), 2016, best science talks, Edward Witten, General Relativity (Field Of Study), Institute for Advanced Study, mathematical physics, New York City, NYC, On the Shoulders of Giants, physics, Quantum gravity, string theory, Superstring theory, supersymmetric quantum field theories, theoretical physicist, Theory Of Relativity (Literature Subject)

PLAYLISTS: Big Ideas, Physics & Mathematics, One on One with Genius

Video Duration: 00:48:49

Original Program Date: Saturday, May 30, 2015

Participants: Edward Witten

Up Next

Roger Penrose: Time, Black Holes, and the Cosmos

224,975 views |

Coding Consciousness: An Algorithm for Awareness?

63,236 views |

Dark Matters: Have We Really Failed to Identify Most of the Cosmos?

162,919 views |

Quantum Computing: Hype vs. Reality

206,233 views |

Visual Arts in the Age of AI

Do We Owe it All to Asteroids?

Will AI Spark the Next Scientific Revolution?

98,220 views |

Did Einstein Crack the Biggest Problem in Physics…and Not Know It?

351,232 views |

Can AI Read Your Mind?

What Creates Consciousness?

497,534 views |

Cosmology in Crisis? Confronting the Hubble Tension

235,061 views |

Did Repulsive Gravity Jumpstart the Cosmos?

101,048 views |

Is Dark Energy Decaying?

149,432 views |

Is Quantum Reality in the Eye of the Beholder?

107,313 views |

Does Quantum Mechanics imply Multiple Universes?

293,685 views |

Can Particles be Quantum Entangled Across Time?

282,668 views |

Why a Forefather of AI Fears the Future

134,611 views |

AI and Quantum Computing: Glimpsing the Near Future

438,260 views |

Beyond Einstein: Gravitational Rainbows

117,321 views |

Beyond Einstein: Gravitational Echoes

82,428 views |

Carlo Rovelli and Brian Greene on Black Holes and White Holes

116,713 views |

Intelligent Thinking about Artificial Intelligence

140,218 views |

Unifying Nature’s Laws: The State of String Theory

497,476 views |

Was the Big Bang the Beginning? Reimagining Time in a Cyclic Universe

427,999 views |

Searching for Cosmic Origins

255,297 views |

Coding the Cosmos: Does Reality Emerge from Simple Computations?

862,561 views |

AI: Grappling with a New Kind of Intelligence

789,128 views |

String Theory, Quantum Gravity and Black Holes (Or, Are we Holograms?)

221,323 views |

Mind Over Molecules: the Biology of Memory

80,665 views |

The Past and Future of Life and the Cosmos (Or, How We Got Here & Where We’re Going)

184,722 views |

Seeing Further: Searching for the Echoes of Creation

153,166 views |

Quantum to the Cosmos: A Brief Tour of Everything

375,637 views |

Shedding Light on the Dark Universe

130,449 views |

James Webb Space Telescope: Comets, Planets, and the Origin of Life

123,403 views |

Gravitational Waves and the Dark Universe

110,181 views |

Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter and Meaning

189,665 views |

Revealing the Cosmos: A Startling New View From the James Webb Space Telescope

394,336 views |

The New Golden Age of Space Exploration

107,371 views |

MEMORY: The Hidden Pathways That Make Us Human

351,467 views |

Rewriting the Story of Humankind

278,318 views |

Brave New Prehistoric World

117,031 views |

Rewiring the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Neuroplasticity

685,446 views |

Visual Illusions: Catching the Brain Creating Reality

260,245 views |

The Deep: Exploring Earth’s Last Frontier

202,567 views |

To the Moon, Mars, and Beyond: The Next Step in Space Exploration

55,243 views |

The Dreaming Mind: Waking the Mysteries of Sleep

1,354,420 views |

Karen Armstrong: Sacred Nature – A Conversation with Brian Greene

74,741 views |

Psychedelics: Chemicals, Consciousness & Creativity

1,713,783 views |

First Images: James Webb Space Telescope’s New View of the Cosmos

266,562 views |

Live Discussion with Brian Greene

104,274 views |

Black Holes: Seeing the Unseeable

633,004 views |

Riddles of Reality: From Quarks to The Cosmos

518,421 views |

Lifespan Expanded: The Scientific Quest for a Fountain of Youth

154,627 views |

Einstein and the Quantum: Entanglement and Emergence

2,484,120 views |

Science, Life, and Purpose: A Conversation with Francis Collins and Brian Greene

58,545 views |

The Future of Cosmology: A Live Conversation

159,307 views |

Things We’ve Never Seen: The James Webb Space Telescope Explores the Cosmos

2,827,405 views |

2021 Nobel Laureates in Conversation with Brian Greene

76,031 views |

Mind Your Language: Metaphor, Thought and Imagination

851,554 views |

Does Math Reveal Reality?

1,689,311 views | 01:36:02

On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World

134,784 views | 00:57:27

Beyond Higgs: The Wild Frontier of Particle Physics

1,347,112 views | 01:30:08

Making Room for Machines: Getting Ready for AGI

51,601 views | 01:27:46

We Will Be Martians

56,446 views | 01:25:38

Outsourcing Humanity: Do Algorithms Make Better Decisions Than People?

Rethinking Thinking: How Intelligent Are Other Animals?

1,503,806 views |

The Richness of Time

2,595,392 views | 01:29:37

Eyes In the Skies: Bringing the Universe Down to Earth

66,240 views | 01:24:01

The Technology That Transforms Us: From the Stone Age to the Computer Age

01:12:02

Intelligence Without Brains

1,269,529 views | 01:29:11

Physics in the Dark: Searching for the Universe’s Missing Matter

1,241,468 views | 0122:24

On the Shoulders of Giants: Shep Doeleman

72,489 views | 00:32:32

The Reality of Reality: A Tale of Five Senses

1,451,043 views | 1:11:33

On the Shoulders of Giants: Andrew Strominger

00:35:03

The Science of Extreme Behavior: The Line Between Courageous and Crazy

01:11:03

Can We ‘Cure’ Deafness and Blindness? Should We?

01:11:53

Revealing the Mind: The Promise of Psychedelics

5,146,123 views | 01:24:38

Loose Ends: String Theory and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

2,486,729 views | 01:27:24

The Right Stuff: What It Takes to Boldly Go

01:20:43

The Believing Brain: Evolution, Neuroscience, and the Spiritual Instinct

3,873,406 views | 1:17:46

Alien Contact: What Happens Next?

1,470,709 views | 1:00:10

Rethinking the Internet: How We Lost Control and How to Take it Back

00:58:06

How Music Affects Your Brain: Notes on the Folds

00:52:42

Rewriting Life: The Promise and Peril of Editing Your DNA

00:48:20

Neutrinos, Matter, and Antimatter: The Yin Yang of the Big Bang

109,207 views | 00:57:28

Sylvia Earle: On the Shoulders of Giants

00:57:18

Harnessing the Power of Neuroplasticity: The Nuts and Bolts of Better Brains

1,579,505 views | 01:00:35

RESISTANCE IS (NOT) FUTILE: THE END OF ANTIBIOTICS AND THE FUTURE OF FIGHTING INFECTIONS

00:51:17

Teach Your Robots Well: Will Self-taught Robots Be the End of Us?

1,053,940 views | 01:02:39

Black Holes and Neutron Stars: A Merger in Space

85,378 views | 00:41:54

Is Alien ‘life’ Weirder Than We Imagine: Who Is Out There?

1,391,827 views | 00:59:56

Growing Up Digital: Coming of Age in a Virtual World

01:02:05

The Roots of Extremism in Your Brain

01:17:53

The Microbiome: Vital Cells of Existence

68,952 views | 01:06:47

The Matter Of Antimatter: Answering The Cosmic Riddle Of Existence

4,673,014 views | 01:39:21

Pondering the Imponderables: The Biggest Questions of Cosmology

741,334 views | 01:06:44

The Social Synapse: Neuroscience and the Roots of Human Connections

107,006 views | 01:07:13

Cartographers of the Brain: Mapping the Connectome

115,091 views | 01:33:49

Quantum Reality: Space, Time, and Entanglement

7,935,635 views | 1:32:48

Computational Creativity: AI and the Art of Ingenuity

00:58:53

Forever Young: The Promise of Human Regeneration

957,209 views | 01:02:40

The Future of Augmented Intelligence: If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Join ‘em

01:02:01

Engineering Immortality: the End of Aging?

56,205 views | 00:59:50

Quantum Computing – The Qubit Technology Revolution

109,395 views | 01:03:48

Science In A Polarized World: A Global Town Hall Meeting

01:00:35

Evolution Beyond Earth

59,165 views | 00:59:31

Shaking Up the Dark Universe: The Dark Horses of Dark Matter

555,890 views | 01:17:01

Testing the Limits of Cosmology

142,681 views | 00:57:13

Moral Math of Robots: Can Life and Death Decisions Be Coded?

59,422 views | 01:34:35

Beyond Beauty: The Predictive Power of Symmetry

475,459 views | 01:33:30

Splicing and Dicing DNA: Genome Engineering and the CRISPR Revolution

532,412 views | 01:24:26

To Unweave a Rainbow: Science and the Essence of Being Human

212,714 views | 01:38:53

It’s Alive, But Is It Life: Synthetic Biology and the Future of Creation

1,231,394 views | 01:27:13

Mind Melds and Brain Beams: The Dawn of Brain-to-Brain Communication

1,404,793 views | 01:25:32

My Neurons, My Self

482,163 views | 01:39:51

Wizards of Odds: The Power of Probability

528,025 views | 01:23:44

The Next Quantum Leap: Here, There, and Everywhere

162,566 views | 01:02:32

Planet of the Humans: The Leap to the Top

192,203 views | 01:19:33

Spark of Genius? Awakening a Better Brain

141,210 views | 01:21:33

To Infinity and Beyond: The Accelerating Universe

818,179 views | 01:22:23

Time Is of the Essence… or Is It?

1,202,703 views | 01:22:11

Mind Over Masters: The Question of Free Will

463,298 views | 01:23:39

Designer Genes: Fashioning our Biological Future

01:13:31

Alien Life: Will We Know It When We See It?

7,399,367 views | 01:33:30

The Deceptive Watchman: How Our Brains Twist Time

302,889 views | 01:23:57

Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality

3,809,924 views | 01:38:44

Infinity: The Science of Endless

1,649,540 views | 01:23:57

A Matter of Time

981,485 views | 01:27:52

Architects of the Mind: A Blueprint for the Human Brain

768,775 views | 01:28:48

Destiny and DNA: Our Pliable Genome

52,799 views | 01:24:33

The Whispering Mind: The Enduring Conundrum of Consciousness

784,218 views | 01:26:02

Engineering the Brain: Deploying a New Neural Toolkit

01:03:39

Multiverse: One Universe or Many?

3,461,165 views | 01:22:35

James Watson: On the Shoulders of Giants

01:08:08

The Elusive Neutrino and The Nature Of The Cosmos

455,238 views | 01:30:42

Why We Prevailed: Evolution and the Battle for Dominance

161,053 views | 01:31:59

Exoplanets: The Search for New Worlds

108,753 views | 01:24:28

Madness Redefined: Creativity, Intelligence and the Dark Side of the Mind

376,717 views | 01:35:31

Beautiful Minds: The Enigma of Genius

542,444 views | 01:30:32

The Illusion of Certainty: Risk, Probability, and Chance

698,076 views | 01:28:02

The Dark Side Of The Universe

1,167,904 views | 01:44:14

Mysteries of the Mathematical Universe

826,741 views | 01:16:48

A Thin Sheet of Reality: The Universe as a Hologram

3,014,176 views | 01:30:10

The Limits of Understanding

1,660,589 views | 01:33:00

Faith and Science

95,325 views | 01:41:19

Back to the Big Bang: Inside the Large Hadron Collider

374,191 views | 01:35:29

Food 2.0: Feeding a Hungry World

01:32:13

Mind and Machine: The Future of Thinking

274,061 views | 01:25:28

What It Means to Be Human: The Enigma of Altruism

01:18:33

NOTHING: The Subtle Science of Emptiness

1,040,686 views | 01:25:19

Infinite Worlds: A Journey through Parallel Universes

2,455,645 views | 01:43:58

Time Since Einstein

870,732 views | 01:36:21

What It Means to be Human

01:25:35

Science Faith and Religion

335,518 views | 01:46:12

Beyond Einstein: In Search of the Ultimate Explanation

245,545 views | 01:02:50

Echoes From The Beginning: A Journey Through Space And Time

168,164 views | 01:17:21

The Invisible Reality: The Wonderful Weirdness of the Quantum World

4,878,602 views | 01:30:56

Faith and Science