#195: Outsider Physics
The most groundbreaking ideas in modern physics\u2014the Earth is round, special relativity, the uncertainty principle\u2014were once seen as shocking, impossible, even deviant (recall Galileo\u2019s trial). Even today, wild ideas can be laughed out of a conference, especially if they come from someone perceived as an outsider. Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander, one such self-identified outsider, joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Fear of a Black Universe, and his own experiences as a Black man in science who has made major contributions, \u201cnot in spite of [his] outsider\u2019s perspective, but because of it.\u201d
Go beyond the episode:
- Stephon Alexander\u2019s Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider\u2019s Guide to the Future of Physics
- Read an excerpt from his first book, The Jazz of Physics
- Listen to the whole of Here Comes Now, Stephon Alexander\u2019s album with Rioux
- Science writer Priscilla Long explains what\u2019s so great about the Higgs boson
- Medical doctor Robert Lanza steps out of his lane to propose \u201cA New Theory of the Universe\u201d
- Jethro K. Lieberman bemoans the state of physics education in \u201cThe Gravity of the Situation\u201d
- Math and philosophy team up in Cristopher Moore and John Kaag\u2019s exploration of \u201cThe Uncertainty Principle\u201d
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