Home PBS Space Time Season 2024 Episode 23

What If Gravity Isn’t Quantum? New Experiments Explore

PBS Space Time · Season 2024 · Episode 23
If we discover how to connect quantum mechanics with general relativity we’ll pretty much win physics. There are multiple theories that claim to do this, but it’s notoriously difficult to test them. They seem to require absurd experiments like a particle collider the size of a galaxy. Or we could try to physics smarter, instead of physicsing harder. Let’s talk about some ideas for quantum gravity experiments that can be done on a non-galaxy-sized lab bench, and in some cases already have been done.

Episode Details

Air date, runtime, timezone, and episode position.

Season
2024
Episode
23
Air Date
12/Sep/2024
Air Time
12:00
Runtime
18 min

Overview

Episode summary.

If we discover how to connect quantum mechanics with general relativity we’ll pretty much win physics. There are multiple theories that claim to do this, but it’s notoriously difficult to test them. They seem to require absurd experiments like a particle collider the size of a galaxy. Or we could try to physics smarter, instead of physicsing harder. Let’s talk about some ideas for quantum gravity experiments that can be done on a non-galaxy-sized lab bench, and in some cases already have been done.

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