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A Theory of Everything?

Cultural discussion show. Tom Sutcliffe on a theory of everything with scientists Marcus du Sautoy, Roger Penrose and Suzie Sheehy, and novelist Joanna Kavenna.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe asks if one day we might know everything. The mathematician Marcus du Sautoy and the physicist Roger Penrose explore the far reaches of knowledge, questioning whether certain fields of research will always lie beyond human comprehension. They ask how much fashion and faith shape scientific theories. The experimental physicist Suzie Sheehy attempts to build machines to test the latest theories, while Joanna Kavenna plays with a philosophical Theory of Everything in her latest novel A Field Guide to Reality.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Available now

43 minutes

Roger Penrose

is the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Oxford.

Fashion, Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe will be published by Princeton University Press in the autumn.

Joanna Kavenna

is a writer.

A Field Guide to Reality is published by riverrun in July.

Marcus du Sautoy

is Professor of Mathematics and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.

What We Cannot Know is published by 4th Estate.

Suzie Sheehy

is an Accelerator Physicist at the University of Oxford.

Suzie will deliver a lecture at the on Friday 24 June called “Accelerators Reimagined”.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Tom Sutcliffe
Interviewed Guest Marcus du Sautoy
Interviewed Guest Suzie Sheehy
Interviewed Guest Roger Penrose
Interviewed Guest Joanna Kavenna
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 20 Jun 2016 09:00
  • Mon 20 Jun 2016 21:30

Podcast