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Prof Ventures Into New Dimension [Lisa Randall alert!]
Boston Herald.com ^ | 28 November 2005 | Paul Restuccia

Posted on 11/28/2005 11:58:35 AM PST by PatrickHenry

Lisa Randall has become a star in the rarefied world of high-energy physics, and her theory about a “fifth dimension” has caught the imagination of the general public too.

That doesn’t mean she still isn’t shy and a little nervous about all the hoopla.

“I really like that my work is getting more people interested in science,” says the 43-year old Harvard physicist. “And while it can get a little nerve-wracking dealing with all the attention, I really enjoy speaking to the public and answering questions.”

Randall seems constantly in motion.

She seldom sits still, and says her mind brims with ideas – and what mind-boggling ones they are.

Her theory of a fifth, unseen dimension that affects the three-dimensional world we inhabit (The fourth dimension is time.) may well turn our conception of the universe on its head.

Randall’s equations apparently work, and if physical evidence from this dimension is found in tests on Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider – a powerful machine that crashes together and records the movement of the universe’s tiniest particles – Randall is said to be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize.


Professor Lisa Randall in her office at Harvard.

Now she has published a book called “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions”

Written for the lay reader, “Warped Passages” is receiving wide acclaim.

It has led to public speaking engagements before big crowds at the Smithsonian and New York’s Hayden Planetarium, and scads of newspaper, radio, TV and magazine interviews.

Tomorrow night Randall will give a free talk at Boston’s Museum of Science.

“I tried to have fun and be playful in the book while also introducing a lot of serious science,” she says.

Randall, who lives in Cambridge, covers a lot of ground in “Warped Passages” – from the theory of relativity, through quantum mechanics (explaining the nature of light) to string theory (that posits vibrating strings as the universe’s fundamental matter) right up to recent developments that include her own work.

“It makes me happy when people say they feel a sense of accomplishment after reading it,” says Randall, who spent three years writing the book while continuing her research and teaching.

There have been other theories of extra dimensions, but Randall’s are unique. She thinks this new dimension could be infinite in size- not super-tiny and curled up, as others have proposed. The fifth dimension she theorizes occupies a separate flat “brane,” or membrane, parallel to the world we experience. What has excited physicists is that her theory will be testable when the new accelerator opens just two years from now.

“She’s an outstanding, well-regarded theorist who’s raised some interesting ideas about what’s out there,” says her former colleague and MIT physicist Gerome Friedman, who himself won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 for co-discovering elemental particles called quarks. “If we see evidence of what she’s proposed, it will be extraordinary. It will shake up everything.”

The theory is an incredible achievement for the middle of three daughters of a Queens engineering-firm salesman.

A young math whiz, Randall tied for first place in the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search at the age of 17, earned undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard and taught at Princeton and MIT before being named a full professor of theoretical physics at her alma mater in 2001. She entered a branch of science where 90 percent of the professors are male, and has emerged as one of the world’s leading particle physics thinkers.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Randall continues to achieve at a time when Harvard President Larry Summers has been under fire for remarks he made earlier this year suggesting that innate differences in ability between men and women in math and science may help explain the lack of top-level females in the profession.

“I was surprised by his remarks,” Randall says. “He made a generalization based on inadequate knowledge of the literature on the subject.”

She adds that Summers – who came to Harvard the same year she became a professor there – has always been interested in her work and is reading her book now.

Randall, who served on a Women in Science and Engineering task force that seeks to improve the climate for women in science at Harvard, was the first tenured woman professor in Princeton’s physics department and was the first tenured woman theorist in science at both MIT and Harvard.

But despite her achievements, Randall says the “women in science” question is a sensitive issue for her. She sees herself as a physicist first, but also realizes that her growing prominence has made her a high-profile role model for women.

“My primary reason for writing the book was to help the public better understand the complex science of particle physics,” she says. “But a side benefit was to show that there are women out there doing this. I’ve had enthusiastic responses from both men and women.”

Randall says her fifth-dimension insight came about while bouncing ideas off then-BU postdoctoral researcher and now Johns Hopkins professor Raman Sundrum on how to explain one of physics’ biggest conundrums: why gravity is so much weaker than the universe’s other forces. Gravity is so weak on our planet’s surface that a small magnet can hold something like a paper clip even as the gravity of the entire earth is pulling it down.

The equations she developed to solve the problem pointed to a geometrically warped fifth dimension we can’t see, where gravity is a strong force transmitting graviton particles to our three-dimensional space. It isn’t that far-fetched. After all, we can’t see our fourth dimension, time, yet we clearly experience it.

“The extra-dimension thing has really piqued people’s interest,” says Randall. “What makes me different as a scientist is that I’m kind of imaginative. The ideas just happen.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: cosmology; fifthdimension; lisarandall; physics; science; stringtheory; upupandaway
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The Lisa Randall fan club is now in session.
1 posted on 11/28/2005 11:58:37 AM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: VadeRetro; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Doctor Stochastic; js1138; Shryke; RightWhale; ...
SciencePing
An elite subset of the Evolution list.
See the list's explanation at my freeper homepage.
Then FReepmail to be added or dropped.

2 posted on 11/28/2005 11:59:31 AM PST by PatrickHenry (Expect no response if you're a troll, lunatic, dotard, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: PatrickHenry

the photo isn't flattering enough; need better pics!


3 posted on 11/28/2005 12:02:19 PM PST by longshadow
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To: longshadow

bump for later


4 posted on 11/28/2005 12:05:00 PM PST by saganite (The poster formerly known as Arkie 2)
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To: longshadow

It's from her bio page: Lisa Randall, Professor of Physics, PhD 1987, Harvard University.

5 posted on 11/28/2005 12:05:54 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Expect no response if you're a troll, lunatic, dotard, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: longshadow
Prof. Randall photo from Harvard University, Physics Department Faculty webpage at: http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall.html
6 posted on 11/28/2005 12:09:34 PM PST by K-oneTexas (I'm not a judge and there ain't enough of me to be a jury. (Zell Miller, A National Party No More))
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To: PatrickHenry
“My primary reason for writing the book was to help the public better understand the complex science of particle physics”

I feel better knowing there are great humanitarians like this around. Most people I know have a real hunger for a better understanding the complex world of particle physics.

7 posted on 11/28/2005 12:10:13 PM PST by Dark Skies ("The sleeper must awaken!")
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To: PatrickHenry
I have several theories about gravity I'd like to test with her!
8 posted on 11/28/2005 12:11:38 PM PST by OSHA (Liberalism - Is it real or is it Scrappleface?)
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To: PatrickHenry
“The extra-dimension thing has really piqued people’s interest,” says Randall. “What makes me different as a scientist is that I’m kind of imaginative. The ideas just happen.”

Hey, I'm like that too! Ideas just keep happening.


9 posted on 11/28/2005 12:15:23 PM PST by Dark Skies ("The sleeper must awaken!")
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Lisa ... I'm waiting for your freepmail ... waiting ...


10 posted on 11/28/2005 12:17:50 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Expect no response if you're a troll, lunatic, dotard, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: PatrickHenry

Mr. Sulu, engage the tractor beam.


11 posted on 11/28/2005 12:20:46 PM PST by Freedom_Fighter_2001 (When money is no object - it's your money they're talking about)
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To: PatrickHenry
Lisa Randall has become a star in the rarefied world of high-energy physics, and her theory about a “fifth dimension” has caught the imagination of the general public too.

Obligatory photo.

12 posted on 11/28/2005 12:23:19 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: PatrickHenry
It's from her bio page:

Va-va-VOOM! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

13 posted on 11/28/2005 12:25:43 PM PST by longshadow
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To: PatrickHenry

The most reasonable interpretation of the data isn't that women can't become great scientists. It's that men are somewhat more likely to become great scientists. Randall's success does not disprove Summer's thoughts.

If you listen to these feminists for long enough, one could think that if men outnumber women in a field, all of the following is true:

1. There's discrimination against women.
2. The women do a better job in the field.
3. The women are not recognized for their talent.

Actually, I think there's one field in which all of the following is true: women's fashion design. The gay men who dominate the field don't seem to like designing for real women's bodies. The women do a better job. But I digress.

But for theoretical physics, if anything, they probably encourage the few women who go into the field.


14 posted on 11/28/2005 12:27:54 PM PST by Our man in washington
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To: PatrickHenry
Gravity is so weak on our planet’s surface that a small magnet can hold something like a paper clip even as the gravity of the entire earth is pulling it down.

Tell me about it! In my area, the gravity has gotten so weak...well, you get the picture...


15 posted on 11/28/2005 12:28:00 PM PST by Dark Skies ("The sleeper must awaken!")
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To: Dark Skies

Wow, with those eyes, she could say almost anything to me, and I'd just agree...


16 posted on 11/28/2005 12:30:03 PM PST by stylin_geek (Liberalism: comparable to a chicken with its head cut off, but with more spastic motions)
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To: Dark Skies
I saw you pic and before I say your nickname I knew who posted it. Absolutely hilarious!!!
17 posted on 11/28/2005 12:34:52 PM PST by truthluva ("Character is doing the right thing even when no one is looking" - JC Watts)
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To: Dark Skies

Sorry...laughing too hard.

you pic s/b your pic
say your s/b saw your

Sure am glad I wasn't eating or drinking when I saw that.


18 posted on 11/28/2005 12:38:11 PM PST by truthluva ("Character is doing the right thing even when no one is looking" - JC Watts)
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To: longshadow
An article with a bit more explanation of her theory: Where did all the gravity go?
19 posted on 11/28/2005 12:38:17 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Expect no response if you're a troll, lunatic, dotard, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: truthluva
Hey TL, glad you enjoyed it.

Here's another cutie my cat told me about.


20 posted on 11/28/2005 12:41:45 PM PST by Dark Skies ("The sleeper must awaken!")
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