This book is based on an in-depth conversation between Howard Burton and Nima Arkani-Hamed, faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Nima Arkani-Hamed is one of today's leading particle physicists. In this in-depth Ideas Roadshow conversation Nima discusses how we discover the laws of nature, the “scientific method”, the relation between theory and experiment and how we can push our understanding well beyond where experiments can currently reach. With his unbridled enthusiasm and engaging eloquence, Nima takes us inside the world of a working theoretical physicist, sharing his frustration at some of the ways that physics is communicated to the general public while revealing how he and his colleagues hope to be steered towards the truth without experiment to guide them.

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Beyond Nymphs, Dryads and Leprechauns, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

1. Physics Time Management - Giving it your all
2. The Problem with Popularization - Not what it used to be
3. In Feynman's Footsteps - A genuine challenge
4. Describing Reality - The latest thing vs. the eternally significant
5. A Timeless Community - Walking with Galileo, aided by Weinberg
6. Against Relativism - Science, culture, and truth with a capital “T”
7. Strongly Constrained - The effect of combining relativity and quantum mechanics
8. In Search of a Formula - Predicting clicks and theoretical candidates
9. A Principled Example - The inevitability of the Higgs
10. Supersymmetry - Platonic convictions
11. Reacting Precipitously - The sad tale of the supposedly superluminal neutrinos
12. Tangled Pillars - The relationship between relativity and quantum theory
13. The Pull of the Truth - Plunging in, in the right vicinity
14. Choosing a Better Description - Thinking your way into the future
15. Beyond Space-Time - Mathematics to the rescue?

About Ideas Roadshow Conversations Series (100 books):

Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research featuring world-leading researchers, including 3 Nobel Laureates, but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research. Howard Burton holds a PhD in physics and an MA in philosophy, and was the Founding Director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.