korrents

Lisa Randall

@lisa-randall · 16 positions · 0 changes of mind

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, working on particle physics, extra dimensions and dark matter.

Lisa Randall did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    It is dark matter, not ordinary matter, that drives galaxy formation; ordinary matter just comes along with it.

    Their wordsIn fact, dark matter is in some sense more important because it can collapse more readily than ordinary matter because ordinary matter has radiative forces, which makes it hard to collapse on small scales. Actually it’s dark matter that drives galaxy formation and then ordinary matter comes along with it.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 3:06 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 1st of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    The surprise is not that most of the universe is invisible to us, but that the matter we can see makes up as large a fraction as it does.

    Their wordsIn fact, I would say it’s more surprising that the matter that we know about is constitutes as big a fraction of the universe as it does. We’re limited, we’re human. The fact that we see 5% of the energy density of the universe, about one sixth of the energy density in matter, that’s remarkable.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 5:03 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 2nd of 16 in this recording

    energy

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Dark matter need not be one simple thing: a fraction of it may radiate its own dark light and collapse into a thin disk.

    Their wordsThe interesting thing is that if some of the dark matter does radiate, and I like to call it dark light because it’s light that we don’t see, but dark matter would see. It could radiate that and then it could perhaps collapse into a disk the same way ordinary matter collapsed into the Milky Way disk.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 7:35 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 3rd of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    A far-fetched idea earns its place in physics only when you can go out and look for its observational consequences.

    Their wordsThat’s also why I like the dark disk because there’s a scientific story behind it. As far-fetched as it might sound, you could actually go and look for the experimental consequences, for the observational consequences to test whether it’s true.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 9:27 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 4th of 16 in this recording

    physics

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    The Large Hadron Collider is now a very unlikely place to find dark matter; the search has moved underground to xenon detectors.

    Their wordsThat was originally one of the hopes of Large Hadron Collider. I’d say at this point, it would be very unlikely given what they’ve already accomplished, but there are these underground detectors, xenon detectors that look for dark matter coming in, and they are going to try to achieve a much stronger bound than exists today.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 14:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 5th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    The Superconducting Supercollider would have been a far more robust test of what lies beyond the standard model than the LHC, which became the only machine in town.

    Their wordsIt’s one of the many factors I think that went into the fact that the Large Hadron Collider became the only machine in town, and the Superconducting Supercollider would’ve just been a much… If it had really had achieved what it was supposed to, would’ve been a much more robust test of the space.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 15:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 6th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    The lesson of the LHC is a cautionary one: you must not assume what is there before it has actually been found.

    Their wordsI’d say for humanity, it’s both a tribute to the ability of discovery and the ability of really believing in things so that you have the confidence to go look for them, but it’s also a cautionary tale that you don’t want to assume things before they’ve been actually found.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 16:07 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 7th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    We are probably in the middle of an extinction event right now, if you measure one by the number of species being killed off.

    Their wordsI do think that we might be in the middle of an extinction right now if you define it by the number of species that are getting killed off. It’s subtle, but it’s a complex system.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 19:29 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 8th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    People are far less frightened of nuclear weapons than they should be, and that is a more serious danger than the ones they do fear.

    Their wordsI think they’re not as scared as they should be about nuclear weapons, to be honest. I think that’s more serious danger than people realize.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 22:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 9th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Physicists actively want the standard model to break down, because only the deviations can tell us what underlies it.

    Their wordsOne of the things we do as physicists is we actually want it to break down at some level, we’re looking for the precision measurement or the energy or whatever it will take where the standard model is no longer working. Not that it’s not working approximately, but we’re looking for the deviations.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 32:20 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 10th of 16 in this recording

    energy

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    The universe does not come into being when we measure it: electrons and their wave functions are there whether or not anyone is looking.

    Their wordsI could believe that the Middle East doesn’t exist because I’m not there now. That would be kind of ridiculous, I think we would all agree on that. I think there’s only so much that we can attribute to our own powers of seeing. The whole system doesn’t come into being because I’m measuring it.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 36:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 11th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    There is probably no bottom level of reality we will ever reach; physics will keep penetrating layers without ever arriving at the last one.

    Their wordsI might not seem so, but I think I’m more humble than a lot of physicists. I’m not sure that we’re ever going to get to that bottom level, but I do think we’re going to keep penetrating different layers and get further.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 38:01 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 12th of 16 in this recording

    physics

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Einstein's real progress was bottom-up and rooted in measurements; once he decided top-down theorising was the way, he stopped getting anywhere.

    Their wordsAfter that, he thought top-down was the way to go, but he actually didn’t make that much progress. I think it’s naive to think it was just one or the other. In fact, a lot of people who made real progress were rooted in actual measurements.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 45:16 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 13th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    String theorists were overly arrogant at the outset, promising to solve problems they were never going to solve.

    Their wordsI do think that string theorists were a bit overly ambitious… Not overly ambitious, but a little bit overly arrogant in the beginning, thinking they could solve many problems that they weren’t going to solve.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 46:54 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 14th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Large language models are generalisations of what we already have; the breakthrough that would let AI discover things is still waiting to happen.

    Their wordsLarge language models are more or less generalizations of stuff that we have. There’s still breakthroughs in AI waiting to happen, and maybe they are happening and maybe they’ll be good, maybe not, but that’s not quite the same.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 49:54 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 15th of 16 in this recording

    LLMs

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Being a scientist means believing strongly in your own ideas while questioning them all the time — a tightrope, not a contradiction.

    Their wordsI think the weird thing about being a scientist or an academic in general is you have to believe really strongly what you do while questioning it all the time. That’s a hard balance to have.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 55:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Lisa Randall: Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics, and Extinction Events | Lex Fridman Podcast #403youtube.com 16th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting