Steven Strogatz: The Infinite Power of Calculus (#158)

Steven Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied
Mathematics at Cornell University. Early in his career, he worked
on a variety of problems in mathematical biology, including the
geometry of supercoiled DNA, the dynamics of the human sleep-wake
cycle, the topology of three-dimensional chemical waves, and the
collective behavior of biological oscillators, such as swarms of
synchronously flashing fireflies. In the 1990s, his work focused on
nonlinear dynamics and chaos applied to physics, engineering, and
biology. Several of these projects dealt with coupled oscillators,
such as lasers, superconducting Josephson junctions, and crickets
that chirp in unison. In the past few years, this has led him into
such topics as the role of crowd synchronization in the wobbling of
London’s Millennium Bridge on its opening day, and the dynamics of
structural balance in social systems. His best-known research
contribution is his 1998 Nature paper on "small-world" networks,
co-authored with his former student Duncan Watts. It's the sixth
most highly cited paper—on any topic—in physics. Strogatz's writing
includes five books. His book Sync was chosen as a Best Book of
2003 by Discover Magazine. His 2009 book The Calculus of Friendship
was called "a genuine tearjerker" and "part biography, part
autobiography and part off-the-beaten-path guide to calculus". His
2012 book, The Joy of x, won the 2014 Euler Book Prize. His latest
book is Infinite Powers. http://www.stevenstrogatz.com/ Thanks to
our sponsors! https://magbreakthrough.com/impossible
http://betterhelp.com/impossible 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:20 Who was
Herman Wouk and why do you start you book with him? 00:08:38 Should
we train mathematicians to be good communicators? 00:16:19 On the
significance of time, and the entropy of happiness. Is time the
emotional dimension? 00:17:51 Small world theory, and one of the
most cited papers of all time. 00:21:30 The thermodynamics of
happiness and family size. 00:30:10 Can anyone understand infinity?
00:46:33 Are we becoming too connected? 00:53:44 What do you think
about the idea that God in science? 00:57:03 The history of
science! Carefully. 01:08:22 Intuition first, rigor later. 01:13:21
Is string theory to beautiful to be wrong? 01:17:12 Final Thrilling
Three: Ethical Will, Billion Year Monument, Advice to your younger
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