It's not often that a physicist is referred to as a "rock star."
But that's exactly how School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell described scientist Brian Greene when she introduced him to an audience of hundreds yesterday in Harrison Auditorium at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Greene, a professor at Columbia University, is best known for his best-selling book The Elegant Universe and for hosting the 2003 PBS miniseries of the same name. His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is currently in its seventh week on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list.
He has appeared on late-night talk shows, written scientific dialogue for sitcoms and even made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2000 film Frequency -- all of which are uncommon activities for academics.
Greene led off the talk, held as the annual Dean's Forum Lecture, by noting that it was 100 years ago that Albert Einstein revolutionized physics with his special theory of relativity. Greene explained that as a result of Einstein's ideas, Isaac Newton's classic view of space as "just being" was revised into the modern view of space and time as not only physically existing, but actually affecting how the universe is structured.
Greene is well-known for describing the often-perplexing world of modern physics in a way that non-scientists can understand.
In explaining how ideas in modern physics have affected the way in which scientists see the "fabric" of space and time, Greene made ample use of computer-generated visuals and humorous real-life metaphors.
At one point he explained the complexities of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle through the metaphor of a Chinese restaurant's menu.
He described a two-column menu in which certain items on one side cannot be ordered with options on the other. This, he said, is analogous to the uncertainty principle in that knowing a certain fact precludes completely knowing another.
Greene's motivation for bringing the abstract concepts of physics to lay audiences is the inaccessibility of this often-confusing science.
"There are the [toughest] questions of all time," Greene said. "There's so many people that want to know about this" but are unable to because of the usual methods by which physics is taught.
Since 1984, the Dean's Forum has recognized outstanding students in the School of Arts and Sciences. Before Greene's lecture, 20 students were recognized as dean's scholars and were presented with certificates and autographed copies of Greene's book.
