Edward Witten on String Theory

Here is a wonderful set of 5 short videos in which theoretical physcist Edward Witten gives a talk on modern physics leading up to string theory that is accessible to the general public. This is an Italian program so there are short interruptions where Italian is used. Simply slide past those if you don't know Italian. The talk by Witten is complete if you ignore these interruptions:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:


Now... if you feel ready for the deep end of the pool. Here is Edward Witten giving a talk on "Knots and Quantum Theory" on Dec 15, 2010 at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. Here's the blurb for the talk:

A knot is simply a tangled loop in ordinary three-dimensional space, such as often causes us frustration in everyday life. Knots are also the subject of a rather rich mathematical theory. In the last three decades, it has unexpectedly turned out that rather deep aspects of the theory of knots are best understood in the context of 20th and 21st century developments in quantum physics. In this talk, Professor Witten attempts to explain what quantum theory has to do with knots. He starts at the beginning in a talk that should be accessible to anyone who has ever puzzled over a particularly vexing mess of string.