WEBVTT

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[Music]

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(The Floating University)

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[Michio Kaku] My name is Professor Michio Kaku.

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I'm a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York

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(Dr. Michio Kaku - Professor of theoretical Phyics, The City University of New York - Specialist in String Theory
The Universe in a Nutshell - The Physics of Everything)
and I specialize in something called String Theory.

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I'm a physicist, and some people ask me the question:

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"What has physics done for me lately? I mean, do I get better color television?

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Do I get better internet reception with physics?"

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And the answer is: yes. You see, physics is at the very foundation of matter and energy.

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We physicists invented the laser beam, we invented the transistor,

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we helped to create the first computer, we helped to construct the internet,

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we wrote the World Wide Web.

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In addition, we also helped to invent television, radio, radar, microwaves,

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not to mention MRI scans, head scans, X rays:

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in other words, almost everything you see in your living room,

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almost everything you see in a modern hospital, at some point or other, can be traced to a physicist.

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Now, I got interested in physics when I was a child.

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(Michio Kaku - Age 8)
When I was 8, a great scientist had just died.

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I still remember my elementary school teacher coming into the room and announcing that

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the greatest scientist of our era has just passed away.

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And that day, every newspaper published a picture of his desk,

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the desk of Albert Einstein.

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And the caption said - I'll never forget -

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"The unfinished manuscript of the greatest work of the greatest scientist of our time."

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And I said to myself: "Why couldn't he finish it? I mean, what's so hard?

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It's a homework problem, right? Why didn't he ask his mother? Why can't he finish this problem?"

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So, as a child of eight, I decided to find out what was this problem?

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Years later, I began to realize that it was the theory of everything: the Unified Field Theory.

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An equation that would summarize all the physical forces in the universe.

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An equation like e = mc^2. That equation is half an inch long,

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and that equation unlocks a secret of the stars.

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Why do the stars shine? Why does the galaxy light up?

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Why do we have energy on the earth?

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But then there was another thing that happened to me when I was around eight years old.

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I got hooked on the Saturday morning TV show 2:41