Frank Wilczek: Physics of Quarks, Dark Matter, Complexity, Life & Aliens | Lex Fridman Podcast #187

The following is a conversation with Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist at MIT who won the Nobel Prize for the co-discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of strong interaction. Quick mention of our sponsors, The Information, NetSuite, ExpressVPN, Blinkist, and Eight Sleep. Check them out in the description to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say a word about asymptotic freedom. Protons and neutrons make up the nucleus of an atom. Strong interaction is responsible for the strong nuclear force that binds them. But strong interaction also holds together the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons. Frank Wilczek, David Gross, and David Politzer came up with a theory postulating that when quarks come really close to one another, the attraction abates and they behave like free particles. This is called asymptotic freedom. This happens at very, very high energies, which is also where all the fun is. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast, and here is my conversation with Frank Wilczek. What is the most beautiful idea in physics?

The most beautiful idea in physics is that we can get a compact description of the world that's very precise and very, uh, full, uh, at the, at, at the level of the operating system of the world. Um, that's, uh, an extraordinary gift, and we get wo- uh, and we get worried when we, uh, ha- find discrepancies (laughs) between our, uh, description of the world and, and what's actually observed, uh, at the level even of a part in a billion.

You actually have this quote from Einstein that, uh, "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is its com- is that it is comprehensible," something like that.

Yes. That's, so that's the most beautiful surprise that I think, uh, that, that really was the, to me, the most profound result of the scientific revolution of the s- of the 17th century with, uh, the shining example of Newtonian physics that you could aspire to completeness, precision, and a concise description of the world, of the operating system. And it's gotten better and better (laughs) over the years to, and that's the continuing miracle.

Exactly.

Now, there are a lot of beautiful sub-miracles too. (laughs) Uh, the form of the equations is governed by high degrees of symmetry, and, and they have a very surprising, kinda mind-expanding structure, especially in quantum mechanics. But if we ha- if I had to say the, the single most beautiful revelation is that, in fact, uh, the world is comprehensible.

Would you say that's a fact or a hope?

It's a fact. (laughs) We can do, we, you can point to things like, uh, the rise of, uh, gross pro- gross national products grow- you know, per capita around the world as a result of the scientific revolution. You can see it all around you, uh, of, of in may- in recent developments with exponen- so exponential production of wealth, uh, control of nature at, uh, a, a very profound level where we do things like sense tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny vibrations to tell that there are black holes colliding far away, or we, uh, test laws as, as I alluded to