Conversations with the researchers and explorers pushing the boundaries of what is humanly possible.
I am a theoretical physicist and host of the Escaped Sapiens Podcast. I currently hold a guest position at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. I founded the Escaped Sapiens Podcast while in Covid lockdown.
Humans weren't supposed to do any of this. We fly faster than sound, split atoms, edit genes, build cities that touch the clouds, and send machines beyond the Solar System. Looking across the rest of the natural world, none of it seems like it should be possible. It's as if humanity found the exploits in reality - the hidden shortcuts that let us break through one limit after another. The Escaped Sapiens are the people searching for the next exploit. The scientists, engineers, founders, and dreamers pushing beyond today's boundaries to redefine what's possible tomorrow.
I'm originally from Australia. I completed my Doctorate at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada. I've also worked as a researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and at the University of Regensburg in Germany. My reserach has mostly focused on early universe and quantum cosmology, particle theory, and noncommutative geometry. I've also dabbled in some experimental condensed matter physics. I'm interested in quasicrystals, although I've never published in that area.
Outside of research and podcasting I like scuba diving and foraging. If I had more time I would probably get into AI, drones, and robotics.
My current research focuses on developing an abstract field of geometry called nonassociative spectral geometry. Mathematicians and physicists find different kinds of geometries useful for describing different aspects of nature. If you are interested in rockets, architecture or pingpong, for example, then Euclidean geometry is very useful. This is the intuitive kind of geometry you are probably thinking of when I say the word `geometry' (lines and circles and so on drawn on a plane). On the other hand, if you are interested in describing gravity and things travelling near the speed of light, then what is known as pseudo-Riemannian geometry becomes really useful.
The kind of geometry I am interested in is good for describing particle physics. Or at least thats what I hope. I'm currently trying, as part of a broader research field known as noncommutative geometry, to describe the standard model of particle physics (our best description of all of the particles we see in experiment) geometrically. There are two reasons for doing this: first (i), a geometric description might provide geometric constraints to help explain why we see the kinds of particles that we see (sort of like how geometric constraints allow you to determine the missing angle in a high school geometry problem). Secondly (ii), building a geometric description of physical models that we know how to quantize (like particle theories) might teach us something about how to quantize models of physics that we know how to describe geometrically (like gravity).
Here is a research talk where I discuss some of my results. Its unfortunately aimed at an academic audience, but I will try to record a non-technical talk at some point when I get the chance.
