From his interview by Deborah Solomon:
In your forthcoming book, “The Hidden Reality,” you ponder the possibility of a “multiverse” composed of many universes. But what kind of worlds are we talking about? Clumps of subatomic particles in space? Or universes with restaurants and museums?--Marshal Zeringue
Some might have museums and restaurants. Some might have copies of you and me having a conversation similar to this one. Yet other universes would be vastly different. They could involve a gigantic expansive space that might be filled with other forms of matter governed by other kinds of physical laws. In one such universe, when the apple is released by a tree, it might go up instead of down.
All of this speculation seems so devoid of practical application. Why not just use your time to try to improve life on earth by coming up with a new source of fuel?
Which is vital,but I think that these ideas are just as vital in a different sense, because it’s these kinds of pursuits that ultimately allow us to understand how we fit into the cosmic scheme.
You grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, across the street from the Museum of Natural History.
I still live on the Upper West Side. I’ve moved 40 blocks in 40 years.
What did your dad do for a living?
He was...[read on]