Little Atoms 235 – Road Trip 16 – Kip Thorne

During his visit to Caltech in Pasadena, Neil spoke briefly to Theoretical Physicist Kip Thorne. Kip Thorne was a student of the late John Wheeler, the renowned Princeton physicist who coined the term ‘black hole’. he was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) until 2009 and one of the world’s leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Kip and fellow Wheeler student Charles Misner are the authors of the extremely influential textbook Gravitation, which has become the bible of those wanting to learn and apply general relativity to astrophysics. Kip’s research has covered almost all aspects of the subject from the accretion discs around black holes to the X-rays they emit. He has for many years been a forceful and effective advocate of LIGO, the project to detect gravitational radiation using large-scale laser interferometers. Apart from technical papers and books Kip has written a highly successful popular book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy. Kip is currently working on a number of film projects, one of which is to be directed by Steven Spielberg.