QCD and Natural Philosophy – Frank Wilczek

Date: Thu. April 25th, 2002, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

QCD allows us — indeed, invites us — to address some basic questions from a new perspective, and with much greater precision than was possible before. These include the origin of mass, the feebleness of gravity, the `specialness’ of the parameters required to support life (anthropic principle), the nature of fundamental versus effective theories, and the computability of physical laws. I’ll describe the insights that QCD affords into these issues.