Hertz Lectures

Lectures held in English by scientists of international renown, giving the general public insight into modern basic research.

With the series “Heinrich Hertz Lectures” at DESY, internationally outstanding scientists are giving insight into modern basic research to the general public. Moreover, with this annual event, which was started in 2002, DESY wants to commemorate the merits of Heinrich Hertz. He provided evidence that magnetism and electricity are two characteristics of just one force, the electromagnetism. Heinrich Hertz was born in Hamburg in 1857. Many aspects of current research at DESY follow the ideas of Heinrich Hertz, trying to achieve a uniform description of all natural fundamental forces.

Lecture 2010:
22. September 2010, 17:30 h, DESY Auditorium

Holography and Unification

Professor Joseph Polchinski, University of California (Santa Barbara)The unification of gravity with quantum mechanics likely becomes visible only in extreme situations, beyond the reach of most experiments. Thought experiments have therefore played an important role in this field, as they have in earlier advances such as the discovery of electromagnetic waves by Maxwell and Hertz.
This has led to the discovery of a surprising connection between gravity and the other forces, and of a radically new picture of spacetime known as holography.
These developments and some ongoing and future directions will be presented.