The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity

Pedro Ferreira (Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford) discusses his book 'The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity' with Harvey Brown (Professor of Philosophy of Physics, University of Oxford), Alex Butterworth (Historian and Author of The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents) and Javier Lezaun (James Martin Lecturer in Science and Technology Governance, University of Oxford). Chaired by Xenia de la Ossa (Reader in Mathematics, University of Oxford).

The book is the first complete popular history of the theory of general relativity, showing how it has informed our understanding of exactly what the universe is made of and how much is still undiscovered: from the work of the giant telescopes in the deserts of Chile to our newest ideas about black holes and the Large Hadron Collider deep under French and Swiss soil.