Shape of a Life: One Mathematician’s Search for the Universe’s Hidden Geometry By: Shing Tung Yau

Author: Shing-Tung Yau, Steve Nadis
Narrated by: Arthur Morey

A Fields medalist recounts his lifelong transnational effort to uncover the geometric shape – the Calabi-Yau manifold – that may store the hidden dimensions of our universe.

Harvard geometer and Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau has provided a mathematical foundation for string theory, offered new insights into black holes, and mathematically demonstrated the stability of our universe. In this autobiography, Yau reflects on his improbable journey to becoming one of the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. Beginning with an impoverished childhood in China and Hong Kong, Yau takes listeners through his doctoral studies at Berkeley during the height of the Vietnam War protests, his Fields Medal-winning proof of the Calabi conjecture, his return to China, and his pioneering work in geometric analysis. This new branch of geometry, which Yau built up with his friends and colleagues, has paved the way for solutions to several important and previously intransigent problems. With complicated ideas explained for a broad audience, this book offers listeners not only insights into the life of an eminent mathematician, but also an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics.

6.8M	00. Preface.mp3
34M	01. Itinerant Youth.mp3
24M	02. Life Goes On.mp3
39M	03. Coming to America.mp3
27M	04. In the Foothills of Mount Calabi.mp3
26M	05. The March to the Summit.mp3
33M	06. The Road to Jiaoling.mp3
37M	07. A Special Year.mp3
23M	08. Strings and Waves in Sunny San Diego.mp3
27M	09. Harvard Bound.mp3
29M	10. Getting Centered.mp3
33M	11. Beyond Poincare.mp3
21M	12. Between Two Cultures.mp3
6.0M	13. Epilogue.mp3
356K	Shing-Tung Yau - The Shape of a Life.jpg
359M	total