Abstract

I’d like to talk about how mathematics and physics can come together to the benefit of both fields, particularly in the case of Calabi-Yau spaces and string theory. This, not coincidentally, is the subject of a new book, THE SHAPE OF INNER SPACE , which I have written with Steve Nadis, a science writer. This book tells the story of those spaces. It also tells some of my own story and a bit of the history of geometry as well. In that spirit, I’m going to back up and talk about my personal introduction to geometry and the evolution of the ideas that are discussed in this book. I wanted to write this book to give people a sense of how mathematicians think and approach the world. I also want people to realize that mathematics does not have to be a wholly abstract discipline, disconnected from everyday phenomena, but is instead crucial to our understanding of the physical world.