Symmetry is when things are the same around an axis. Turn it and it looks the same. A simple idea with profound implications for understanding the universe and for predicting how it works. Finding symmetries, and discerning when they break, is one key for understanding fundamental physics.

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Lee Smolin is an American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo.

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Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.