14-10 Club at The Royal Institution of Great Britain

String theory is a candidate to unify all of the known laws of nature. It has an intricate mathematical structure, including a rich set of "dualities" relating seemingly different theories. One very important duality relates string theory in certain backgrounds to certain quantum field theories, with black holes playing a particularly interesting role. Theoretical physicist Dr Jerome Gauntlett explains how the duality is providing new insights into exotic states of matter, possibly including high temperature superconductors. Computer scientist Prof Michael Woolridge presents an interesting perspective cooperation and competition in computer science.