Michio Kaku (/ˈmiːtʃioʊ ˈkɑːkuː/; born January 24, 1947) is an American communicator and popularizer of science, futurist, theoretical physicist, and Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City College of New York. He has written several books about physics and related topics, has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film, and writes extensive online blogs and articles. He has written three New York Times Best Sellers: Physics of the Impossible (2008), Physics of the Future (2011), and The Future of the Mind (2014).
Kaku was a Visitor and Member (1973 and 1990) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton5 and New York University.6 He currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York.7
Kaku has had over 70 articles published in physics journals such as Physical Review, covering topics such as superstring theory, supergravity, supersymmetry, and hadronic physics.8 In 1974, Kaku and Prof. Keiji Kikkawa of Osaka University co-authored the first papers describing string theory in a field form.910
Kaku is the author of several textbooks on string theory and quantum field theory.
Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe (with Jennifer Thompson) (1987) Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1994) Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century12 (1998) Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time (2004) Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (2004) Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008) Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (2011) The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (2014)Kaku has appeared in many forms of media and on many programs and networks, including Good Morning America, The Screen Savers, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, Imus In The Morning, Nightline, 20/20, Naked Science, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Al Jazeera English, Fox News Channel, The History Channel, Conan, The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, TLC, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Colbert Report, The Art Bell Show and its successor, Coast To Coast AM, BBC World News America, The Covino & Rich Show, Head Rush, Late Show with David Letterman, and Real Time with Bill Maher. He was interviewed for two PBS documentaries, The Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn15 and Out from the Shadows: The Story of Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, which were produced and directed by his former WBAI radio colleague Rosemarie Reed.16
We Are the Guinea Pigs (1980) Borders (1989) Synthetic Pleasures (1995) Einstein Revealed (1996) Future Fantastic (1996) Stephen Hawking’s Universe (1997) Bioperfection: Building a New Human Race (1998) Exodus Earth (1999) Me & Isaac Newton (1999) Space: The Final Junkyard (1999) Ghosts: Caught on Tape (2000) Big Questions (2001) Parallel Universes (2001) Horizon: “Time travel” (2003) Robo sapiens (2003) Brilliant Minds: Secret Of The Cosmos (2003) Nova: “The Elegant Universe” (2003) Hawking (2004) The Screen Savers (2004) Unscrewed with Martin Sargent (2004) Alien Planet (2005) ABC News “UFOs: Seeing Is Believing” (2005) HARDtalk Extra (2005) Last Days on Earth (2005) Obsessed & Scientific (2005) Horizon: “Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony” (2005) Time (2006) 2057 (2007) The Universe (2007) Futurecar (2007) Attack of the Show! (2007) Visions of the Future (2008) Horizon: “The President’s Guide to Science” (2008) Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe (2008) Horizon: “Who’s Afraid of a Big Black Hole” (2009–2010) Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible (2009–2010) Horizon: “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” (2010) GameTrailers TV With Geoff Keighley: “The Science of Games” (2010) How the Universe Works (2010) Seeing Black Holes (2010) Prophets of Science Fiction (2011) Through the Wormhole (2011) Horizon: “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” (2011) The Science of Doctor Who (2012) Horizon: “The Hunt for Higgs” (2012) The Principle: “The Principle” (2014)In 1999 Kaku was one of the scientists profiled in the feature-length film Me & Isaac Newton, directed by Michael Apted. It played theatrically in the United States, was later broadcast on national TV, and won several film awards.[citation needed]
In 2005 Kaku appeared in the short documentary film Obsessed & Scientific about the possibility of time travel and the people who dream about it. It screened at the Montreal World Film Festival; a feature film expansion is in development talks. Kaku also appeared in the ABC documentary UFOs: Seeing Is Believing, in which he suggested that while he believes it is extremely unlikely that extraterrestrials have ever actually visited Earth, we must keep our minds open to the possible existence of civilizations a million years ahead of us in technology, where entirely new avenues of physics open up. He also discussed the future of interstellar exploration and alien life in the Discovery Channel special Alien Planet as one of the multiple speakers who co-hosted the show, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity on The History Channel.
In February 2006, Kaku appeared as presenter in the BBC-TV four-part documentary Time which seeks to explore the mysterious nature of time. Part one of the series concerns personal time, and how we perceive and measure the passing of time. The second in the series deals with cheating time, exploring possibilities of extending the lifespan of organisms. The geological time covered in part three explores the ages of the Earth and the Sun. Part four covers the topics of cosmological time, the beginning of time and the events that occurred at the instant of the big bang.
On January 28, 2007, Kaku hosted the Discovery Channel series 2057. This three-hour program discussed how medicine, the city, and energy could change over the next 50 years.
In 2008, Kaku hosted the three-hour BBC-TV documentary Visions of the Future, on the future of computers, medicine, and quantum physics, and he appeared in several episodes of the History Channel’s Universe series.
On December 1, 2009, he began hosting a 12-episode weekly TV series for the Science Channel at 10 pm, called Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, based on his best-selling book. Each 30-minute episode discusses the scientific basis behind imaginative schemes, such as time travel, parallel universes, warp drive, star ships, light sabers, force fields, teleportation, invisibility, death stars, and even superpowers and flying saucers. Each episode includes interviews with the world’s top scientists working on prototypes of these technologies, interviews with science fiction fans, clips from science fiction movies, and special effects and computer graphics. Although these inventions are impossible today, the series discusses when these technologies might become feasible in the future.17
In 2010, he began to appear in a series on the website Gametrailers.com called Science of Games, discussing the scientific aspects of various popular video games such as Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Kaku is popular in mainstream media because of his knowledge and his accessible approach to presenting complex subjects in science. While his technical writings are confined to theoretical physics, his public speaking and media appearances cover a broad range of topics, from the Kardashev scale to more esoteric subjects such as wormholes and time travel. In January 2007, Kaku visited Oman. While there, he talked at length to select members of that country’s decision makers. In an interview with local media, Dr Kaku elaborated on his vision of mankind’s future. Kaku considers climate change and terrorism as serious threats in man’s evolution from a Type 0 civilization to Type 1.18
He is featured in Symphony of Science’s songs, “The Quantum World”, “Our Place in the Cosmos”, “The Secret of the Stars”, and “Monsters of the Cosmos”
On October 11, 2010, Michio Kaku appeared in the BBC program “What Happened Before the Big Bang” (along with Laura Mersini-Houghton, Andrei Linde, Roger Penrose, Lee Smolin, Neil Turok, and other notable cosmologists and physicists), where he propounded his theory of the universe created out of nothing.19
Over 22–25 January 2011, Kaku was invited to the fifth annual Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF), hold in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next to renowned specialists including the British journalist Nick Pope, the Canadian ufologist Stanton Friedman and the French astrophysicist Jacques Vallée.20
Kaku appears on the DVD and Blu-ray extras of the 2012 version of Total Recall, discussing the technological aspects of the future explored in the film.
On February 26, 2013, Michio Kaku was a guest on Stephen Colbert’s program The Colbert Report, where he discussed Earth’s recent close calls with asteroids.