A Non-Technical (Honest!) Discussion of the Problem of Quantum Gravity

Presented by Richard Woodard, University of Florida

I review the problem of quantum gravity at the level of a first year graduate student. My talk is based on an article in Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 72 (2009) 126002, arXiv:0907.4238. Among other things, I answer seven questions: (1) How can quantum general relativity be so bad when classical general relativity is so good? (2) Why must we quantize gravity? (3) Why do quantum field theories have divergences? (4) Why are the divergences of quantum general relativity worse than those of other quantum field theories? (5) How bad is the problem? (6) What are the main approaches to it? (7) What would we do with a quantum theory of gravity if we had it?