A podcast from Big Think
Big Think calls itself an 'online think tank,with big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet'
Hosted by Jason Gots, he says 'we visit these ideas in new and different ways'. This is in conversation with Neil Tyson, Astrophysicist, and spiritual heir to Carl Sagan, who got us all involved, and worked up about the cosmos. Neil is the author of several books, with his latest being 'Astrophysics for people in a hurry'.
Jason Gots introduces the book, saying it is a succinct and wryly funny book, with the informational density of a black hole. I've just touched three of the concepts covered, but there's a link at the end for those interested.
They start with how there is a long history of conflict between Science and Religion, and give as example a case from the 1920's which protested evolution being taught in schools, as at that point, the beginning was only biblical creation.
They start with how there is a long history of conflict between Science and Religion, and give as example a case from the 1920's which protested evolution being taught in schools, as at that point, the beginning was only biblical creation.
Jason starts by asking Neil to describe 'the beginning, like from the big bang to say planets' and the talk starts there...about 14 billion years ago...
Jason: At a very early point is 'the planck era', where stuff formed. Can we dig a little bit into that"
Neil: If a photon, which is a particle of light gets hot enough it will spontaneously become matter and anti matter and they will pair and completely annihilate, and there's no matter left....and as it cools, the photon can no longer make matter anti matter pairs..... its in one in a hundred million that will actually make a particle, without the antimatter. "
Jason: Why?
Neil: Just happened, we don't know what caused it, but we know that it happened
Neil: If a photon, which is a particle of light gets hot enough it will spontaneously become matter and anti matter and they will pair and completely annihilate, and there's no matter left....and as it cools, the photon can no longer make matter anti matter pairs..... its in one in a hundred million that will actually make a particle, without the antimatter. "
Jason: Why?
Neil: Just happened, we don't know what caused it, but we know that it happened
Neil: Yes. It's when the symmetry breaks that creation happens. Had the symmetry not broken, this universe would have been filled with just photons and nothing else.
Jason: Is the 'why' an investigative space in Astrophysics?
Neil: Yes, there are phases when this symmetry breaks occur, and its called phased transitions, and it's not a mysterious term, we experience it in life all the time. Think about it. When a guy in the deserts of Africa is given a glass of water, and by some chance you bring the temperature down, the water would freeze and if he's never seen that happen, it would be like magic. He'll completely freak out. Where is my water?
Phased transition means everything that is going on completely reorganizes itself into something else. The transitions happened when the forces governing the universe split.
Jason: So the first one is Gravity?
Neil: Yes, Gravity would have been the first to split. Prevailing philosophical bias tells us that early in the universe there was only one force, one coherent force, and as the universe expands and cools, this force splits. So Gravity splits off first. And then the others....the four familiar forces we have today: Gravity, The strong force, Electro Magnetism and the Weak Force
Jason: Is the 'why' an investigative space in Astrophysics?
Neil: Yes, there are phases when this symmetry breaks occur, and its called phased transitions, and it's not a mysterious term, we experience it in life all the time. Think about it. When a guy in the deserts of Africa is given a glass of water, and by some chance you bring the temperature down, the water would freeze and if he's never seen that happen, it would be like magic. He'll completely freak out. Where is my water?
Phased transition means everything that is going on completely reorganizes itself into something else. The transitions happened when the forces governing the universe split.
Jason: So the first one is Gravity?
Neil: Yes, Gravity would have been the first to split. Prevailing philosophical bias tells us that early in the universe there was only one force, one coherent force, and as the universe expands and cools, this force splits. So Gravity splits off first. And then the others....the four familiar forces we have today: Gravity, The strong force, Electro Magnetism and the Weak Force
Jason: Ok. And the other thing I simply do not understand, So we all know nothing can go faster than the speed of light....and I wanted to ask, And we know the universe is expanding, and at the fringes, it's accelerating, and the galaxies are moving, and from our perspective they are going faster than the speed of light, so they disappear, and we can't see them anymore....and that's not a problem under Einstein? though we say nothing can go faster than the speed of light?
Neil: No, not a problem.
Neil: No, not a problem.
Jason: Please. Why? How? I don't get it, how?
Neil: "in 1905 Einstein advances what we now call the 'Special Theory of Relativity', he describes phenomena wholly unfamiliar to our senses and our research apparatus. He describes what happens to Time, Mass and Length, and the odd things that happen when you are in motion.
In the Special theory of Relativity you cannot go past the speed of light, you cannot accelerate beyond the speed of light.
The General theory of relativity, that is quantum mechanics, says, I can explain to you the fabric of the universe, and in the expanding universe it is not the galaxies moving through space, it's the very fabric of space , the fabric in which these galaxies are embedded that is stretching.
The General theory of relativity, that is quantum mechanics, says, I can explain to you the fabric of the universe, and in the expanding universe it is not the galaxies moving through space, it's the very fabric of space , the fabric in which these galaxies are embedded that is stretching.
So if something is moving through space at any given speed, nothing is moving through space, it is space itself that is expanding and you can expand space faster than the speed of light.
Jason: So space can do that?
Jason: So space can do that?
Neil: Space can do whatever it wants. It can bend, stretch, twist, stretch, and it can stretch faster than light, and that's what happened at one phase in the universe. It expanded faster than light"
Jason: You could trip on that. It's tricky. How? It's a little hard to wrap your mind around the universe itself expanding. What even is that? Is that what we call dark matter, energy, what?
Neil: That's why we have Math.
Our brain have evolved for thinking about the lion in the brush, but is not equipped for thinking about the space time continuum.
So the Math enables us to represent what is going on, and math is very logically constructed, and then when you manipulate the Math, it is tantamount to manipulating your understanding of the universe..... in a way that you don't drift, making things up, and math can contain all those explorations.
If this post sparks a sense of wonder, here's link to the conversation: http://bigthink.com/think-again-podcast/neil-degrasse-tyson-nil-the-only-ist-i-am-nil-think-again-podcast-100
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