1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:03,320 Speaker 1: Hey, it Jorhan Daniel here, and we want to tell 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,840 Speaker 1: you about our new book. It's called Frequently Asked Questions 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:09,719 Speaker 1: about the Universe because you have questions about the universe, 4 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,399 Speaker 1: and so we decided to write a book all about them. 5 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: We talk about your questions, we give some answers, we 6 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: make a bunch of silly jokes as usual, and we 7 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,159 Speaker 1: tackle all kinds of questions, including what happens if I 8 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,880 Speaker 1: fall into a black hole? Or is there another version 9 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: of you out there that's right? Like usual, we tackle 10 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: the deepest, darkest, biggest, craziest questions about this incredible cosmos. 11 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: If you want to support the podcast, please get the 12 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:33,879 Speaker 1: book and get a copy not just for yourself, but 13 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: you know, for your nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, parents, dogs, hamsters, 14 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: and for the aliens. So get your copy of Frequently 15 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: Asked Questions about the Universe is available for pre order now, 16 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,239 Speaker 1: coming out November two. You can find more details at 17 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,160 Speaker 1: the book's website, Universe f a Q dot com. Thanks 18 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: for your support, and if you have a hamster that 19 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: can read, please let us know. We'd love to have 20 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: them on the podcast. Hey Daniel, do you ever wish 21 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: the universe was a bad simpler you mean, like easier 22 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: to understand. Yeah, you know, it seems so complex, filled 23 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: with crazy particles and weird phenomena that's hard to understand. 24 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess I'm glad that the universe 25 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: is weird and mysterious. Well, I see, because then otherwise 26 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: you'd be out of a job. Yeah, and we'd be 27 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: out of a podcast. But also because the universe without mystery, 28 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 1: I don't know, it sounds boring. You make it sound 29 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: like understanding the universe would be born. Yeah, you know, 30 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: sort of like you're watching that horror movie and it 31 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: shows you the monster a little too early, and you're like, hey, physicists, 32 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: watch out. The truth is right behind you. Physicists don't 33 00:01:49,240 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: want to jump scare Hi'm more handing cartoonists and the 34 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: creator of PhD comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a particle 35 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: physicist and a professor you see, Irvine, And I'm not 36 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: scared by anything the universe might offer us. Really not 37 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: even I don't know anything your kids might say to 38 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,959 Speaker 1: you one day. I'm barely terrified of whether this world 39 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: will be livable for my kids. But when we do 40 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: uncover secrets of the Universe. I feel like I'm prepared 41 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: for the craziest, most bonkers is ideas out there. What 42 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: if it tells you that the universe is a horror movie, 43 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: alien simulation or alien Netflix. Wow, if my life is 44 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 1: scaring people, I don't know what to say to that. 45 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: It's pretty terrifying. Oh, I see, it's a it's more 46 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: of a tragedy than a horror It's a disaster movie. 47 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,119 Speaker 1: Is a disaster movie? Well, if it's an American version, 48 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: it's going to have a happy ending. So let's hope 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: for that. We're like the shark Nado of the Alien Netflix. 50 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: Maybe let's just hope they got enough budget to make 51 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: realistic special effects and Welcome to our podcast Daniel and 52 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I Heart Radio, 53 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: in which we talked about everything that is special and 54 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: everything that is mundane, and everything that is boring and 55 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: amazing about the universe. We take it all in stride. 56 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:20,600 Speaker 1: We want to understand all of it. We think the 57 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: deepest thoughts about the universe, and we ask why is 58 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: it this way, Why is it not some other way? 59 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 1: Why doesn't it make sense to us? We try to 60 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:30,799 Speaker 1: digest all of the deepest questions in the universe, from 61 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 1: black holes to tiny particles to everything in between, and 62 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: explain all of it to you, because it is a 63 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: pretty exciting universe out there, full of interesting plots in 64 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: conflict and drama and sometimes a surprise twist ending. That's right. 65 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: In this journey to uncover the nature of the universe, 66 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: we have had lots of surprising moments where we found 67 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: things we didn't think we needed or things we certainly 68 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: didn't expect and later wondered, like do we really need 69 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: those bits where you scare it that is startled physicists. 70 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: There are lots of moments like that. But you know 71 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: what they say, like a particle discovered in Act one 72 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: has to kill somebody in Act three with the renting 73 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: in the hall in the particle physics lab. Yeah, and 74 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: it makes you ask a deeper question like is there 75 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: a reason for everything? If you discover something about the universe, 76 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: doesn't mean it had to be that way or could 77 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: it had just been accidental? Are you uncovering some grand 78 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: plan or just some like random collection of numbers that 79 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: quantum mechanically fell into place? Yeah? Like is there a 80 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: sort of a structure or sort of some sort of 81 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: a goal to the universe, or is it all just 82 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: kind of random? Right, because that's one theory of the 83 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: origin of the universe, that we're just kind of like 84 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,800 Speaker 1: a random occurrence or a random fluctuation and in existence. Yeah, 85 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: a lot of people ask why questions about physics, right. 86 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: Physics is mostly focused on how how does this work? 87 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: How does this fit together? How does this talk to 88 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 1: the other thing? But in the end, the reason we're 89 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: interesting these questions is because of the why questions. Why 90 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: is it this way and not some other way? And 91 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: I hope that when we do have the full picture 92 00:04:58,240 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: of how everything works, we can look at it in 93 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,720 Speaker 1: see and say, hmm, well it couldn't be any other way, 94 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: so it had to be this way. But you're right, 95 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: it might just be that there are lots of universes 96 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: and they're all just different and there's no rhyme or 97 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: reason why anyone is any certain way. Is randomly generated 98 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: by the Netflix agrilla? Is that random? I thought it 99 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 1: was supposed to be intelligent. Seems kind of randoms. There 100 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 1: are a lot of random shows and Netflix someuntimes it 101 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: seems random at least but physicists are asking pretty interesting 102 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: questions out there about the universe, the cosmos, what's out there, 103 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:33,359 Speaker 1: what's at the edge of the universe. But one of 104 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: the more interesting questions that physicists asked is kind of 105 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: about us, like what are we made out of? That's right, 106 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: because we want to bring this question home in the end. 107 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: This question is about our lives and our experiences and 108 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: understanding our world, and that of course includes us and 109 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: the things we eat and the things around us. And 110 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,320 Speaker 1: when you look around yourself in the universe, you wonder, like, 111 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,479 Speaker 1: what is the pattern here? Am I similar to that rock? 112 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:58,919 Speaker 1: Do I have something in common with that squirrel or 113 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: that bit of lava? With that piece of ice cream 114 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: over there? We all made out of the same bits, 115 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,480 Speaker 1: and we've made a lot of progress in that direction. Yeah, 116 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:08,919 Speaker 1: me and the rock have a lot in common. You 117 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: both eat a lot of ice cream, right, Yeah, we 118 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 1: both eat a lot and also um, But I think 119 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:18,280 Speaker 1: we're made out of the same things, carbon and nitrogen. 120 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:23,159 Speaker 1: I think that's right and pure determination, that's right and awesomeness. 121 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: Of course. I hear he gets up at five am 122 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: and has a workout? Is that also your schedule? I 123 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: got to sleep at five am after I work out 124 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: my brain cells. Yeah, it's a big question what are 125 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,559 Speaker 1: we made of? And as a scientists physicists have made 126 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,200 Speaker 1: a lot of progress answering that question. Like we we 127 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: sort of have it down up to a pretty good 128 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: level of you know, kind of the fundamental elements of 129 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: the universe. We know that most of the things around 130 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: us are made of a few basic building blocks that 131 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:52,400 Speaker 1: you're familiar with, you know, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, all that 132 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: kind of stuff, the elements of the periodic table. And 133 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: it's sort of incredible, right that you can describe so 134 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:00,400 Speaker 1: many different complicated things in terms of a few basic 135 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: building blocks. It's like we talked about sometimes it's like 136 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 1: the lego principle of the universe that with a small 137 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: number of things arranged in complex ways, you can make 138 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: incredible complexity. But of course we've dug even deeper than that. 139 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: Right inside the atom, we know there is the nucleus 140 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: which has protons and neutrons inside of it, which are 141 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: made out of quarks. And those corks are just two 142 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: particular flavors. There's the up cork and the down cork. 143 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: Combine them in one way you get protons, combine them 144 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: another way, you get neutrons sprinkling some electrons, and you 145 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: get everything any human has ever eaten or slept on 146 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:37,320 Speaker 1: or thrown at their little sister. Yeah, it's sort of 147 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: like finding out that legos are actually made out of 148 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: Lincoln logs, super tiny little Lincoln logs, super tiny Lincoln blogs. 149 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: But yeah, it seems like everything not just us and 150 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:50,680 Speaker 1: in this planet, but like everything you kind of see 151 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: out there in the universal stars, the asteroids, all those 152 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: billions and trillions of planets out that they're all made 153 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: out of just three particles, the up and down quirks 154 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: and the electron. That's right, And not just only those 155 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 1: three particles, but those three particles in basically the same ratios, Right, 156 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: Like the number of electrons and up corks and down 157 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: corks that are in ice cream are the same as 158 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: the number that are in lava. So like a kilogram 159 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:18,239 Speaker 1: of ice cream and a kilogram of lava have basically 160 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: the same number of each kind of particles. It's just 161 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: how you put them together that makes one different from 162 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: the other. Yeah, we're all pretty hot. Yeah, have you 163 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: ever had lava flavored ice cream? By the way, I 164 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 1: have loved as ice cream, lava ice cream, but I 165 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: have not had lava ice cream. All right, we are 166 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: breaking new ground here today, and it's sort of amazing, 167 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:38,440 Speaker 1: right that you can get so much complexity out of 168 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,720 Speaker 1: that just these three particles. It blows my mind every 169 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: time I think about it. Yeah, it's pretty amazing that 170 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: we're all just made out of three particles. But the 171 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: weird thing about the universe is that those are not 172 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: the only particles in the universe. There are other There's 173 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other particles out there that can 174 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: possibly exist, and also a lot of them are are 175 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:56,679 Speaker 1: kind of flying around and raining down upon us. Yeah, 176 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:58,839 Speaker 1: it's sort of like in the Pantra the universe, there 177 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: are a bunch of others ices, but your cook only 178 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: ever uses three of them, right, and only uses those 179 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: three to cook every single meal, And then you discover, wow, 180 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: what about some basil or maybe a little bit of 181 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 1: a reggano, you know, or some time? There are other 182 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:15,959 Speaker 1: things out there in the universe, not just the up cork, 183 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,439 Speaker 1: the down cork and the electron. Which spices? Do you 184 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 1: think humans are made out of saltiness? I think a 185 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,959 Speaker 1: little cayenne pepper in there for sure, spice there. So 186 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,560 Speaker 1: we have not just the up cork and the down cork, 187 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: but we have four other corks that we have discovered, 188 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,560 Speaker 1: and the electron has five more partners, other particles we 189 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: call lepton. So in total, there are twelve of these 190 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,679 Speaker 1: matter particles out there, only three of which we need 191 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:44,240 Speaker 1: to make me and you and kittens and lava and 192 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,959 Speaker 1: all sorts of crazy things like kitten flavored ice cream. 193 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:49,439 Speaker 1: So that's a very big mystery in the universe that 194 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: physicists are still pondering about, like why are those other 195 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,560 Speaker 1: particles there? Why does the universe need them? And I 196 00:09:55,559 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 1: guess what would the universe be like if we didn't 197 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: have them? You know, what role do they play? Like, 198 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: imagine a universe without them, how would it work? They're 199 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: really important or they just sort of extraneous. This is 200 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: actually a question that came from one of our listeners 201 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:10,680 Speaker 1: asking me about it on Twitter. So to be on 202 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:17,960 Speaker 1: the podcast, we'll be asking the question what if the 203 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:22,240 Speaker 1: exotic particles didn't exist? And thanks a lot to Paolo 204 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: Avocado for asking us about this on Twitter. It was 205 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: a really cool question and inspired this episode. So, Daniel, 206 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: why are they called exotic particles. That sounds like, um, 207 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: I don't know, it sounds almost non PC. Well, I 208 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: think we call them exotic. I don't know, I call 209 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:38,880 Speaker 1: him exotic. I don't know if that's like the official title. 210 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: You know, the High Council on Physics naming hasn't met 211 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,800 Speaker 1: us since you started disparaging us on the podcast. Yeah, 212 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:48,600 Speaker 1: we're blackballed now. We'll never get a particle called Daniel 213 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:53,400 Speaker 1: and Jorge explained the universe. You know, that's for sure. 214 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,320 Speaker 1: We're not top of the list anymore. But we call 215 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: him exotic because they don't appear in normal, everyday matter, 216 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: because you need exotic unusual situations in order to create them, 217 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: and they don't laugh for very long. I guess you'd 218 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: call them exotic because you like you rarely see them, 219 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 1: or like they rarely happen. Yeah, both. I mean, they 220 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: do occur outside of our laboratory, but again rarely under 221 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:17,440 Speaker 1: special circumstances. And so there's sort of like, you know, 222 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: that strange bird that you don't see very often in 223 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 1: the park. You know, it's like compared to pigeons, that 224 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: really weird strange bird is you might call it exotic 225 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: if you don't see it very often landing on a 226 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:30,560 Speaker 1: tree nearby. So the big question is what would happen 227 00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: if that exotic bird didn't exist, Like, would the ecosystem 228 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: be the same, would your experience of going to the 229 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,079 Speaker 1: park be the same, or would you even notice if 230 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,680 Speaker 1: they didn't exist? What if they were only pigeons? Right, 231 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 1: we should ask Roseberry mousk of that question. It's pigeons 232 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: all the way down. But we were wondering, as usual, 233 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: how many people out there had thought about this question 234 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: or thought they had an answer. So Daniel went out 235 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: there into the wilds of the internet to ask what 236 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: if the exotic particles didn't exist? And I love the 237 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: symmetry here because this question came from the Internet and 238 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,199 Speaker 1: I'm sending it back out into the Internet to get 239 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,199 Speaker 1: people's responses. And so if you would like to participate 240 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: in future questions for future episodes, please don't be shy. 241 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:12,360 Speaker 1: Right to me two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. 242 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,480 Speaker 1: It's fun, it's easy, you'll be semi famous. It sounds 243 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:17,840 Speaker 1: like that's a typical strategy for physicist Daniel, Like someone 244 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:19,760 Speaker 1: asks you a question, you just ask the question back. 245 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:21,960 Speaker 1: Why do you say that's a typical strategy. I don't know, 246 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:25,200 Speaker 1: why do you think Anyways, here's what people had to say, 247 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:28,280 Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say, yes, we would notice if the 248 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: particles that don't make a normal manner disappeared, like neutrinos, 249 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: and now, because we can observe them, albeit not often, 250 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: uh so all of a sudden we wouldn't be able 251 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 1: to observe them anymore. But I assume there would be 252 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: some other effects that we haven't considered, or maybe someone's 253 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:52,160 Speaker 1: considered that would have profound changes to our existence. That 254 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,880 Speaker 1: is a very good question, and yes, I think we 255 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,720 Speaker 1: would notice. I know that these particles don't interact with 256 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: us or anything around us, and I know that neutronos 257 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 1: are usually something that comes from supernovas or outer space. 258 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,120 Speaker 1: But I think we would notice because maybe there would 259 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: be a difference in the supernovas, or maybe there is 260 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: something that these particles interact with that we are yet 261 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,240 Speaker 1: to discover. I think we would notice, but I don't 262 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:24,559 Speaker 1: know how. I think we will notice. I don't know 263 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,800 Speaker 1: how much it will affect us. I don't know how much, 264 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:34,200 Speaker 1: but I'm sure we can notice it. Well. I think 265 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,680 Speaker 1: all matter is supposed to be interconnected and affecting each other. 266 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:43,520 Speaker 1: So even if we can't see it or since it, 267 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:48,680 Speaker 1: something's got to happen to normal matter if that non 268 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 1: normal matter disappeared. I imagine if the moon suddenly disappeared, 269 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: we would certainly notice it, not just by what we saw, 270 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 1: but by the change in the motion of the Earth. Um. 271 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,160 Speaker 1: I don't know enough about neutrinos and tows, you know, 272 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:08,080 Speaker 1: if they have mass or anything like that, but they 273 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: have to have something that we're interacting with that we 274 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: would no longer be interacting with all of a sudden, 275 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:15,920 Speaker 1: and that's got to be weird. I think we definitely 276 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,880 Speaker 1: would notice if particles like neutrinos that don't make up 277 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,720 Speaker 1: normal matter disappeared all of a sudden, because I know 278 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: there's experiments around the world that detect those particles. I 279 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:30,480 Speaker 1: don't know what the consequences of that happening would be, 280 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,600 Speaker 1: though I'm assuming that the particles that don't make up 281 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:39,000 Speaker 1: normal matter have an effect on normal matter. I'm not 282 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:41,680 Speaker 1: in timely sure what I know that neutrinos passed straight 283 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:45,920 Speaker 1: through stuff without affecting it, so I would hesitate to 284 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,560 Speaker 1: say that we wouldn't notice it at all. It seems 285 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:54,000 Speaker 1: to me like that's unlikely, because there's quite a lot 286 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:58,480 Speaker 1: of them. If particles that don't make up normal manner disappeared, 287 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: we would not us because the energy of the universe 288 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: would decrease. All right, people had opinions here. Nobody said 289 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: I have no idea. Yeah, exactly, this is their universe 290 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: we're talking about. Man, you know, they're really getting into it. 291 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 1: It's important to them. It's almost like they didn't they 292 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:17,440 Speaker 1: haven't read the book We Have No Idea, A Guide 293 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: to the Unknown Universe or our new book. Frequently asked 294 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: questions about the universe, which is out right now. Yeah, 295 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: check out your copy of Universe f a Q dot com. 296 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: But no, it seems like a lot of people sort 297 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 1: of had opinions about this, right, So people said we 298 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: wouldn't notice, and people said we wouldn't notice. Yeah, nobody 299 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 1: was on the fence, and a lot of people felt like, 300 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:38,960 Speaker 1: you know, these do make up an important part of 301 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: our universe, even if you don't necessarily see them or 302 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 1: detect them every single day. All right, Well, let's dig 303 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: into it, Daniel. What are the exotic particles like specifically? 304 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: Can you name them? I can't name them, though, I'm 305 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 1: not responsible for having chosen their names, of course. And 306 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: you know, the first sort of exotic particle is the 307 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,440 Speaker 1: new trino. We talked about the particles that make up 308 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:03,239 Speaker 1: matter in their two corks and one lepton. This electron 309 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:05,400 Speaker 1: is a particle we call a lepton, but the electron 310 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,720 Speaker 1: actually has a partner which is pretty weird and doesn't 311 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: exist as part of matter, and that's the neutrino. It's 312 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: this very strange particle. And it's not strange because it's rare. 313 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,480 Speaker 1: It's actually very very common. It's just not part of 314 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,480 Speaker 1: the atom. The Sun makes lots and lots of neutrinos 315 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: when it produces nuclear fusion, and it's like a hundred 316 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: billion of them raining down on every square centimeter of 317 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 1: the Earth every second. So the universe is filled with neutrinos, 318 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,760 Speaker 1: but they're mostly invisible to us and they don't play 319 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: a role in the atom. Yeah, I guess it's kind 320 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: of weird to think about that. You know, the Sun, 321 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: like the hydrogen in it and the fuel that's making 322 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: it burn, is made out of the same things that 323 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:45,000 Speaker 1: we know that you and I are, you know, up 324 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:47,840 Speaker 1: and down quarts and electrons, and it's burning, but in 325 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: doing so it creates other particles like the neutrino and 326 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: then shoots a whole bunch of them out into space. Absolutely, 327 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: and that's because involved infusion is the weak force, and 328 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 1: the neutrino is a pro dout of the weak force. 329 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: Like every time you have a W boson created by 330 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,119 Speaker 1: the weak force, it decays into, for example, an electron 331 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: and a neutrino. So every time you get like a 332 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,280 Speaker 1: neutron that de cas into a proton. The way that 333 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,639 Speaker 1: happens is one cork changes into another one by giving 334 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 1: off a W which then turns into an electron and 335 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: a neutrino. So you go from neutron into proton, electron 336 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: and a neutrino. Yeah, it's almost like the universe just 337 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,720 Speaker 1: kind of makes these particles out of nothingness, right, Like 338 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:30,320 Speaker 1: there's some sort of collision or reaction in the center 339 00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: of the Sun, and there's like pure energy for a 340 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,199 Speaker 1: brief second, and then that energy, you know, kind of 341 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:39,760 Speaker 1: solidifies or becomes particles that can exist and including stuff 342 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:41,640 Speaker 1: like the neutrino. Yeah, you can think of it that way. 343 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: You know that we are like converting one kind of 344 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,240 Speaker 1: matter into another kind of matter. It's not like we're 345 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:50,880 Speaker 1: rearranging the pieces inside these particles to make something else 346 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: out of the same bits, like a jigsaw puzzle or 347 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: chemistry experiment. We really are converting one kind of matter 348 00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:58,159 Speaker 1: into another. But another way to think about it is 349 00:17:58,200 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 1: in terms of fields. If you'd like to think of 350 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: about particles as like little energy bubbles inside a field, 351 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: then you can just think about these fields is like 352 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,280 Speaker 1: connected to each other, and the energy can slash from 353 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 1: one kind of field, you know, like a field that 354 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:12,840 Speaker 1: has a w boson in it, to another kind of field, 355 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,680 Speaker 1: like one that has neutrinos. And the way the forces 356 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 1: work is that they are the things that connect those 357 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,440 Speaker 1: fields together that allow energy to slash from one kind 358 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:24,119 Speaker 1: of field into another. Yeah, but then a trina is 359 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:26,520 Speaker 1: not the only exotic particle. There's a whole bunch of 360 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,159 Speaker 1: other ones, that's right. So we talk about those three 361 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,840 Speaker 1: particles that make up the atom and then the neutrinos together, 362 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,399 Speaker 1: we have four particles we've talked about so far. And 363 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:37,320 Speaker 1: the amazing thing is that those four particles each have 364 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: a copy out there. So those four particles we call 365 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:42,800 Speaker 1: them the first generation of particles. They're like the core 366 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: group of particles, and then each of them has a 367 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: copy in the second generation of particles. So for example, 368 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:50,919 Speaker 1: the up cork has a copy which is called the 369 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: charm cork, and the down cork has a copy which 370 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,560 Speaker 1: is called the strange cork, and the electron is a 371 00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: copy which is called them you you on. And by 372 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: copy I mean that there's another the particle out there 373 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 1: that has almost exactly the same properties, the same electric charges, 374 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: the same interaction, the same spins, etcetera. Except it's different 375 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:12,280 Speaker 1: because it has more mass. It's definitely a different particle, 376 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,919 Speaker 1: right Like all the ones in the first generation, the 377 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,159 Speaker 1: up and down course, the electron, the neutrino, they're all 378 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,480 Speaker 1: very different, right, Like they all have different electrical charges, 379 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,400 Speaker 1: and the maternal has zero electrical charge. They're like very 380 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,680 Speaker 1: different in terms of their properties. But there are sort 381 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,399 Speaker 1: of copies of them that are just heavier like that, 382 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 1: but heavier precisely. And it's a big mystery, like why 383 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: do these particles exist? If you're gonna have more particles, 384 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,119 Speaker 1: why just have like reruns of the particles you already had. 385 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: Why not have like brand new, weird kinds of particles. 386 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,280 Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, there's this mirror image. This is 387 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 1: like symmetry. This is the kind of thing we've see 388 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: in particle physics all the time. You know, like every particle, 389 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 1: you know, the electron, has lots of different kinds of symmetries. 390 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 1: You know, there's also the symmetry that says every particle 391 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,639 Speaker 1: has an anti particle. That's like another reflection of this 392 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:01,119 Speaker 1: first generation of particles. We don't think about them usually, 393 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:03,359 Speaker 1: it's like the whole other set of particles. We think 394 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,119 Speaker 1: about the electron and its antiparticle like grouped together into 395 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: one idea. And so here we have like a different 396 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:12,760 Speaker 1: way to reflect this first generation. We say this first 397 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,159 Speaker 1: generation has a copy, which we call the second generation. 398 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,400 Speaker 1: And the incredible thing is that there are two copies actually, 399 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:21,640 Speaker 1: so this is the second generation of particles, and then 400 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,280 Speaker 1: another four particles, the top and the bottom, and the 401 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,680 Speaker 1: towel particle, which is a copy of the electron of 402 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: the muan, and then another neutrino. So in total there 403 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,320 Speaker 1: are twelve of these particles and eight of them are 404 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,359 Speaker 1: just copies of the first four. Yeah, that is super weird. 405 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,880 Speaker 1: And you know that there you call them different particles, 406 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,880 Speaker 1: not just because they're heavier. But because they said act 407 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:43,960 Speaker 1: a little bit different as well, I mean, like the 408 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,359 Speaker 1: fact that they're heavier makes them act different. They certainly 409 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: do act differently. And because they are heavier, and more specifically, 410 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: because there is a lighter version of them, they don't 411 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,240 Speaker 1: laugh for very long because they can decay, Like the 412 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:58,120 Speaker 1: top cork lasts for like ten to the minus twenty 413 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: three seconds and very quickly decays into a bottom cork 414 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,400 Speaker 1: and a couple of other things, and then the bottom 415 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: core class for a very short amount of time before 416 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: it decays into other things like muans or charm corks 417 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:11,880 Speaker 1: or other stuff. And so things don't like to stick 418 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:15,000 Speaker 1: around in very massive particles. They tend to fall down 419 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:18,360 Speaker 1: the ladder to the lowest mass particles and those get 420 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,840 Speaker 1: stuck like an up cork and a down cork. They 421 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:23,400 Speaker 1: can't decay into anything else because there's nothing below them 422 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:25,199 Speaker 1: on the ladder. I guess what I mean is like 423 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:28,040 Speaker 1: there's no continuum of mass with particles, you know what 424 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: I mean, Like, there's not like an electron and then 425 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: a slot, and then you can have a slightly heavier 426 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: electron and a slightly slightly heavier electron all the way 427 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: up to like you know, super heavy that there's like 428 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,359 Speaker 1: discrete kind of slots for the mass of an electron, 429 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:46,600 Speaker 1: regular electron, a little bit heavier electron, and x L electro. 430 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: That's right. It's not like ordering shoes on Amazon where 431 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: they have every single size. You know, there's like the 432 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,080 Speaker 1: very very small ones, the heavy ones, and then the 433 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: supermassive ones. And the incredible thing is that there's no 434 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,159 Speaker 1: like pattern to these masses. It's not like the second 435 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,800 Speaker 1: generation or all twice as heavi or three times as 436 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: heavy as the first generation. They all have different ratios 437 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 1: for the first generation, and the third generation has even 438 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,520 Speaker 1: weirder ratio. Its like the top cork is ridiculously heavy. 439 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,720 Speaker 1: It's like much heavier than everything else put together, and 440 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,399 Speaker 1: then times fifty. So we don't understand the pattern of 441 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,720 Speaker 1: those masses at all. As you say, it's not regular, 442 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,000 Speaker 1: it's not like something in every location, is not something 443 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: that every possible mass, and there's nothing to explain why 444 00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,399 Speaker 1: we have some masses and others. All right, So then 445 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,639 Speaker 1: we have eight or nine. I guess I need to 446 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:33,560 Speaker 1: count the neutrino exotic particles, which are you know, rare 447 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,040 Speaker 1: particles that don't make up the usual matter. And so 448 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: the big question is why do we need them? And 449 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,080 Speaker 1: what would happen to the universe if we didn't have them. 450 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,400 Speaker 1: So we'll get to those questions, but first let's take 451 00:22:44,440 --> 00:23:00,360 Speaker 1: a quick break. Alright, we're talking about exotic particle and 452 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,400 Speaker 1: who needs them? Why do we care? Daniel? They don't 453 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 1: make me up, Like, I'm not made out of any 454 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: exotic particles. None of the things around me, said, are 455 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: made out of exotic particles. It seems like there's sort 456 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: of extraneous at least to the human experience. But it 457 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: seems like most of the experience of the universe they're 458 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,320 Speaker 1: a little bit extraneous. So I guess the big question 459 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,760 Speaker 1: is do we actually need them like that the universe 460 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,720 Speaker 1: need to make them or create them or invent them. Well, 461 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,119 Speaker 1: I need them. I mean they're not experenious to my experience. 462 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,439 Speaker 1: They're pretty big job of my everyday life. You know, 463 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,520 Speaker 1: without them, I wouldn't be a particle of physicist studying them. So, 464 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: you know, for some tiny sliver or humanity, they are 465 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,200 Speaker 1: actually a central part of the human existence, you mean, 466 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 1: an essential part of your job. Like if they didn't exist, 467 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,040 Speaker 1: you we just have a different job. Yeah, I guess, 468 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,040 Speaker 1: so I would have a different job. What job Daniel 469 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,360 Speaker 1: have in that university be inventing terrible ice cream flavors 470 00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,000 Speaker 1: in a factory somewhere, like lava flavor and kitten flavor, yeah, 471 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:55,200 Speaker 1: or lego flavor. And you're right, you know, we don't 472 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 1: necessarily see them in our everyday lives, but I think 473 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,960 Speaker 1: that probably we do need them. I think that these 474 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,440 Speaker 1: particles are clues. I mean, I think that they exist 475 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: because there's something deeper going on, you know. I think 476 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: that they come about because fundamentally, they're like a different 477 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,359 Speaker 1: way to organize little bits that are inside all of 478 00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,359 Speaker 1: these particles, you know, sort of like the way the 479 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,719 Speaker 1: periodic table has structure, Right, it has metal here and 480 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,399 Speaker 1: this kind of stuff there, and various atoms act in 481 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: certain ways and their patterns there, and those patterns come 482 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,199 Speaker 1: from the structure of the atom. How many electrons you 483 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,400 Speaker 1: have in orbitals or whatever. So now we look at 484 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:33,399 Speaker 1: this table of the fundamental particles and we see that 485 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: there are patterns, and I'm pretty sure, though I have 486 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,879 Speaker 1: no proof, that those patterns come from something smaller that 487 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 1: makes up all of these particles. Some you know, way 488 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: to rearrange little er bits that give you all of 489 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: these things. And so in that sense, we do need 490 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: them because they're like an expression of what's going on underneath. 491 00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 1: And we certainly need them because their clues that will 492 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: help us figure out what's going on underneath. I see 493 00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,640 Speaker 1: you're saying like maybe the universe doesn't really need them, 494 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,119 Speaker 1: but are sort of useful or great for us that 495 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: they're there because they might help us sort of understand that, 496 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 1: you know, the secrets of how the rest of the universe, 497 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:10,040 Speaker 1: like the stuff we are made out of, how and 498 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,399 Speaker 1: why it's built. Yeah, So for example, if corks and 499 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: electrons are not like the smallest things, we're pretty sure 500 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:19,560 Speaker 1: they're not. If they're made out of smaller things inside 501 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,720 Speaker 1: them tying your little particles, then I suspect these other 502 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,800 Speaker 1: things muans and the top corks and bottom corks are 503 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,879 Speaker 1: just natural byproducts of other ways those things can come together, 504 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,160 Speaker 1: And so I think that they're vital clues towards pointing 505 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: us to those secrets. Right, and I vote that we 506 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:42,199 Speaker 1: name those smaller particles Lincoln Lugginos or something. But I 507 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: guess maybe you know, and asking like why do we 508 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:46,520 Speaker 1: need them. Do we have anything that's made out of 509 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 1: these particles? Is there anything out the any universe that 510 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,480 Speaker 1: kind of uses these for like building anything, or you know, 511 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:58,160 Speaker 1: at least momentarily in some extreme cases. So these particles 512 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: are not stable, so they can't hang out. You can't 513 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: like take a bunch of top quarks and build it 514 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: together into some structure that's just made out of top quarks. 515 00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:08,679 Speaker 1: You can't do the same thing with muons or with hows. 516 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: These particles, if they are in the universe, they last 517 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,119 Speaker 1: very briefly and then they turn into lighter stuff, So 518 00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:16,199 Speaker 1: you can't like build anything out of them. But that 519 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they don't play a role. Just because 520 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,720 Speaker 1: you can't stick around for a long time doesn't mean 521 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,040 Speaker 1: that you can't influence what happens. You know. It's sort 522 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 1: of like a guest appearance on a TV show. You 523 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,159 Speaker 1: don't have to be in all the seasons, but you 524 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,800 Speaker 1: can still like totally steal a scene when you come 525 00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,159 Speaker 1: in and change the way things happen. You're saying they 526 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:35,679 Speaker 1: sort of have a presence about them. Yeah, they certainly do. 527 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:39,119 Speaker 1: They have some charisma, and there's actually lots of ways 528 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 1: in which these particles really strongly influenced not just the 529 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,679 Speaker 1: structure of the universe and the way it's organized, but 530 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: our everyday lives. I think we're going to get into 531 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,119 Speaker 1: that later, but I guess maybe a question I have 532 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,360 Speaker 1: is about the neutrinos. I mean, the neutrinos are pretty stable, 533 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 1: they hang out for a while. It doesn't seem like 534 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: they're used for anything because they're so Yeah, that's true. 535 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,879 Speaker 1: Neutrinos are stable. They can last for a long time. 536 00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: They do actually slide into each other. Like if you 537 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: produce an electron neutrino and you shoot it through the universe, 538 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,639 Speaker 1: it might end up as a muon neutrino or a 539 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,960 Speaker 1: town neutrino. These particles sort of mix into each other, 540 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: which is sort of cool, and we have a whole 541 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: fun podcast episode about neutrino mixing. It's this crazy quantum 542 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,919 Speaker 1: mechanical effect though you can learn about if you check 543 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,760 Speaker 1: out that episode. But you're right that even though neutrinos 544 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: are mostly stable, if you make a neutrino, you're gonna 545 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,480 Speaker 1: have a neutrino. You can't build anything out of them, 546 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:32,640 Speaker 1: and the reason is that they don't really interact. They're 547 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,880 Speaker 1: not like sticky, right. The neutrinos have only one way 548 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,560 Speaker 1: to interact with each other or with other stuff, and 549 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,680 Speaker 1: that's through the weak interaction, which is super duper weak. 550 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: Like you can shoot a neutrino through a block of 551 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,240 Speaker 1: lead that's a light year thick and you only have 552 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,160 Speaker 1: a fifty percent chance of interacting with anything in there. 553 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: So mostly the universe is just totally transparent to a neutrino, 554 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,520 Speaker 1: which makes it hard to like, you know, make something 555 00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: like atoms or elements or anything more complex out of 556 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: neutrin knows. So that's why complexity doesn't arise out of 557 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,159 Speaker 1: just like pure boxes of neutrinos. But then would you 558 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,600 Speaker 1: say they're needed for anything in the universe, Well, their 559 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: math definitely contributes to things, you know. The fact that 560 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: their neutrinos are out there changes the overall mass energy 561 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: density of the universe, so it contributes, you know, to 562 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:19,359 Speaker 1: like the curvature of the universe, Like if you deleted 563 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,239 Speaker 1: all the neutrinos in the universe, it would change a 564 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,479 Speaker 1: little bit the gravitational shape of space. I also remember 565 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:28,359 Speaker 1: talking in another episode about how you know some of 566 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 1: these heavier exotic particles they disappear very quickly. But that's 567 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,880 Speaker 1: only because right now things are pretty calm in the universe. 568 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,400 Speaker 1: But back at the beginning of the universe, when things 569 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,560 Speaker 1: were like super hot and crazy like, these particles were 570 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: more normal kind of, they were less exotic. Yeah, precisely. 571 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: And that's what we're doing at particle accelerators is we 572 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: are trying to recreate those conditions. These things require a 573 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,240 Speaker 1: certain temperature. It's sort of like having a puff of steam. 574 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: You know, out there on a cold night. It's not 575 00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,920 Speaker 1: going to stay stem very long, but you inject the 576 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 1: puff of steam into a sauna, then yeah, you can 577 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: hang out and stay a puff of steam. And so 578 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,520 Speaker 1: back in the early universe, when everything was hot and 579 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,680 Speaker 1: dense and very compressed, if you had one of these particles, 580 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,040 Speaker 1: it could hang around a lot longer because it was 581 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: surrounded by a lot of energy, so the energy didn't 582 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,240 Speaker 1: have to spread out into lower mass particles. You could 583 00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,880 Speaker 1: just hang out like that, like the average energy denstat 584 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 1: The temperature of the universe was higher, so we could 585 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:25,360 Speaker 1: make these heavier particles and have them stick around. But 586 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,040 Speaker 1: these days the universe is very very cold and dilute. 587 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: So if you get that much energy concentrated into one spot, 588 00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: Entropy likes to spread it out and very quickly decays 589 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: into the lower mass stable particles. But I guess maybe 590 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: back then, when the universe was hot and crazy, could 591 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,280 Speaker 1: you have made an atom out of like a top particle, 592 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:44,760 Speaker 1: you know, like a heavier version of what we would 593 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: normally call hydrogen. Now, yeah, people are thinking about that 594 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: kind of stuff, you know. Can you make things like toponium, 595 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: which would be like a bound state of a top 596 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,600 Speaker 1: cork and an anti top cork, or charmonium or stuff 597 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: like this. Can you have those things? We have actually 598 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,600 Speaker 1: seen charmonium like to charm corks, They get together and 599 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,720 Speaker 1: make a stable particle. It doesn't last for that long, 600 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,440 Speaker 1: but it hangs out for a little while, and so 601 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,000 Speaker 1: people experiment with that kind of stuff. Those calculations are 602 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 1: very very difficult to do because they involved the strong force, 603 00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,040 Speaker 1: and you're talking about a lot of particles in a 604 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:15,160 Speaker 1: really small place, and so the calculations gets sort of 605 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,240 Speaker 1: out of control. It's not something we can very actively simulate. 606 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,600 Speaker 1: But yes, we do think that there were other different 607 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: weird states of matter in the very early universe that 608 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: might have involved some of these heavier particles. Yes, like 609 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: maybe the early universe was a universe dominated by these 610 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,200 Speaker 1: exotic things made out of these exotic particles, though it 611 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: wouldn't be as like separated, you know, you wouldn't have 612 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: like these things floating around and separated and is distinct 613 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: the way we think about Adams now. It's more like 614 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: a big plasma, like a big gamush where things are 615 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,800 Speaker 1: like interacting constantly with lots of other things. So things 616 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,880 Speaker 1: were more exotic and also swishier. Yeah, exactly, it was 617 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: like a crazy party packed full of weird people. Nowadays 618 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:57,680 Speaker 1: were less exotic and I guess um less squishy. Definitely 619 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,400 Speaker 1: not lower mass though, yeah, not only used to go 620 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:04,120 Speaker 1: up well. And also I like this analogy you were 621 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,720 Speaker 1: telling me that it's it's sort of like wondering what 622 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: iron or or at least what some of these like 623 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:13,040 Speaker 1: super heavy elements that you see like plutonium or you know, 624 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: even those crazy einsteinium like what are those four? You 625 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,600 Speaker 1: can ask and you might say, well, they're not really 626 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: good for anything, but there's sort of you know, evidence 627 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,960 Speaker 1: or a result of the universe having these kinds of 628 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,560 Speaker 1: rules about how to put things together, which is useful 629 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: for us to know exactly if you're going to have 630 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,920 Speaker 1: like protons and neutrons and electrons, then they're going to 631 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: come together and make weird stuff. And that stuff includes 632 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 1: of course hydrogen and helium, basic stuff, but also more 633 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 1: complex stuff. And that's great because when you see that 634 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: complex stuff, you can look at the power, you can 635 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: look at the clues, and you can figure out what's 636 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,840 Speaker 1: going on underneath. Now, in that case, you know they 637 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: formed stable things like iron is pretty stable, it will 638 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:52,760 Speaker 1: last for a very very long time. In the case 639 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:54,960 Speaker 1: of the fundamental particles, like none of those other ones 640 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: we think are stable, so they don't last for a 641 00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,480 Speaker 1: very very long time, but we do hope they are 642 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: clues of about what they might be made out of 643 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: a smaller scale where those tiny little particles that make 644 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,880 Speaker 1: all of matter might be. It's so that's why I 645 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,360 Speaker 1: think there's sort of like a natural byproduct of the 646 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: deeper pattern of the universe. So you just can't get 647 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:13,880 Speaker 1: rid of them. Like if you're gonna have protons and 648 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,120 Speaker 1: neutrons and electrons, you can't just remove iron from the universe. 649 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:18,920 Speaker 1: It's going to happen. I guess you could almost say 650 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,960 Speaker 1: Daniel that these exotic particles exist for you kind of 651 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 1: like for you to understand the universe. Yeah, well, you know, 652 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: they're just sort of like the consequences of the universe. 653 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,360 Speaker 1: And I think about this a lot, like what in 654 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: the universe is fundamental, like what is written into the 655 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: basic laws of the universe, and what just sort of 656 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:40,000 Speaker 1: like arises from how those fundamental elements interact, you know, 657 00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: like me and you, humanity and biology. None of that 658 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,200 Speaker 1: is fundamental, is to say in the source code of 659 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: the university have to have it. It comes out of, 660 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: you know, the interactions of particles in a very complex way, 661 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,040 Speaker 1: something it's very difficult to foresee. And the same thing 662 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: is true of iron and platinum and all these complex elements. 663 00:32:57,440 --> 00:32:59,760 Speaker 1: You take basic particles and you let them run free 664 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: and they do these crazy things. And we think about 665 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,120 Speaker 1: the particles we know now, the electron, the upcork, the downcourt. 666 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: Could think about those as if they're fundamental particles, but 667 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 1: likely they are also just like emergent phenomena that arises 668 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: out of something much much smaller that's interacting in a 669 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,680 Speaker 1: weird way in creating those things. So I think we 670 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,200 Speaker 1: haven't even seen the deep truth of the universe. All 671 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: we've ever seen are the things that sort of happened 672 00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,320 Speaker 1: to come together. I guess, in general, asking the question 673 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 1: like do we need these exotic particles, it is really 674 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: kind of a philosophical question, you know, And like maybe 675 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: the better way to approach this question is, like what 676 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: would the universe be like if we didn't have these 677 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,360 Speaker 1: exotic particles? Like what would be the consequences if they 678 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: somehow didn't exist? I think it's asking like a hypothetical question, 679 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: like how different would that universe be if you could 680 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: some like edit these out of the simulation, right, And 681 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: so let's talk about that, Like what are some of 682 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,760 Speaker 1: the things that would change about our universe if we 683 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,560 Speaker 1: didn't have these exotic particles. Well, one thing that would 684 00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,880 Speaker 1: happen is we would all feel less radiation. When particles 685 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 1: from space hit our atmosphere, like really high energy protons 686 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,880 Speaker 1: or electrons or whatever, they create tiny little meteor showers. 687 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: Like what happens when a rock hits the atmosphere. It 688 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,880 Speaker 1: doesn't just hit the ground with the same energy as 689 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: when it hit the atmosphere. It loses a lot of 690 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:18,800 Speaker 1: energy on re entry, right, or like a spacecraft also 691 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,520 Speaker 1: heats up when it enters the atmosphere. The same is 692 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,960 Speaker 1: true on a tiny scale. When a particle hits the atmosphere, 693 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: it bangs into all the other particles in the atmosphere 694 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,760 Speaker 1: and gives up some of its energy, and it creates 695 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: weird matter because it's created like extra energy density. So 696 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:35,400 Speaker 1: like a proton like smashes into an atom and the 697 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,319 Speaker 1: top of the atmosphere, it might create momentarily like a 698 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,000 Speaker 1: pion or a kon or some other weird combination that 699 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,160 Speaker 1: requires one of these exotic particles and then decay and 700 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,000 Speaker 1: produce muans, And those muans then come down and hit 701 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,000 Speaker 1: the earth, and that's radiation. That's radiation that hits your 702 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,080 Speaker 1: brain or hits your finger, or hits the ground. But 703 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:59,080 Speaker 1: it's definitely radiation created from exotic particles. Yeah, and it's 704 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,279 Speaker 1: not harmless radiation, right, Like it can actually kind of 705 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 1: mutate your DNA. Like if those muans or those little 706 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 1: bits of stuff that are falling down, you know, hit 707 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,560 Speaker 1: a DNA molecule, it's going to create a mutation. And 708 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,520 Speaker 1: so that could be trouble, yeah, or it could be necessary. Right, 709 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: We don't know how much radiation is Like the exactly 710 00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:20,359 Speaker 1: best amount of radiation to cause mutations in your DNA, 711 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,719 Speaker 1: because evolution needs some mutations. If every creature is just 712 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,719 Speaker 1: a copy of its parent, then you're not like exploring 713 00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 1: the possible ways creatures can be. You need variation and 714 00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:33,239 Speaker 1: mutation to get randomness for natural selection to work, and 715 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:35,640 Speaker 1: so we sort of rely on some of those mistakes 716 00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,040 Speaker 1: caused by cosmic rays. Well, I guess you know, when 717 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,240 Speaker 1: you're out in the sun, people worry about UV rays, 718 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:43,160 Speaker 1: which are photons, but you're saying that there's other particles 719 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:45,440 Speaker 1: raining down on me that could you know, harm me 720 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,799 Speaker 1: or burn my skin. Yeah, like muans. So muans don't 721 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,279 Speaker 1: last very long. They last just a few microseconds, but 722 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,560 Speaker 1: when they are created in the upper atmosphere, they're going 723 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,160 Speaker 1: really really fast, like some fraction of the speed of light, 724 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,879 Speaker 1: and so actually their clocks are slowed down. Even though 725 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:04,360 Speaker 1: they only last a few microseconds in their reference frame 726 00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:07,399 Speaker 1: from our point of view, they actually last a long time, 727 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: long enough to hit the ground, and the same is 728 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:13,319 Speaker 1: not true for example, for electrons. Electrons can't penetrate all 729 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,560 Speaker 1: the way down to the ground, so it's only because 730 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,279 Speaker 1: these muans are heavier they can make it all the 731 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,279 Speaker 1: way through the atmosphere down to the ground to cause 732 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,560 Speaker 1: a mutation in your d n A. If we didn't 733 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: have muans, then what would happen when a proton hit 734 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: the upper atmosphere is it would just create a shower 735 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,279 Speaker 1: of electrons, and those electrons wouldn't make it down to 736 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,600 Speaker 1: the surface, and they wouldn't cause mutations in that primordial 737 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 1: soup that were necessary for you to evolve. So I 738 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,319 Speaker 1: think what you're saying is that without exotic particles, the 739 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: sun block industry would go out of business, first of all, 740 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,839 Speaker 1: and second of all, we might not even be here, 741 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:47,320 Speaker 1: like humans may not have evolved at all, or life 742 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,239 Speaker 1: on Earth. Yeah. Actually, if you want to protect yourself 743 00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:52,400 Speaker 1: against muans, you need like several meters of lead or 744 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,080 Speaker 1: rock or something. No sun blog is going to do it. 745 00:36:55,160 --> 00:37:00,480 Speaker 1: How about at several of that. You gotta live underground, folks. 746 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: That's why we do these experiments, these dark matter searches. 747 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,200 Speaker 1: We do them deep deep underground, so that we can 748 00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,759 Speaker 1: protect ourselves from the reign of new ones coming from 749 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. All right, Well, that's one way in which 750 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,800 Speaker 1: the universe would be different. Let's get into other ways 751 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,320 Speaker 1: in which the universe would be different without exotic particles. 752 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:31,440 Speaker 1: But first, let's take another quick break. All right, we 753 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: are painting the picture of a less exotic universe. I 754 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,680 Speaker 1: guess a more bland universe, Daniel, Is that the opposite 755 00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:42,480 Speaker 1: of exotic, a more boring universe, a less surprising universe, 756 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:47,759 Speaker 1: more typical, or I guess less diverse universe? Right, yeah, exactly, 757 00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:49,720 Speaker 1: all right, And so we talked about how the universe 758 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,759 Speaker 1: would not have cosmic race you're raining down on Earth 759 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 1: and maybe even kickstarting evolution for us that lead to 760 00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:58,640 Speaker 1: humans evolving. What are some of the other ways in 761 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,719 Speaker 1: which the universe would change change without exotic particles. Well, 762 00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:04,719 Speaker 1: exotic particles actually play a really big role in the 763 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,240 Speaker 1: reason the universe even exists at all, in the way 764 00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:10,680 Speaker 1: that it does. You know, one of the deep mysteries 765 00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:14,080 Speaker 1: of the universe is why it's made out of matter 766 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 1: and not antimatter. Like we know that every particle out 767 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:22,240 Speaker 1: there has an antimatter equivalent. Electrons have positrons, and protons 768 00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,920 Speaker 1: have anti protons, and quirks have antiquarks, and there seems 769 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,680 Speaker 1: to be this deep symmetry, right, this is cool reflection, 770 00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: And you wonder, like well, why is the universe made 771 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 1: out of matter and not antimatter? Because in the Big Bang, 772 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: we think that like the same amount of matter and 773 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,439 Speaker 1: antimatter was made out of that primordial goo. So why 774 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:43,279 Speaker 1: didn't it just like find each other, smash up, and 775 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,520 Speaker 1: then annihilate and give us a universe filled with photons 776 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,640 Speaker 1: and energy with no matter left over whatsoever. So if 777 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:53,120 Speaker 1: the two were perfectly symmetric, then that would have happened 778 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 1: and we would have no stuff left in the universe. 779 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:57,759 Speaker 1: But you look around you and obviously there's lots of 780 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:00,279 Speaker 1: stuff in the universe. There's like tons and tons uns 781 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:02,759 Speaker 1: and stuff in the universe. There's billions of stars and 782 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,600 Speaker 1: galaxies and all sorts of crazy stuff made out of 783 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:09,160 Speaker 1: matter and not antimatter. And for that to happen you 784 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,839 Speaker 1: need some kind of process, some weird physics interaction that 785 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:17,480 Speaker 1: prefers to create matter or that turns antimatter into matter. Yeah, 786 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: that is weird that the most of the universe, or 787 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,080 Speaker 1: almost all of the universe is matter and not antimatter. 788 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,080 Speaker 1: And so you're saying that maybe exotic particles are the 789 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,759 Speaker 1: reason that is so, Yeah, we know of only a 790 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: few ways that the universe prefers matter to antimatter that 791 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: it likes to produce more matter than antimatter. Mostly it's 792 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:38,359 Speaker 1: totally symmetric, like in almost every way it's symmetric. It's 793 00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,840 Speaker 1: sort of amazing, like it's cern we have made anti hydrogen. 794 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,440 Speaker 1: For example, we took an anti proton and we put 795 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,400 Speaker 1: an anti electron around it, and the two things formed 796 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,160 Speaker 1: anti hydrogen, and it acts just like hydrogen. You know, 797 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,520 Speaker 1: it's like emits light and it has energy levels to 798 00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 1: matter antimatter. Almost totally symmetric. But there are a couple 799 00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 1: of ways in which the universe prefers matter to antimatter, 800 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:04,040 Speaker 1: and those involve these exotic particles. So, for example, if 801 00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,360 Speaker 1: you have a weird interaction that involves a bottom cork 802 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: or a strange cork, that's more likely to give you 803 00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:14,160 Speaker 1: matter than antimatter. And so we think that maybe in 804 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,760 Speaker 1: the early universe, this is what happened, that those exotic 805 00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:20,800 Speaker 1: particles like steered the balance a tiny little bit towards matter, 806 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,239 Speaker 1: so that most of the stuff annihilated and turned into light. 807 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:26,440 Speaker 1: But what was left over is the matter that ended 808 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,600 Speaker 1: up being me. And you, wow, that's some heavy matters here. 809 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:31,719 Speaker 1: I think what you're saying is that, you know, when 810 00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:35,120 Speaker 1: you smash particles together or there's a you know, explosion 811 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,600 Speaker 1: or something, there's kind of a fifty fifty chance of 812 00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:41,319 Speaker 1: making matter or antimatter usually out of these kind of 813 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,280 Speaker 1: collisions or reactions. But you're saying that if it involves 814 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:48,040 Speaker 1: one of these exotic particles, then maybe it's not. Yeah, 815 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,879 Speaker 1: this is like fifty point one percent chance of making 816 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 1: matter rather than antimatter, and that's enough. You know, it 817 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:55,920 Speaker 1: adds up, and we haven't actually identified all the ways 818 00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,200 Speaker 1: that it happens. We found a few ways that the 819 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,840 Speaker 1: universe prefers matter to antimatter, and those are solid and 820 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,239 Speaker 1: they're real, but they can't explain the imbalance, Like the 821 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:06,719 Speaker 1: amount is actually bigger than we can understand, and so 822 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,520 Speaker 1: we suspect that these exotic particles are doing even more 823 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:13,600 Speaker 1: than we think to tip the balance towards matter than antimatter. 824 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,000 Speaker 1: We haven't figured it out yet. It's still an open mystery. 825 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: So like, if you have a bottom cork in that reaction, 826 00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,000 Speaker 1: then it will create a little bit more matter than antimatter. 827 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:23,040 Speaker 1: But what if you have like an anti bottom cord, 828 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:27,200 Speaker 1: wouldn't that create more antimatter? Yeah, Actually, these things are 829 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,239 Speaker 1: bound states of matter and antimatter. So you have things 830 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,880 Speaker 1: like it's called a b maison, which is like a 831 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:35,879 Speaker 1: B cork and an anti D cork, and those things 832 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:39,560 Speaker 1: oscillate back and forth between matter and antimatter, but they 833 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,080 Speaker 1: are more likely to stick around and stay as matter 834 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:45,400 Speaker 1: than antimatter. All right, So that's another kind of reason 835 00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,160 Speaker 1: the universe seems to have these exotic particles, or at 836 00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:50,560 Speaker 1: least you know, one big thing that would change if 837 00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:54,239 Speaker 1: we didn't have these exotic particles, maybe we wouldn't be here, right, Like, 838 00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:57,200 Speaker 1: maybe everything would just annihilated itself and there wouldn't be 839 00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,880 Speaker 1: any room for us. Yeah, if they were just up quarks, 840 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,840 Speaker 1: down quirks and electrons made in the Big Bang, that 841 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,200 Speaker 1: they might have all annihilated and there wouldn't be anything 842 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:07,319 Speaker 1: left for us to be built out of. All right. Well, 843 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 1: what are some of the other ways in which the 844 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:12,160 Speaker 1: universe would change without exotic particles. Well, we think that 845 00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,400 Speaker 1: the really heavy particles play a really big role in 846 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,160 Speaker 1: the Higgs boson in a giving mass to the other particles. 847 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:21,279 Speaker 1: You know that the Higgs boson is the way that 848 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,240 Speaker 1: other particles have mass, and that it does that because 849 00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,960 Speaker 1: it has this field that fills the universe called the 850 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,920 Speaker 1: Higgs field. And the key to the Higgs field is 851 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:32,880 Speaker 1: that even when it's most relaxed, even when it's like 852 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,840 Speaker 1: lowest energy, it's not a zero energy. So everywhere in 853 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,320 Speaker 1: space has this weird thing and it called the Higgs field, 854 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,040 Speaker 1: which has some energy stored in it. And when particles 855 00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:44,520 Speaker 1: fly through the Higgs field, they interact with it in 856 00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:46,840 Speaker 1: different ways and that's what gives them mass. So a 857 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,400 Speaker 1: particle that interacts with Higgs field a lot gets a 858 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:51,440 Speaker 1: lot of mass, and particles that don't interact with the 859 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:54,160 Speaker 1: Higgs field really at all get a very small amount 860 00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,960 Speaker 1: of mass. And so that's key that the Higgs field 861 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,560 Speaker 1: has this energy stored in it. It's vital or making 862 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,920 Speaker 1: all the particles we know and love have the masses 863 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,200 Speaker 1: that they do. Right, Like, if the Higgs field didn't 864 00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,320 Speaker 1: have this kind of basic energy to it, like everything 865 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:10,600 Speaker 1: which just fly through the universe, like it didn't have 866 00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:13,280 Speaker 1: mass like a photon kinda yeah, exactly, if the Higgs 867 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,560 Speaker 1: field had cooled and relaxed down to zero energy inside 868 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:18,640 Speaker 1: of it, or much much smaller energy than most of 869 00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: the particles would have almost no mass. That W and 870 00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:22,640 Speaker 1: the Z would have no mass, the electron might not 871 00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:24,880 Speaker 1: have any mass, and the whole nature of the universe, 872 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,240 Speaker 1: the whole like way things come together, all those emergent 873 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: phenomena we talked about earlier, the complexity that arises when 874 00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,319 Speaker 1: you collide these particles and make them into soup. Then 875 00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,520 Speaker 1: it would be totally different and the universe would look very, 876 00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:39,000 Speaker 1: very different. And the Higgs field only has the value 877 00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,879 Speaker 1: that it does because of the heavy particles that are there. 878 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,840 Speaker 1: Whoa wait, wait a minute. You're saying that the Higgs 879 00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:47,640 Speaker 1: field has some energy, and without it, we wouldn't have 880 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:49,839 Speaker 1: any mass, or nothing would stick together because everything would 881 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,600 Speaker 1: be flying around like light. Basically, you're saying that it 882 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,600 Speaker 1: has this energy because of the exotic particles, or it 883 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 1: has this energy, or it keeps this energy because of 884 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,000 Speaker 1: the heavy particles. It keeps the energy because the heavy particles, 885 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:04,160 Speaker 1: like the Higgs field in the early universe had a 886 00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:06,319 Speaker 1: lot of energy in it like everything else. And then 887 00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:08,800 Speaker 1: the universe started to cool and everything got more spread 888 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,840 Speaker 1: out and calmer, and everything started to relax down to 889 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,200 Speaker 1: smaller and smaller energies. But the Higgs field at some 890 00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:16,920 Speaker 1: point got stuck. It's sort of like water that was 891 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:18,880 Speaker 1: flowing downhill, but instead of making it all the way 892 00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:20,759 Speaker 1: to the ocean, it got stuck in some sort of 893 00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:24,920 Speaker 1: mountain lake, right, really high energy, like it's holding some energy. 894 00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,760 Speaker 1: It's holding some energy exactly. If it didn't have that energy, 895 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,120 Speaker 1: we wouldn't have the mass that we do. And the 896 00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,080 Speaker 1: only reason it got stuck in that lake is because 897 00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:33,719 Speaker 1: you know, there's like another other side of the lake, 898 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 1: the thing that's like blocking it from flowing downhill. And 899 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,600 Speaker 1: then blocking comes from the heavier particles. Like if you 900 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,239 Speaker 1: didn't have the top cork, then the Higgs field would 901 00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:44,439 Speaker 1: not have gotten stuck in that mountain lake. It would 902 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,160 Speaker 1: have flowed all the way down to the ocean. I 903 00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,520 Speaker 1: guess that's a kind of a hard picture to understand. 904 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:51,080 Speaker 1: You're saying not because the top cord exists, but because 905 00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 1: it sort of can exist almost in a way, right, 906 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:56,759 Speaker 1: Like the top cork is something that could happen, and 907 00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,560 Speaker 1: so because it can happen, the Higgs field doesn't just 908 00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,200 Speaker 1: dump all of its energy. Yeah, because the top corp 909 00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,000 Speaker 1: can exist because its field is out there, and because 910 00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,759 Speaker 1: it's field interact with the Higgs boson so much, right, 911 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,440 Speaker 1: because the top cork is super massive, then it creates 912 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,000 Speaker 1: this weird shelf that the Higgs field gets stuck on. 913 00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:14,560 Speaker 1: I guess what you mean, Like, if you didn't have 914 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:20,040 Speaker 1: the top cork field, then the Higgs field with relax 915 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:22,120 Speaker 1: down to zero energy. What does it mean to not 916 00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,600 Speaker 1: relax or relax? Well, the Higgs field has energy stored 917 00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:27,480 Speaker 1: in it, right, because it's sort of stuck. Like think 918 00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:29,960 Speaker 1: about a ball that's trying to get down to the 919 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,759 Speaker 1: lowest energy state. It's like rolling down a hill, but 920 00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:34,759 Speaker 1: it gets trapped along the way. You know, it can't 921 00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:37,680 Speaker 1: relax down to the lowest height. And so the Higgs 922 00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:39,600 Speaker 1: field is sort of like that. It got stuck while 923 00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:41,360 Speaker 1: he was relaxing. Well though the rest of the universe 924 00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:43,640 Speaker 1: was cooling down, the Higgs field got stuck at a 925 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:46,520 Speaker 1: certain energy level, and it's the top cork that's keeping 926 00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:48,880 Speaker 1: it from getting all the way down to zero energy. 927 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:50,840 Speaker 1: Even though you don't see a lot of top corks 928 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,400 Speaker 1: out there in the university. They're sort of fleeting and 929 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:55,480 Speaker 1: they don't exist for very long. Just the fact that 930 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,200 Speaker 1: they can exist somehow prevents the Higgs field from collapsing. Yeah, 931 00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:01,880 Speaker 1: it changes the potential energy for the Higgs field to 932 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,799 Speaker 1: create this weird little local minimum that the Higgs field 933 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,520 Speaker 1: gets trapped in, and we don't really understand that shape 934 00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 1: of that minimum. We know that it's due to the 935 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,520 Speaker 1: top cork. We also don't know how stable it is, 936 00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,160 Speaker 1: like it could collapse. We have a whole fun podcast 937 00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:17,160 Speaker 1: episode about whether the Higgs boson will destroy the universe 938 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,200 Speaker 1: if that local minimum falls apart. So right now the 939 00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,840 Speaker 1: top cork is protecting it and making it strong, but 940 00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,080 Speaker 1: we don't know how long that's going to go on for. Well, 941 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,279 Speaker 1: thank goodness it's there, because I know that without the 942 00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:30,400 Speaker 1: Higgs field, or with the Higgs field collapse, like the 943 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:34,480 Speaker 1: whole universe would kind of like turnover right invert itself. Yeah, 944 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:36,799 Speaker 1: the universe would be totally different if the Higgs field 945 00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,160 Speaker 1: ever collapsed. We still would have a universe, but the 946 00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:41,840 Speaker 1: effective laws of physics would change dramatically because all of 947 00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,640 Speaker 1: a sudden, like electrons and up corks and down corks 948 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,560 Speaker 1: would have much much less mass, if any at all, 949 00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:50,319 Speaker 1: and that would change the way everything worked. Yeah, my 950 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,120 Speaker 1: son learned about this recently and it's been keeping him up. 951 00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:57,279 Speaker 1: It's kind of a scary picture. Hopefully won't happened, and 952 00:46:57,360 --> 00:46:59,480 Speaker 1: thank goodness, it's not happening because of the one of 953 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,440 Speaker 1: these Eiggs particles. Exactly. Just tell your son that the 954 00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:06,680 Speaker 1: top cork is out there saving the universe the unsunk hero. 955 00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:10,560 Speaker 1: All right, we have one more way in which the 956 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,160 Speaker 1: universe would be different without exotic particles, and it has 957 00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:14,959 Speaker 1: to do with the weak force. That's right. We talked 958 00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:17,440 Speaker 1: about new trinos, and neutrinos don't play a role in 959 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,319 Speaker 1: the atom, but they do play an important role in 960 00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:22,920 Speaker 1: the weak force, like when you have beta decay, Like 961 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:26,000 Speaker 1: when a neutron decays, it can't just decay into a 962 00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:28,880 Speaker 1: proton and an electron. It also has to make a 963 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:32,120 Speaker 1: new trino, right, because something has to carry away that 964 00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:36,440 Speaker 1: extra hypercharge. And so every time you have a process 965 00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:38,440 Speaker 1: that involves the weak force, which turns out to be 966 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:41,480 Speaker 1: pretty important in basic fusion and all sorts of stuff 967 00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:43,960 Speaker 1: in the universe, then you have to have a new trino. 968 00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:47,239 Speaker 1: For example, you were taking the universe and redesigning it 969 00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,680 Speaker 1: and stripping stuff out. If you took away the new trino, 970 00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:51,839 Speaker 1: you'd have to get rid of the w boson. If 971 00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:54,080 Speaker 1: you get rid of the w boson, then the whole 972 00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,440 Speaker 1: weak force doesn't work because the weak force is this 973 00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,880 Speaker 1: complicated dance of the W and the Z and the photon. 974 00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:01,759 Speaker 1: So now you've got to get rid of all of that. 975 00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:04,680 Speaker 1: So neutrino sort of like at the foundation of the house, 976 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,919 Speaker 1: and once you start pulling it out, then things start 977 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:09,879 Speaker 1: to collapse. And specifically you get rid of the weak force, 978 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,759 Speaker 1: you get rid of electromagnetism, and you also got to 979 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:14,600 Speaker 1: get rid of the Higgs boson. I guess what do 980 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:16,400 Speaker 1: you mean, Like if I take out the neutrino, you 981 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,200 Speaker 1: have to take out the W boson and everything falls apart, 982 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,160 Speaker 1: Like what would happen, Like there wouldn't be like the 983 00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:25,120 Speaker 1: same reactions wouldn't be able to happen, or like the 984 00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:28,080 Speaker 1: reactions would happen, but they would be different or they 985 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:30,319 Speaker 1: like do you need them to have some sort of 986 00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:35,440 Speaker 1: like exhaust or byproduct that kind of makes the reactions work? Yeah, Well, 987 00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:37,040 Speaker 1: the way I think about them, you know, there are 988 00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:39,880 Speaker 1: just like different elements of the same Rubik's cube. You know, 989 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,560 Speaker 1: the weak force is the W particles and the Z particles, 990 00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,520 Speaker 1: but also the particles that interact with them, and so 991 00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:48,759 Speaker 1: that's the neutrino. Like, the neutrino is the thing that 992 00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,080 Speaker 1: interacts via the weak force, and so you know what 993 00:48:52,120 --> 00:48:54,440 Speaker 1: does the W particle do? For example, Well, it turns 994 00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,759 Speaker 1: electrons into neutrinos. Right, if you have an electron and 995 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,680 Speaker 1: admits a W, that W carries the ectric charge, and 996 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,719 Speaker 1: so it carries away the charge of the electron and 997 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,319 Speaker 1: leaves you with a new trino. And so you just 998 00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:08,600 Speaker 1: can't do that anymore if you don't have new trinos. Like, 999 00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:12,000 Speaker 1: if an electron admits a W, then what does it 1000 00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:15,080 Speaker 1: turn into. It's not nowhere to go without a new trino, 1001 00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:17,560 Speaker 1: And so that means that you basically can't have W 1002 00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:21,200 Speaker 1: bosons in the universe. And the whole symmetry this beautiful 1003 00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:25,279 Speaker 1: picture of the electroweak force, this combination of electromagnetism and 1004 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:28,239 Speaker 1: the weak force as one nice machine that all fits 1005 00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,560 Speaker 1: together perfectly and respects certain symmetries. It all just falls apart, 1006 00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:33,640 Speaker 1: and you can't just like pick and choose. It's like 1007 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:35,160 Speaker 1: a game of Jenga. You know, you pull out the 1008 00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:37,120 Speaker 1: wrong piece and the whole thing falls apart. But I 1009 00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:39,360 Speaker 1: guess that's kind of a weak excuse. Part of the 1010 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,759 Speaker 1: pun for motivating the existence of a particle, Like, you know, 1011 00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:45,640 Speaker 1: why can I just be extra careful when I take 1012 00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,160 Speaker 1: out the Jenga piece and still have the thing hold 1013 00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:50,000 Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like unless it's like the 1014 00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:52,840 Speaker 1: one piece holding everything up, you know, you can usually 1015 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:57,600 Speaker 1: you know, patch it up or have it balanced something else. 1016 00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:00,320 Speaker 1: Like couldn't you have the weak force without the trino? 1017 00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,800 Speaker 1: Like couldn't it do the same things, just not output 1018 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,000 Speaker 1: a neutrino. The way particles does this think about the 1019 00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:08,040 Speaker 1: weak force is that you have these states where you 1020 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:11,040 Speaker 1: have the electron and the neutrino together, and what the 1021 00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:13,560 Speaker 1: weak force does is sort of like rotates those states. 1022 00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:16,680 Speaker 1: We have an episode recently about gauge symmetry that showed 1023 00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:19,040 Speaker 1: you that every force that's out there is really just 1024 00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:23,120 Speaker 1: there to respect and protect some sort of weird internal 1025 00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:25,640 Speaker 1: symmetry of the universe. And in the case of the 1026 00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:29,200 Speaker 1: weak force, that's the symmetry between electrons and neutrinos, which 1027 00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:33,160 Speaker 1: is why the w boson, for example, turns electrons into neutrinos. 1028 00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:37,160 Speaker 1: So to have this symmetry at all between electrons and neutrinos, 1029 00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:40,120 Speaker 1: you need the neutrinos. So the weak force exists sort 1030 00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:43,080 Speaker 1: of to protect this symmetry between electrons and neutrinos. Without 1031 00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:45,600 Speaker 1: the neutrinos, you don't need the weak force. And so 1032 00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,640 Speaker 1: I mean would it exist without it, It wouldn't be active, 1033 00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:51,200 Speaker 1: wouldn't be part of the universe, even if it potentially 1034 00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:53,839 Speaker 1: could be if you didn't have neutrinos. I see, it's 1035 00:50:53,880 --> 00:50:55,840 Speaker 1: like it's such an integral part of the weak force 1036 00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:58,560 Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have an excuse to have the weak 1037 00:50:58,560 --> 00:51:02,439 Speaker 1: force without it exactly who ordered that? Well, you could 1038 00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:04,480 Speaker 1: still maybe order it, it would just be an exotic 1039 00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:08,239 Speaker 1: part of the many all right. Well, then the weak 1040 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:10,840 Speaker 1: force is pretty important because without the weak force, and 1041 00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,720 Speaker 1: you would have no Higgs effect, right, and so again 1042 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:16,520 Speaker 1: things wouldn't have mass. Yeah, because the Higgs field again 1043 00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:20,719 Speaker 1: is also just around to solve this puzzle of the 1044 00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:22,960 Speaker 1: weak force, of why the weak force is connected to 1045 00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:27,000 Speaker 1: electromagnetism but also so different. You see Higgs boson, which 1046 00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:31,040 Speaker 1: breaks that symmetry. It's called electroweak symmetry breaking for anybody 1047 00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:33,200 Speaker 1: who wants to read further on it. So that's why 1048 00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:35,640 Speaker 1: we have the Higgs boson. So without the neutrinos, we 1049 00:51:35,640 --> 00:51:37,319 Speaker 1: don't have the weak force. Without the weak force, we 1050 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,680 Speaker 1: don't have the Higgs boson, and then we don't have 1051 00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:42,840 Speaker 1: me and you and kitten flavored ice cream. Sounds like 1052 00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:44,960 Speaker 1: the main reason we have these particles are just to 1053 00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,480 Speaker 1: save you a lot of anxiety, Daniel. I feel like 1054 00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,760 Speaker 1: it would really spress you out if we took away 1055 00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,520 Speaker 1: these particles. I don't know. I imagine what would Daniel 1056 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:54,120 Speaker 1: be like in the universe where there were a lot 1057 00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:57,120 Speaker 1: more exotic particles where we found like twelve thousand of them. 1058 00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,239 Speaker 1: That seems like much more of a headache. Well, that's 1059 00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:01,480 Speaker 1: another big mystery, right, Like why do we only have 1060 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:05,040 Speaker 1: eight exotic particles and not more? Like technically we could 1061 00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,439 Speaker 1: have more. We certainly could have more, and we don't 1062 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:09,440 Speaker 1: know if we don't have more. These are just the 1063 00:52:09,480 --> 00:52:11,359 Speaker 1: ones that we have seen. It could be that if 1064 00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,719 Speaker 1: we build bigger colliders and smash more energy together that 1065 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,399 Speaker 1: we could create even heavier particles. There might be more 1066 00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:20,040 Speaker 1: out there that are just not yet discovered. All right, Well, 1067 00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:22,719 Speaker 1: I guess the overall picture is that, you know, we 1068 00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:25,760 Speaker 1: don't need these exotic particles to make you me ice cream. 1069 00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,320 Speaker 1: Things that are you know, effect us in a daily 1070 00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:31,480 Speaker 1: life sort of or at least at first glance. But 1071 00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:34,000 Speaker 1: if you actually took them away, they might have some 1072 00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:36,960 Speaker 1: pretty cosmic consequences, like none of us would be here 1073 00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:39,520 Speaker 1: none none of us would have evolved, or none of 1074 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:41,360 Speaker 1: us would be here, none of us would have mass. 1075 00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:44,319 Speaker 1: The whole universe might just collapse without them. That's right. 1076 00:52:44,480 --> 00:52:47,200 Speaker 1: Nothing in the universe seems to be optional. Nothing in 1077 00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,880 Speaker 1: the universe seems to be extraneous. If you pull apart 1078 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,239 Speaker 1: one piece of this Jenda puzzle, the whole thing collapses. Well, 1079 00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:55,279 Speaker 1: I think lava ice cream is optional. I don't think 1080 00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:58,840 Speaker 1: that's a requirement in any diet. Let's see what happens 1081 00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:01,160 Speaker 1: if we delete lava ice cream from the universe. I'll 1082 00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:04,719 Speaker 1: do it right now. Uh, nothing happened, alright, Well, just 1083 00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:08,799 Speaker 1: another great reminder of how exotic and flavorful and mysterious 1084 00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:11,880 Speaker 1: and the kind of scary the universe can be. Hopefully 1085 00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,960 Speaker 1: the collapse of the Higgs field won't scare us like 1086 00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:16,760 Speaker 1: a horror movie jump scare. And also kind of beautiful, 1087 00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:19,239 Speaker 1: you know, the way all these particles and fields fit 1088 00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,799 Speaker 1: together to make this incredible universe. It's gorgeous. It's sort 1089 00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:25,759 Speaker 1: of like figuring it out and unraveling this mystery is 1090 00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,480 Speaker 1: really beautiful. It really feels like we're revealing some deep mechanism, 1091 00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:31,600 Speaker 1: which is kind of gorgeous when you see all of 1092 00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:34,120 Speaker 1: its working parts. Are you saying these exotic particles are 1093 00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:36,520 Speaker 1: like the bling of the universe. They just make everything 1094 00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:39,440 Speaker 1: sparkle a little more. That's right. You might not need them, 1095 00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:41,680 Speaker 1: but they make you look special. All right. Well, we 1096 00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:45,040 Speaker 1: hope that expanded your idea of what the universe can 1097 00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:47,520 Speaker 1: do and why it is the way it is. Thanks 1098 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:57,640 Speaker 1: for joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening, 1099 00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:00,200 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorghe explained. The uni Verse 1100 00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:03,640 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast 1101 00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:06,440 Speaker 1: for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 1102 00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:15,879 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,