1 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 1: Crystal, did you know that the secrets of the universe 2 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,600 Speaker 1: are all around us? What? Where? No? I mean answers 3 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: to some of the deepest questions in science are literally 4 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:23,000 Speaker 1: all around us, like hiding under my bed or what 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:25,279 Speaker 1: do you mean? Yeah, they're under your bed, but they're 6 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: also just right here in the air between me and you. 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: I guess Bob Dylan was right. What do you mean, 8 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,680 Speaker 1: Bob Dylan? They're all just blowing in the wind. I 9 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: guess Bob Dylan was a poet and also secretly a 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:41,360 Speaker 1: physicist and a philosopher, Which aren't We are doctors a 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: philosophy anyway. That's right. That doesn't mean we know anything 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: about it, but we have the title. Hi. I'm Daniel. 13 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 1: I'm a particle physicist and co host of the podcast 14 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,680 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorgey Explain the Universe, brought to you by 15 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: I Heart Review. My co host, the hilarious and good 16 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: looking Jorge Cham is not here today to join us 17 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 1: with his amazing jokes about bananas. He does love a 18 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: good banana, He does love a good banana. But instead 19 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: today we have a wonderful, amazing co host, Crystal Dilworth. Crystal, 20 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,959 Speaker 1: introduce yourself. Hello. I'm Dr Crystal Dilworth. I'm a neuroscientist, 21 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: um my PhD s and molecular neuroscience, so the molecular 22 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: basis of nicotine dependence from cal Tex. So I'm just 23 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,279 Speaker 1: a curious person that loves science communication and I'm super 24 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: excited to be here to talk to you today. All right, well, 25 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. So you studied nicotine addiction. Does 26 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: that make you um in the pocket for big tobacco? 27 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: It's a classic dilemma, right do you accept research funding 28 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: from big tobacco? Um? I was supported by ni H, 29 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: so I escaped that quandary, so you stayed clean. In 30 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,239 Speaker 1: my field, it's always a question of do you take 31 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,799 Speaker 1: money for weapons researchis you know, like my parents, for example, 32 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: worked at National Labs, work in weapons programs and helped 33 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: develop essentially weapons of mass destruction, whereas I try to 34 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: stay away from that and work on things that will 35 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:24,240 Speaker 1: never affect anybody's life. So maybe there's a parallel there. Um. 36 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: But Crystal, you are a PhD scientist, but you're also 37 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: not just a scientist, right, You're a dancer, you're a 38 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: movie star, You're I guess I should have led with that. 39 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: So I became part of the PhD Comics universe, um 40 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: through the PhD movie. So I played Tagel in the 41 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 1: PhD movie and the PhD movie too, and that's how 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: I sort of came into ys Orbit and we've been 43 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: working together on and off to audition for a movie. 44 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: I mean, you ever acted before? I had acted in 45 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: children's theater, So nothing on camera, nothing serious that was 46 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: going to be seen on every continent on the planet. 47 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,080 Speaker 1: And it was really hard for me because I had 48 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: started grad school thinking I was going to give up 49 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: my life in the performing arts. No more dance, no 50 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: more theater, no no stages for me. I was going 51 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 1: to be the best scientist anyone had ever seen. I 52 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: was going to eat, sleep, breathe science, do the right thing, 53 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,919 Speaker 1: be a good person. Um. But I had been reading 54 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: PhD comics since I was working in the lab. And 55 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: when you get an email saying PhD Comics is coming 56 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: to your campus and they want to make a movie, 57 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: a live action movie or live action YouTube series about 58 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: this comic that has been your you know, your inspiration 59 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: for grad school? Do you want to be a part 60 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: of And it's like therapy for people, right. And I 61 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: traveled with or hate people who come up to him 62 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: and say, it hadn't been for your comic, I would 63 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: never have made it through grad school, right, I mean, 64 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: if it hadn't been for the comic, I never would 65 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: have gone to grad school. So that's that's a whole 66 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: other conversation shin before then, to blame you for your 67 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: grad school. Yes, they hold him very much to blame. 68 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: I don't know if he knows that, Jorge, it's your fault, um, 69 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: But yeah, it was just the carrot was too big. 70 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: So I was I was at a Biophysics Society meeting, 71 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,840 Speaker 1: which is about three hours away from Pasadena at the 72 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: time that Jorge was running auditions for the PhD movie, 73 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: and I went to my last session, got in the car, 74 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: drove from San Diego up to Pasadena audition for the movie, 75 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: and then drove back so I could be there for 76 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: my eight am poster session the next morning. Like my 77 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: my advisor like as if as if I was never gone, 78 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: he would never know. Yeah, And that was sort of 79 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:46,600 Speaker 1: the beginning of the end for me, because through working 80 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: with Jorge, I discovered that science communication was an area 81 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: that I could work in after grad school, and that's 82 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: what I do now. I host a show for a 83 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: Voice of America that highlights science and technology that's happening 84 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:02,719 Speaker 1: here in the United States. It's broadcast internationally. UM I 85 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: was recently selected as one of the Triple A s 86 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: if THEN Ambassadors. I'm a role model for women in STEM. 87 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: Thank you, and I'm really excited about what that means. 88 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:15,240 Speaker 1: And I've you know, I love doing these types of things. 89 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,240 Speaker 1: I'm happy to sit down here with you and do 90 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:19,120 Speaker 1: you feel like people these days still have to sort 91 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: of choose between having a career in science or having 92 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: a career in sort of the creative sector art, dance, 93 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: you know, public speaking, or do you think it's more 94 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 1: opening now for people to bridge that gap and live 95 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:32,479 Speaker 1: two lives and not have to hide from their advisor 96 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: that they're doing this other thing. I think that the 97 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,920 Speaker 1: Ivory Tower is still pretty restrictive in terms of what 98 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: it will accept for its tenure track faculty. But I 99 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: think that if you haven't chosen that as your path 100 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:50,720 Speaker 1: to walk, there's a lot more leniency. UM. You asked 101 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: about careers. I think it's difficult to make a full 102 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: living in the arts and a full living in science. 103 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,159 Speaker 1: So in that respect, Abe you would have to choose 104 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: one or the other. But there's so many exciting spaces 105 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 1: for collaboration. I don't feel that anyone should feel that 106 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: they have to give one of those up in order 107 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: to do the other. Well. I'm really excited about the 108 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: idea that science could be more open to more kinds 109 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: of people, not just people who look different or come 110 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: from different places, but people whose interests are broader, and 111 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:22,320 Speaker 1: that we don't have to be only people who are 112 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: super zero focused on exactly this one kind of science, 113 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: and then they have other interests and they do other 114 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: things in their life. I think that's probably going to 115 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: be good for science and also good for science communication 116 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:33,600 Speaker 1: if we have people from science who know how to 117 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: do this thing. In my lab, specifically, I encourage the 118 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:39,479 Speaker 1: students to do science communication, send them to conferences, this 119 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,040 Speaker 1: kind of thing. I don't know if that's good for 120 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: their careers or not, but I figured, since I try 121 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: to do science communication, that I should try to not 122 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:48,040 Speaker 1: prevent my students from also doing it. I don't know 123 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: if that's a good idea or not, but on this 124 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: open minded process I'm experimenting on my students, but also 125 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,160 Speaker 1: on this podcast, we want people to understand that everybody 126 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: can understand scien It's one of the goals of this 127 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: podcast is to zoom around the universe and take crazy, 128 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 1: amazing things and make them actually understandable, not just jargon 129 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:10,239 Speaker 1: said while waving your hands, which isn't helpful on podcast, 130 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: but people can go away and feel like I get it, 131 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,640 Speaker 1: I know what that is. I understand relativity now, and 132 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: I want to make breakdown those barriers and make people 133 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: feel like they can figure it out too. Oh I'm 134 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: all for that, all right, So let's get into it today. 135 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about something really amazing, as we alluded 136 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: to earlier, something that's all around us, a secret of 137 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: the universe, deep dark knowledge about how things in the 138 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 1: universe work, the ancient history of the universe that has 139 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: just been sort of floating around in the air around 140 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: us with nobody noticing for I guess thousands of years. 141 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: Literally like a color you can't see, yes, exactly, if 142 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:47,040 Speaker 1: only our eyes could open it. I talk a lot 143 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: in this podcast about opening new eyes. I feel like 144 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: science is always figuring out new ways to look at 145 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,480 Speaker 1: the universe, and every time we do so, we realize 146 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: the universe. Wow. It looks so different and using these 147 00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:01,040 Speaker 1: other eyes than than the ones we're familiar with. So yeah, 148 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: it's like a color that we can't see. And also 149 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,520 Speaker 1: it's one of my favorite stories because it was discovered 150 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: kind of by accident. You know, Folks were trying to 151 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: do one thing, developed this technology, accidentally stumbled into this 152 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: incredible wealth of knowledge about the universe. I think that 153 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: there's a lot of really cool stories, especially in astro 154 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: about accidental major discoveries. That seems to be one of 155 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: the really big fields of science where that that's possible. 156 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: I feel like I'm so jealous sometimes with astronomy because 157 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: every time they look out into the universe with a 158 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: new device, they find something that doesn't make any sense. 159 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: We talked about recently the podcast These Fermi Bubbles. It's 160 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:39,839 Speaker 1: like huge structure the size of the galaxy and nobody 161 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:43,120 Speaker 1: ever seen before, found ten years ago. But whereas in 162 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:46,080 Speaker 1: particle physics it feels sometimes a little bit more difficult 163 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: to find new things. It's rarer that we like find 164 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,200 Speaker 1: a new particle nobody hadn't expected. Um. So sometimes I'm 165 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: jealous of astronomers because they get to they get to 166 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: see things they don't understand more often, and that's like 167 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,480 Speaker 1: the launching point for discovery, right when the universe gives 168 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:02,520 Speaker 1: you a clue and says, here's something you didn't expect, 169 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: then you get to unravel it. I feel like, for 170 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: a chemistry and neuroscience, which are my area, is like 171 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: the analogous story is like the discovery of LSD. Like 172 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: some chemist was like, what's this? I'm going to eat it? 173 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:19,640 Speaker 1: And I was like, WHOA, Well that's the big leap 174 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: forward in neuroscience. So what were they trying to do 175 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: when they discovered LSD? I don't actually remember. It's like 176 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,959 Speaker 1: such an irrelevant part of the discovery story that I can't, 177 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:31,720 Speaker 1: off the top of my head even remember what they 178 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: were trying to synthesize. Al Right, well, today we're talking 179 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: about something unseen but then discovered something a surprisingly revealed 180 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:42,800 Speaker 1: that told us deep knowledge about the universe. So let's 181 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 1: not tease it anymore. Today we're going to be answering 182 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: the question what is the cosmic microwave background? So this 183 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:57,760 Speaker 1: is something which is invisible and carries a huge amount 184 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:01,320 Speaker 1: of information all around us, and it discovered by accident 185 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,679 Speaker 1: about fifty years ago. It's a pretty funny story. Actually, 186 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: some folks were building a radio telescope to do something else. 187 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:10,960 Speaker 1: They want to do radar and communication, and so they 188 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: built this device and then they heard this buzz on 189 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: the device. Is this noise? And at first they were like, oh, 190 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: this is annoying and we can't get rid of it. 191 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,520 Speaker 1: They thought it was like a malfunction of their telescope. 192 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:27,679 Speaker 1: Um they couldn't understand where it came from. So microwaves, 193 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: can we just start there? I have one. I so 194 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,679 Speaker 1: you're an expert in microwave backgrounds because you can use 195 00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: a microwave. I can use a microwave. I'm an expert microwaver. 196 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: I'm not sure how to extrapolate my knowledge of heating 197 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:47,320 Speaker 1: up soup to the beginning of the universe. Can you 198 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:51,960 Speaker 1: help me draw that connection? Yes, for once our podcast 199 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: will actually have practical knowledge and it folks. Yes, we'll 200 00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: draw that connection. But first I was wondering what everybody 201 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: knew about microwaves, Like, do people understand microwave back ground radiation? 202 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:02,319 Speaker 1: Dos that make sense to them? Is this something everybody 203 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: is already familiar with or is it something nobody had 204 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: ever heard of before? And so, as usual, I walked 205 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 1: around campus here you see Irvine, and I'm eternally grateful 206 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,640 Speaker 1: to the students here for being open to being asked 207 00:11:13,679 --> 00:11:17,439 Speaker 1: these random questions by a scruffy looking physicist. So before 208 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: you hear their answers, think to yourself, do you know 209 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:22,800 Speaker 1: what the cosmic microwave background is? How could you explain 210 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,480 Speaker 1: it to a random dude who accosted you on the street. 211 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,560 Speaker 1: Here's what, folks that you see Irvine had to say 212 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: something that's ongoing in the atmosphere having to do with microwaves. 213 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 1: I don't know, no micro waves that are present everywhere. 214 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: I do not know. I've heard the topic. I've watched 215 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: couple of videos, but I don't understand that whatsoever. Wave 216 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: like yeah, I don't know it's material or just wave. 217 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: There is something like that a president outside Okay, I 218 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 1: don't know. It's a elemnent of those in a big thing. 219 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:56,680 Speaker 1: All right, So Crystal, what do you think of those answers? 220 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: You impressed? Um, I don't think i'd say impressed. But 221 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: there's quite a diversity of topics that the answers are 222 00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,839 Speaker 1: connecting to, like electricity or something. Yes, yeah, well, it's 223 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,080 Speaker 1: like electricity or something that's a pretty broad answer, so 224 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:15,839 Speaker 1: it's pretty close. You could tell that some people had 225 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: no idea what we're talking about and just sort of 226 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: guest generally physics. A few people had heard of it. 227 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:22,679 Speaker 1: I like think, I said, I watched a couple of videos, 228 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 1: but I have no idea what it is that tells 229 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: me that there's an opening here to really explain the 230 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: microwave background. She really needs this podcast, Yes, exactly, this 231 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: one is for you, dude. But I like the I 232 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:37,440 Speaker 1: like this answer remnant of the Big Bang. I mean, 233 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: we're really getting to something there, aren't we. Yes, absolutely, 234 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: somebody definitely knew what we were talking about. So let's 235 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,440 Speaker 1: get back to your question and break it down. I 236 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:49,120 Speaker 1: know how to heat up soup in a microwave. I 237 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: even know that microwaves are long radio waves. I think 238 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: of them as really big waves. I mean, I'm a 239 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: I did a lot of fluorescence microscopy UM in a lab, 240 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:03,079 Speaker 1: so I like nanometer is a scale that I'm used 241 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,240 Speaker 1: to dealing with in microwaves, I think of being so 242 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: big as to be ineligible. UM, so help me out here. Yeah, 243 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: I love this sense of scales and science right for me. 244 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:15,080 Speaker 1: For example, anything big on the proton is like way 245 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:19,199 Speaker 1: too big and complicated even think about, right, whereas mechanical 246 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:23,400 Speaker 1: engineers never think about the individual molecules. So microwaves is 247 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 1: really really just a relative term. Remember, microwaves are electromagnetic radiation, 248 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: just like light. So everything that's coming into your eyeballs 249 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: is electromagnetic radiation, but it's part of a much larger spectrum. 250 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,720 Speaker 1: The visible light is just this one little slice that 251 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 1: we happen to be able to see because our eyes 252 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:43,200 Speaker 1: react to it. But down the lower um frequency, the 253 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:45,679 Speaker 1: longer wavelengths, you have radio waves, and at the higher 254 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:48,080 Speaker 1: end you have gamma rays and X rays. It's all 255 00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 1: just part of the same big electromagnetic family. And microwaves 256 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:54,640 Speaker 1: are a kind of radio waves, as you said, and 257 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:57,360 Speaker 1: they're might be called micro because they're short for radio waves. 258 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: Radio waves can have wavelengths like meters long. It's just 259 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: all about scale, it's all about scales, and so compared 260 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,800 Speaker 1: to that, microwaves, which have wavelength like millimeter, are really small. 261 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: But of course you know, they're huge compared to visible 262 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,880 Speaker 1: light or gamma rays or anything that I know anything about. Frankly, 263 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: So microwaves are mega waves for me and microwaves for 264 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:21,520 Speaker 1: most people. So cosmic microwave background. The connection is the 265 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation. And we talked on this 266 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: podcast recently about how microwaves work, and they work in 267 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,160 Speaker 1: the same way. They pump this same kind of radiation 268 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: into your soup to make it hot, using it to 269 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: add energy to the system. That's right, Um, and then 270 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: fueling you so that you can think about the universe 271 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: and reveal all of its secrets. I'll work on that, 272 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: all of the secrets revealed. Yeah, exactly. Um, Jorge usually 273 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: has a banana before every podcast because apparently he can't 274 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: think without a Is that's something you know about him 275 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: through I know that he definitely does not operate without 276 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: a banana. I do not operate without a coffee. So 277 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:59,000 Speaker 1: as long as he's got bananas and I've got coffee, 278 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:02,160 Speaker 1: we're usually good to go. That's all that's required around here. Well, 279 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 1: this is a perfect spot to take a break. We'll 280 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 1: be right back. Um. Yeah, So, cosmic microwave background radiation. 281 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,240 Speaker 1: The microwave radiation part just refers to the length of 282 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: the waves of the electromagnetic radiation. So where are the 283 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: waves coming from? Yeah, they're coming from everywhere, Like if 284 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: you look out into the sky, you see this radiation 285 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: coming from everywhere. And that was the weird thing about 286 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,080 Speaker 1: their discovery. When they turned on this radio telescope for 287 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,960 Speaker 1: the first time, they heard this buzz and they heard 288 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: it from every direction. There's sort of two answer parts 289 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: to that answer. One is where do we see them? Right, 290 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:48,400 Speaker 1: And it's coming from every direction, so we see it 291 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 1: from everywhere in the sky. And often if you see 292 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 1: a map of the cosmic microwave background radiation, it's this 293 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,920 Speaker 1: weird ellipse with these little dots on it, and that's 294 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: an attempt to describe what you see in each direction 295 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: the sky. So, because the sky is a circle, right, 296 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:05,400 Speaker 1: the Earth is a sphere. It's hard to map a 297 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:08,000 Speaker 1: sphere onto a flat piece of paper. The best way 298 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,040 Speaker 1: to describe what you see is if you could print 299 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,360 Speaker 1: it on the inside of a sphere, so you could 300 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:14,240 Speaker 1: look at and say, oh, in this direction, we see this. 301 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:16,960 Speaker 1: In that direction, we see this. The same way, it's 302 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: hard to make a map of the stars you see 303 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: in the sky, right. The best way to do that 304 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: is like a planetarium, you can print them on the 305 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:24,960 Speaker 1: inside of a curved surface, so you can show what 306 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: we're seeing. So what we see when we talk about 307 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:31,200 Speaker 1: the cosmic microwave background is we see this buzz, this 308 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 1: electromagnetic radiation from every direction at once, so just filling 309 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: the space that is the universe. Yeah, it's coming from 310 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: every direction and hitting us. And it's everywhere. Like if 311 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:45,240 Speaker 1: we were here or around Jupiter, or in the center 312 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: of the galaxy or in between galaxies, we would see 313 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,800 Speaker 1: it everywhere. So it's originating from the universe. It's just 314 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,320 Speaker 1: an energy that now exists and bounces around and comes 315 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: from everywhere. Yeah, it comes from everywhere. And that's the 316 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:01,280 Speaker 1: confused seeing part, I think to a lot of people, 317 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:03,960 Speaker 1: because people think, Okay, it's light, so it's traveling at 318 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,200 Speaker 1: light speed and it's getting here. How can it be 319 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,280 Speaker 1: getting here? Where did it come from? Right? And that's 320 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: pretty confusing if you imagine that, if you think about 321 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 1: the beginning of the universe as a point and from 322 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,719 Speaker 1: that point things flew outwards, and people trying to imagine, well, 323 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:22,120 Speaker 1: then if it's getting here now it's coming from that point, 324 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: how can we be seeing it from two directions? And 325 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: the reason that's confusing is that I think that's the 326 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: wrong way to think about the start of the universe. 327 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:30,399 Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how should I be thinking about the 328 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: start of the universe. Well, you start with the bowl soup, right, Um. No. 329 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: The way I think about the start of the universe 330 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: is that it started off infinite, that it's the moment 331 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:42,639 Speaker 1: of creation is not a single point in space, but 332 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: that the Big Bang happened everywhere all at once. There 333 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:49,439 Speaker 1: was sort of multiple starts from every direction. And what 334 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: we're seeing now is leftover bits from really far away 335 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:54,720 Speaker 1: in that in one direction, and really far away in 336 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:57,600 Speaker 1: the other direction. So if I'm looking at the cosmic 337 00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:01,000 Speaker 1: microwave background reradiation, I'm seeing light that came from the 338 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: very beginning of the universe. It took almost fourteen billion 339 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,720 Speaker 1: years to get here from somewhere really far away in 340 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: one direction. And I'll turn around and I look in 341 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,120 Speaker 1: the other direction. I'm seeing light come from the other direction, 342 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: which came really far away from the other direction, from 343 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,359 Speaker 1: somewhere else, really really far away. So these two pieces 344 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: of light haven't talked to each other ever. Are they 345 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:22,879 Speaker 1: meeting for the first time in the history of the 346 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,040 Speaker 1: universe here on Earth. So they're not coming from the 347 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: same place. It's not like we're looking at a little object. 348 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:33,200 Speaker 1: We're looking at a huge universe at its beginning. Every 349 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: direction you look at, you're looking at a different part 350 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 1: of the early universe. So does that mean that the 351 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,560 Speaker 1: different particles, the different waves of light that are meeting 352 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:43,960 Speaker 1: here for the very first time can tell us different 353 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:47,119 Speaker 1: things about the beginning of the universe. Yes, absolutely, they 354 00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:49,240 Speaker 1: tell us what was going on at one spot of 355 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:50,959 Speaker 1: the universe over there, and what was going on at 356 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 1: one spot of the universe over there, just the same 357 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:54,960 Speaker 1: way when we look at the night sky. Now you 358 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,040 Speaker 1: look at one star, it's telling you that light is 359 00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,840 Speaker 1: telling you what happened a long time ago in that direction. 360 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 1: You turn another way, and like from another star is 361 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:04,679 Speaker 1: telling you what happened in a totally different part of 362 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:07,680 Speaker 1: the universe, also a long time ago. Those two photons 363 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:09,639 Speaker 1: are also meeting for the first time. So I have 364 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,479 Speaker 1: a lot of questions about how that information is carried 365 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 1: and decoded. But first I'd like to ask, when this 366 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:22,199 Speaker 1: background radiation was discovered, what did we think it was. 367 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: How did we know that it could teach us and 368 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,480 Speaker 1: tell us things. Yeah, if that's a really fun part 369 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:29,919 Speaker 1: of the story because the guys who discovered this, they 370 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:31,960 Speaker 1: weren't looking for it, but there was another team of 371 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,800 Speaker 1: people who were looking for it, and they got scooped. 372 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,680 Speaker 1: So there was a team around the corner. This telescope 373 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 1: they built was in New Jersey and it just happened 374 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 1: to be around the corner from Princeton. It was a 375 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: team of Princeton who was looking for this radiation. They 376 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: were like scrambling to build the device. They could see it, 377 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: and they got scooped by these guys who were like 378 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: building something to do something else. The reason they were 379 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:52,679 Speaker 1: looking for it is that there was this idea that 380 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 1: we could find evidence for the Big Bang. And this 381 00:19:55,359 --> 00:19:56,960 Speaker 1: is back in the sixties when the Big Bang was 382 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,399 Speaker 1: still like kind of a crazy idea, not neces serily 383 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,160 Speaker 1: totally accepted. Definitely not a television show, yeah, not yet, 384 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: a hilarious television show that probably gates stereotypes about scientists. Um. 385 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: But the idea was that if the universe had started 386 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,400 Speaker 1: smaller or more dense right at the universe had started 387 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,080 Speaker 1: from um really dense mass and then exploded, then originally 388 00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,639 Speaker 1: it was sort of hotter and denser. And the reason 389 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: people thought that this radiation might exist. Is that they 390 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: looked back into the history of the universe. They said, Okay, 391 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: the universe now is a bunch of stars and galaxies, 392 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 1: but if there had been a big bang, then the 393 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,960 Speaker 1: universe we sort of rewind the history of the universe. 394 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,360 Speaker 1: Everything pulls together and gets hotter and denser, and eventually 395 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,000 Speaker 1: it gets so hot and dense that it becomes a plasma. 396 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: And a plasma is really interesting because light can't just 397 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: passed through it. It's opaque. So this this moment in 398 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: the history of the universe they thought when the universe 399 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,440 Speaker 1: went from opaque like like couldn't go through it too transparent, 400 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: Suddenly the universe cooled um and became crystal clear, so 401 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:02,639 Speaker 1: that you could, like photons could fly through the universe 402 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:05,920 Speaker 1: without necessarily getting absorbed. And so this is this last 403 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,120 Speaker 1: moment when the universe was a hot plasma and then 404 00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:10,679 Speaker 1: it cooled, and the light from that moment, they figured 405 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,680 Speaker 1: should still be around. That's crazy. I know. It's like, um, 406 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: you know your baby picture that your parents took, you 407 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,280 Speaker 1: know whatever, years ago. Um, the light from that picture 408 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,200 Speaker 1: is still out in space somewhere. Like that's literally true. 409 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:27,480 Speaker 1: I was thinking, like gestational periods of the universe, which 410 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,119 Speaker 1: was like a really weird mental trip that I just 411 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:34,919 Speaker 1: went on and back. Now, okay, welcome back, um. But 412 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,000 Speaker 1: you know the same way that everything that happened on 413 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: Earth a long time ago, the light from that is 414 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 1: out there in space, the way like TV shows that 415 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,080 Speaker 1: we broadcast are out there in space flying away. Um, 416 00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:46,200 Speaker 1: everything that happened in the early universe is still out 417 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,520 Speaker 1: there in space. So if the early universe used to 418 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 1: be hot and dense and then all of a sudden 419 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,919 Speaker 1: became cool, then this light could fly through the universe 420 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,440 Speaker 1: untouched and it should still be out there. And that's 421 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: what they were looking for. They were looking for this 422 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: last light from the hot plasma other early universe, which 423 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,320 Speaker 1: should then still just be flying around and we should 424 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,879 Speaker 1: be able to find it. And you know microwave background. 425 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,760 Speaker 1: Remember that's just another kind of electromagnetic radiation. So when 426 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,880 Speaker 1: we're talking about light, we really just mean electromagnetic radiation. 427 00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:16,200 Speaker 1: So finding this radiation meant that we were on the 428 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 1: right track in terms of the origins of the universe model. Yeah, 429 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: it was really the first experimental evidence that said, wow, 430 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: this crazy idea that the universe used to be hot 431 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: and dense and then expanded really fast. Might be true. 432 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:31,760 Speaker 1: It's you know, this rhythm and science where we say, okay, 433 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: you've got a crazy idea that sort of explains the 434 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:38,119 Speaker 1: way things work. Make a prediction, prove it, predict something 435 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:40,360 Speaker 1: that we could find that we could only see if 436 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 1: your idea is correct. And this is what was the prediction. 437 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,760 Speaker 1: And coincidentally, Jim Peebles, one of the guys who predicted it, 438 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,720 Speaker 1: just won the Nobel Prize for that prediction this very week. 439 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: The competing idea at the time was the sort of 440 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:56,240 Speaker 1: steady state universe. Universe had been like this, been like 441 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,000 Speaker 1: this forever. You know, maybe it was expanding, but there's 442 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,639 Speaker 1: some sort of new source so stuff in it, and 443 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: that people wanted to believe that. I don't really understand 444 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,960 Speaker 1: why people wanted to believe Biblical origins. Don't you think 445 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,399 Speaker 1: we'll see but biblical origins tell you the universe had 446 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,439 Speaker 1: a beginning, right, The steady state idea sort of like 447 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,439 Speaker 1: the eternal universe. The universe has been like this forever, 448 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:19,679 Speaker 1: And for some reason, I think that seemed more natural 449 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,280 Speaker 1: to people. It seems more natural to me that the 450 00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,800 Speaker 1: universe had a beginning. I guess to some people, thinking 451 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:27,120 Speaker 1: the universe had an origin brought up other questions like 452 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: what happened before that? And I'm not afraid of questions. 453 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: I love those questions, But to me, it would be 454 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: weird at the universe it existed forever. I was actually 455 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:39,200 Speaker 1: trapped at the Caldec Faculty Club while a visiting professor 456 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 1: and one of our staff scientists had an argument over 457 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:45,600 Speaker 1: what came before the Big Bang, and none of the 458 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,520 Speaker 1: graduate students were willing to interrupt the argument to say like, 459 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: can we order because we're really hungry, and the waiter 460 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,399 Speaker 1: kept coming to take our order, and the graduate students 461 00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,520 Speaker 1: kept making eyes at them like were we we can't 462 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:04,120 Speaker 1: They're still argue. Eventually, I think somebody came and was like, sirs, 463 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,439 Speaker 1: can we move this process along? But I guess this 464 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,800 Speaker 1: is still a hotly contested idea, at least in the 465 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: Caltec fact of the club at lunchtime. Yeah, and you know, 466 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: sometimes this arguments can feel like they last forever um. 467 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,399 Speaker 1: But at the time there was these two camps. It 468 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: was the steady State University. University existed sort of in 469 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: this similar state forever, and the other idea that it 470 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: came from this hot, dense initial point. And this was 471 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,280 Speaker 1: the prediction that that they made that if the universe 472 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,359 Speaker 1: had been hotter and denser, it would have be this 473 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,960 Speaker 1: plasma and it would admit this radiation and we could 474 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: still find it. You know, it's like if you, um, 475 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,880 Speaker 1: if there had been a rave in an apartment last night, 476 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: and you know, you expect like lots of loud music, 477 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:44,919 Speaker 1: and the moment that music turns off, that music is 478 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,160 Speaker 1: still flying out there somewhere. So this is like saying, 479 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,800 Speaker 1: let's go find that music as evidence that there was 480 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,640 Speaker 1: a rave in my apartment last night, But of course 481 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,080 Speaker 1: that music is flying off away from us. You would 482 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,280 Speaker 1: have to like travel the speed of sound to catch it. 483 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: This is like that we're finding here. So I think 484 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,280 Speaker 1: it can be a little confusing to digest, like why 485 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: are we seeing that light here? And seeing it from 486 00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: multiple directions. So when it was detected or discovered, the 487 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: scientists knew what they had, and they also knew that 488 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:15,639 Speaker 1: there were some were going to be some really upset 489 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: people at Princeton Um. They didn't know what they had, 490 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: Like the guys who found it, Penzias and Wilson, they 491 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,080 Speaker 1: just thought it was noise. They just heard this hiss 492 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,160 Speaker 1: in their telescope and it was an obstacle to them. 493 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: They thought, we can't get rid of this. What was 494 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 1: going on? Um? And they're like, this is really strange. 495 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:34,040 Speaker 1: And then they went around the corner to the physicist 496 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,240 Speaker 1: of Princeton and they're like, we found this weird thing. 497 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:38,480 Speaker 1: What do you know about it? And I think the 498 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,320 Speaker 1: physicist must have been like, oh my god, we've been 499 00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:43,800 Speaker 1: trying to find this and you scooped us slash. Wow, wonderful, 500 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:46,080 Speaker 1: we learned this amazing thing about the universe. That must 501 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 1: have been a really sort of you know, plus and 502 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 1: minus moment for them. So they published it separately. There 503 00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:56,080 Speaker 1: was no post talk collaboration. Now they wrote two papers. 504 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,159 Speaker 1: The guys who actually found it published their discovered, like 505 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,919 Speaker 1: here's what we found, and then immediately afterwards the Princeton 506 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: guys wrote a paper saying here's what this means and 507 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,880 Speaker 1: here's why it's important. But the Penzias and Wilson, they're 508 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 1: the ones who got the Nobel Prize because they're the 509 00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:12,640 Speaker 1: ones who found it. Man, science sometimes it's luck, yes, 510 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: I know, And you can be like days or weeks 511 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,040 Speaker 1: away from a discovery that wins the Nobel Prize, if 512 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,720 Speaker 1: those folks at Princeton, if their grad students had worked 513 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 1: a little harder, or they hadn't taken us along to 514 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:31,240 Speaker 1: order lunch. Professor. When I was an undergrad professor of 515 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: mine who was teaching thermodynamics, he was one of the 516 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,920 Speaker 1: folks racing to discover the Bose Einstein condensate, this weird 517 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,080 Speaker 1: state of matter, and there were other groups. Was when 518 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: m I T and when it nised and he was 519 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,119 Speaker 1: able to create the Bose Einstein condensate and published it, 520 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: but he was two weeks too late, and he was 521 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,040 Speaker 1: left out of the Nobel Prize. So there was shared 522 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,240 Speaker 1: between NIST and M I. T. And he was two 523 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,320 Speaker 1: weeks away from the winning the Nobel Prize. And I 524 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: always thought, wow, that must be tragic, and he must, 525 00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:58,880 Speaker 1: you know, wonder like should I have given my grad 526 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 1: students two weeks off for Chris Smiths or we could 527 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 1: all be sharing the Nobel Prize right now? Right, I 528 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,880 Speaker 1: feel like we should probably move on because I could, 529 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:11,439 Speaker 1: I could take this topic my soapboxman really want to 530 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,080 Speaker 1: be you know right now. But it's true, right, like 531 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: these these things can be so so far yet so close, 532 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:22,879 Speaker 1: and you never know. You never know if you're around 533 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 1: the corner from discovering something amazing, and also if somebody 534 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,640 Speaker 1: else is one week ahead of you, or if you're 535 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:29,919 Speaker 1: sort of on your own and you're about to discover 536 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: this incredible thing. That's the pressed grad students showing up 537 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,919 Speaker 1: in the lab every day, right, is the hope that 538 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,880 Speaker 1: the next day is going to be different. It's also 539 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,959 Speaker 1: the definition of insanity. That's right slash of research. So 540 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000 Speaker 1: when the Princeton group published sorry to bring us back, 541 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,199 Speaker 1: when the Princeton Group published their paper saying this is 542 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:54,159 Speaker 1: what the discovery means, what did it mean? Yeah, it 543 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,280 Speaker 1: meant that there was this evidence that the universe had 544 00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,960 Speaker 1: once been hot and dense, and since the universe is 545 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,239 Speaker 1: dot hot and dense right now, it's like huge and 546 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,720 Speaker 1: empty and cold. That means that the period of the 547 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: universe we're living in is not the way things have 548 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,919 Speaker 1: always been, and it means that the history is quite different. 549 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,159 Speaker 1: And we found relics of the history. This is like 550 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: fossils of the universe. It's like a discovering whoy there 551 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,320 Speaker 1: there used to be these huge, crazy animals that walked 552 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,680 Speaker 1: along the Earth. Earth used to be totally different from 553 00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:22,879 Speaker 1: what we're experiencing now. Now this is on the universe scale. 554 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: Now we learned whow the universe used to be this hot, dense, nasty, 555 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: wet plasma where nothing could probably get through and then 556 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,000 Speaker 1: it cooled. And so that was really very convincing um 557 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,679 Speaker 1: evidence that the Big Bang was a real thing, and 558 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: the Big Bang like happened. It's not just an idea, 559 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 1: it's not just a story. It's not just something you 560 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: read about in the book. It was reality. It was 561 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: it was these physical events took place. H And to me, 562 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: that's amazing. You know that there's there's this history of 563 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: the universe and we can uncover it, that there's enough 564 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: clues out there that we can actually figure out what 565 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,840 Speaker 1: the objective truth is of the universe, which has sort 566 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,280 Speaker 1: of been like a big question in human existence, right 567 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,040 Speaker 1: where do we come from? How has this whole thing 568 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:05,480 Speaker 1: been created? We're unraveling that. We're like using science to 569 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,600 Speaker 1: figure out what the true history of the universe is. 570 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 1: That's incredible power. So when you're talking about objective truth, 571 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,600 Speaker 1: is this things that can be described using mathematics. Yeah, 572 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:20,000 Speaker 1: we have models that described the early universe, and those 573 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,480 Speaker 1: models made predictions, and those predictions are born out to 574 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,480 Speaker 1: be true. And you know, we can never really claim 575 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,680 Speaker 1: objective truth. We don't really know what's out there. You 576 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:29,960 Speaker 1: can just be trapped in a brain, in a vat somewhere. 577 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,400 Speaker 1: You don't know if the universe exists. But assuming that 578 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,400 Speaker 1: the things that we're experiencing are real and that physics 579 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:39,400 Speaker 1: can describe them, we're making incredible progress in revealing the 580 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,480 Speaker 1: way we think the earlier universe happened. And I think 581 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: that's pretty incredible. As a physicist, you know that there 582 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: is a noable truth that is always true, at least 583 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,600 Speaker 1: within the universe that you yourself are experiencing. Yeah, that's 584 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 1: one of the things I like about physics. I mean, 585 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 1: I love doing creative stuff also, But the thing I 586 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 1: like about physics is that the universe answers questions and 587 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,320 Speaker 1: it's you know, yes or no. It's not like, well, uh, 588 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: you know, you wrote this thing, this novel and it's 589 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: pretty good and somebody else's no, it's wonderful, somebody else's no, 590 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,720 Speaker 1: it's trash. Right, the universe, you can ask a question 591 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: to say, all right, which theory is correct? And he 592 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: says this one and that one. You love it. It's beautiful, 593 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 1: but it's wrong. There's an objectivity there. It's not just 594 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: people's opinion. You know, the universe tells you this is 595 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: the way things happen. But only if you can find 596 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,120 Speaker 1: those clues, only if you can figure out a way 597 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: to sort of corner the universe and make it reveal 598 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,080 Speaker 1: this truth. You don't just get to stand in a 599 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,880 Speaker 1: mountaintop and say, tell me the answers. You have to 600 00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,000 Speaker 1: figure out a way to find these clues and on 601 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,920 Speaker 1: earth it like a detective and that's a slow process. Right. 602 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:47,800 Speaker 1: If you think about early interpretation of physical fossils like 603 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,360 Speaker 1: you know, dinosaurs, et cetera, or you know small ce creatures. 604 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:56,360 Speaker 1: We use that to fuel stories of monsters and uh, 605 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: it evolved the way that we were describing our universe 606 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: are our world, but not necessarily to bring it completely 607 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,880 Speaker 1: in line with the scientific understanding we have now. So 608 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,680 Speaker 1: how long did that process take discovering this fossil of 609 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: microwave background? Yeah? Well, I think the idea of the 610 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: Big Bang dates to the earlier part of the last century. 611 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: The whole idea that the universe was bigger than the 612 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,480 Speaker 1: galaxy is only than only a hundred years old, and 613 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: then so discovering these other galaxies, finding that they're moving 614 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: away from us, and then trying to understand, well, if 615 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:30,239 Speaker 1: the universe, if galaxies are moving away from us, right, 616 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,360 Speaker 1: then how can we have a at all a sort 617 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: of steady state model? Thing? Before that people imagine galaxies 618 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: just sort of hanging in space. So then discover things 619 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,440 Speaker 1: are moving away from us, that's sort of immediately implies 620 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: some sort of expansion. And then that brought up these 621 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,760 Speaker 1: questions like, well, how can you have expansion if the 622 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: universe is bajillions of years old? And Einstein didn't like 623 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: that at all either. That's really the origin of that idea. 624 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,000 Speaker 1: And so then to find this evidence is really conclusive. 625 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: And then they discovered on top of all that evidence 626 00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:00,000 Speaker 1: that this is really from the Big Bang. There's a huge, 627 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,360 Speaker 1: huge amount of detailed information in this buzz, in this 628 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: light from the first plasma that gives us clues about 629 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,600 Speaker 1: what was happening in the Big Bang, the way like 630 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,480 Speaker 1: you can look at your baby picture and be like, oh, 631 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:12,520 Speaker 1: I can tell like you know, I'm drinking coffee as 632 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,160 Speaker 1: a two year old or whatever, or Orge has got 633 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: a little banana his baby picture. Um, you can look 634 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,440 Speaker 1: back at this baby picture of the universe and and 635 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,000 Speaker 1: understand why our universe looks the way it does and 636 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:27,080 Speaker 1: gives us a huge amount of information about our universe today. Well, 637 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,200 Speaker 1: this is a perfect spot to take a break. We'll 638 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:45,400 Speaker 1: be right back. So how is that information coded. It's 639 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,320 Speaker 1: coded in the little differences. So if you look at 640 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 1: the cosmic microwave background radiation maps, and if you're in 641 00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,280 Speaker 1: front of a computer, you should google cosmic microwave background 642 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,360 Speaker 1: and you'll see this image. It's sort of like reds 643 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,120 Speaker 1: and blues and greens. And what you're seeing there is 644 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: that is this slightly different energies you see if you 645 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: look in different directions. So you get this radio wave 646 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,000 Speaker 1: it's microwave, and that has a certain frequency, and their 647 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:12,200 Speaker 1: frequency means a certain energy and there's very small variations. UM. 648 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 1: And so what we do is we measure the energy 649 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: in different directions and we see that in some places 650 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,920 Speaker 1: it's like one one hundred thousands hotter or one one 651 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:24,480 Speaker 1: thousands colder, and that's telling us something about the density 652 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 1: of that plasma. Four hundred thousand years after the Big 653 00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:31,000 Speaker 1: Bank fourteen, almost fourteen billion years ago telling us, oh 654 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,120 Speaker 1: this was a hot spot, this is a cold spot. 655 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,440 Speaker 1: And those are very small variations in sort of the 656 00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,840 Speaker 1: temperature of the universe at that time. And you might think, 657 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: well that why does that matter, alright, who cares about 658 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: the tiny a little bit hotter, tined, a little bit colder. Well, 659 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: those are the structures, the seeds of the structure of 660 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:52,239 Speaker 1: the universe itself. The universe has been totally smooth, like 661 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,640 Speaker 1: exactly homogeneous everywhere, and there's no way to sort of 662 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,240 Speaker 1: build anything because every particle is being pulled in every 663 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: direction simultaneously. What you need to start the seed structure 664 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 1: to get like galaxies and planets and stars and people 665 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,400 Speaker 1: and bananas and hamsters is you need a little bit 666 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:10,799 Speaker 1: of variation. And so these are the original seeds of 667 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,919 Speaker 1: variation that caused the structure that we see today. So 668 00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:19,760 Speaker 1: if everything was all the same, maybe you're really boring here. Yeah, 669 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,600 Speaker 1: we wouldn't be here because that you would never form 670 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,359 Speaker 1: any structure. You would never form really hot, dense things 671 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:27,600 Speaker 1: like stars to give light and planets for people to 672 00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,600 Speaker 1: live on. It would just be smooth and not very dense. 673 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,120 Speaker 1: So in order to get anything interesting in the universe. 674 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,480 Speaker 1: You need little packets of density to start off with. 675 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: And if those packets were even slightly different, our universe 676 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,359 Speaker 1: would be so completely different we wouldn't even recognize it. Yeah, 677 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:44,800 Speaker 1: you wouldn't have a galaxy here, You might have a 678 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,320 Speaker 1: galaxy somewhere else, totally far away. Yeah. And the amazing 679 00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,839 Speaker 1: thing is that these those variations are totally random. They 680 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,560 Speaker 1: come from quantum mechanics. Like, where do you get these 681 00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: variations from the beginning? The universe started out sort of symmetric, 682 00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: and how else could it start? Then? How you get 683 00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: any variation to see the structure comes from quantum mechanics. 684 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: Quantum randomness strikes again. It keeps following me around. It's everywhere. 685 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,359 Speaker 1: So you get little random fluctuations. Those little fluctuations get 686 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,600 Speaker 1: expanded into bigger fluctuations, and then they become, you know, 687 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:17,840 Speaker 1: larger and larger. So we said, see these really really minor, 688 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: very subtle fluctuations in this early plasma. You know that 689 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:24,400 Speaker 1: took fourteen billion years for gravity to build on and 690 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 1: to make something big and beautiful and elaborate that we 691 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:31,600 Speaker 1: are living in today. So for scientists starts studying the 692 00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:35,799 Speaker 1: cosmic microwave back on the c MB right now. Are 693 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,320 Speaker 1: they asking questions about the past or are they looking 694 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:44,359 Speaker 1: at either at present time or future time? Yeah, that well, 695 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,280 Speaker 1: that's a great question. I think people want to understand 696 00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:49,360 Speaker 1: the past because they want to know the future. Like 697 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,239 Speaker 1: I'd like to know how long is the univer is 698 00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: gonna be around, is going to keep pairing itself apart 699 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,440 Speaker 1: or turn around and crunch? And part of answering the 700 00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:58,600 Speaker 1: questions about the future means looking into the past and 701 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,040 Speaker 1: understanding the origins and revealing the mechanisms. So I think 702 00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:04,840 Speaker 1: we're asking mostly asking questions about the past, but really 703 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:06,960 Speaker 1: because we want to know the answers about the future. 704 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,440 Speaker 1: And the CNB reveals all sorts of things like how 705 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,880 Speaker 1: much dark energy was there, how much dark matter was 706 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: there in the very early universe, how much matter was 707 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,000 Speaker 1: there in general, All sorts of things are encoded in 708 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,080 Speaker 1: the details of the CNB, And that's the kind of 709 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,960 Speaker 1: thing that scientists are focusing on today's is pulling out 710 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,880 Speaker 1: as much information as possible from this early map of 711 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:29,280 Speaker 1: the universe. So this is just one of the many 712 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: types of radiation that I can't see that's being like that. 713 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 1: I'm basically swimming through as I go about my day. 714 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:41,360 Speaker 1: Imagine if we were all blind, humanity was all blind 715 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,440 Speaker 1: and nobody could see it would be difficult to imagine. Oh, 716 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:46,640 Speaker 1: there's all this information around us that we're not capturing, 717 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: and the light would be there, but we just wouldn't 718 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,440 Speaker 1: be using it to understand our world. Well, that is 719 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,000 Speaker 1: our situation. We are all blind. We're blind to all 720 00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: these different other kinds of light and particle that are 721 00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,000 Speaker 1: all around us with incredible information about the universe that 722 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,080 Speaker 1: we just can't see. In hill, we build telescopes and 723 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,840 Speaker 1: new devices that are sensitive to these kinds of radiation 724 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,720 Speaker 1: and these particles that can help us understand these clues. 725 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: What's the most mind blowing thing about the CMB that 726 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,279 Speaker 1: you ever learned? And can you describe that moment? Yeah. 727 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,759 Speaker 1: The thing that I think is amazing about the CMB 728 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:22,839 Speaker 1: is that we can see sound in the CMB, Like, okay, wait, 729 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,920 Speaker 1: we can see sound. Yeah, we can see sound. So 730 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:30,439 Speaker 1: what is sound? Sound is waves? Sound is a like ripples. 731 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,680 Speaker 1: So for example, you're sitting your bathtub and you move 732 00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,040 Speaker 1: your arm, you see waves in the water, right, So 733 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,320 Speaker 1: those are waves. Sound is just waves in air. So 734 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,600 Speaker 1: when we say, well, maybe instead of saying sound, I 735 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,040 Speaker 1: should have said we see ripples. We see waves in 736 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:46,279 Speaker 1: the CMB, we see ostillations because there's some kind of 737 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,640 Speaker 1: matter in the early universe, in the early plasma that 738 00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: can interact, like pulls itself together like normal matter, and 739 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,120 Speaker 1: some matter that doesn't, like dark matter, doesn't really feel anything, 740 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: and so those different kinds of matter have different kinds 741 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,160 Speaker 1: of oscillles, like one grand one is pulling in one way, 742 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,719 Speaker 1: the other one is pushing the other way, because it interacts. 743 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,680 Speaker 1: And we can see patterns in the cosmic microwave background 744 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:12,399 Speaker 1: radiation that reflects the oscillations of the plasma, and those 745 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,640 Speaker 1: oscillations are sensitive to like how much matter was there 746 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:17,839 Speaker 1: that was interacting, how much matter was it that was 747 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,040 Speaker 1: not interacting, And that tells us how much dark matter 748 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,480 Speaker 1: there was a bit jillion years ago. And to me, 749 00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,719 Speaker 1: like revealing that crazy, complicated, subtle fact about the early 750 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,520 Speaker 1: universe from looking at like the wiggles in this tiny 751 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,479 Speaker 1: little bit of light that nobody even knew about until 752 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,359 Speaker 1: fifty years ago. It blew my mind when I when 753 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,520 Speaker 1: I thought, like, wow, people are really dig in details 754 00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,120 Speaker 1: out of this thing. Do you remember where you were 755 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,480 Speaker 1: or what you were doing when you had that thought. 756 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,360 Speaker 1: That was earlier this morning when I googled cosmic microwave 757 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:51,680 Speaker 1: background the agent no. UM. I came to astrophysics and 758 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 1: cosmology sort of late because my background was more in 759 00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 1: particle physics and understanding, you know, the basic building structure 760 00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,400 Speaker 1: and basic building blocks. But I was always interested in 761 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:01,640 Speaker 1: the universe, and so I did a little bit of 762 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 1: self teaching after I got tenure, did a little bit 763 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,320 Speaker 1: more reading and try to understand this stuff. So about 764 00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: ten years ago, I think that I really started to 765 00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:10,839 Speaker 1: try to wrap my mind around what is this stuff 766 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: out there in the universe? What is uh? What are 767 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,319 Speaker 1: we learning about the origins of the universe from the 768 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:17,319 Speaker 1: light that we can see here on Earth. So you 769 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,080 Speaker 1: mentioned the CMB being able to give us clues about 770 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: dark matter behavior. Is that sort of one of the 771 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:30,160 Speaker 1: new areas of research for the CMB, or you know, 772 00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:32,120 Speaker 1: what what are the hot topics now? If there's a 773 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:36,600 Speaker 1: gold Russian data for you know, CMB related research, what 774 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,520 Speaker 1: questions should I be putting on my grant application? Yeah? 775 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,120 Speaker 1: That's great, Um. I think the most important question that 776 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:46,399 Speaker 1: the CMB can answer is sort of like the pie 777 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:48,840 Speaker 1: chart of the universe, like, what is most of the 778 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: energy in the universe used for? And we know roughly 779 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: the answer. It's five percent matter. Dark matter a huge 780 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: chunk of his dark energy. And the cool thing is 781 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,319 Speaker 1: that we know that from you know, looking at matter 782 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,319 Speaker 1: and looking at stars and looking at galaxy and seeing 783 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,640 Speaker 1: the expansion of the universe. But the CMB gives is 784 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:09,040 Speaker 1: a totally independent way to measure those fractions because again 785 00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,480 Speaker 1: sort of the oscillations in the plasma are sensitive to 786 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 1: those fractions. So what people are doing now is trying 787 00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:16,680 Speaker 1: to just get more precise measurements and asking does that 788 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,200 Speaker 1: agree with what we already think. And the way you 789 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,319 Speaker 1: get more precise measurements you just get more data because 790 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,279 Speaker 1: you're looking for really small variations. So we have these 791 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,640 Speaker 1: successive generations. First the telescope in the sixty four that 792 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,239 Speaker 1: just heard like, oh it's there. Then there was a 793 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,239 Speaker 1: satellite called Kobe in the nineties that found these variations. 794 00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:36,080 Speaker 1: They were like, oh, look this interesting information. Then there 795 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,480 Speaker 1: was w MAP, which is a satellite saw even more details, 796 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,160 Speaker 1: and then recently the Plank experiment. And so if you 797 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,120 Speaker 1: look at the CNB over years, it's sort of like 798 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:46,759 Speaker 1: this blob that's becoming more and more and sharper and 799 00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:49,719 Speaker 1: sharper focus and answering these questions in more detail, and 800 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,480 Speaker 1: recently we're sort of getting slightly different answers, like the 801 00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:55,719 Speaker 1: CMB tells us this is this much dark energy in 802 00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 1: the universe, whereas other measurements tell us a slightly different answer. 803 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,480 Speaker 1: We don't know why those things don't agree. Is it 804 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,839 Speaker 1: because our model the universe is wrong or because one 805 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,080 Speaker 1: of these measurements is wrong? And so that's sort of 806 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,520 Speaker 1: the current puzzles, like how let's make these two kinds 807 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,880 Speaker 1: of measurements as precise as possible and see if they 808 00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,480 Speaker 1: agree and if they don't, Oh, that's a fun clue 809 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,400 Speaker 1: because it tells us we're going to learn something. So 810 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:23,960 Speaker 1: how do I interact with the cosmic microwave background every day? 811 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:25,920 Speaker 1: Or do I is there any way for me to 812 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:28,000 Speaker 1: see it? Or is it a way for it to 813 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,759 Speaker 1: influence my life that I just might not be aware of. Well, 814 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 1: because there are microwaves, they hit your body and they 815 00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,640 Speaker 1: heat you up very slightly, right, it's not a huge 816 00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,160 Speaker 1: amount of radiation, but you can see if you have 817 00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,520 Speaker 1: one of those old television screens that a cathode ray tube, 818 00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:46,400 Speaker 1: not like a flat panel display. Those things are sensitive 819 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,560 Speaker 1: to the microwave background, and part of the fuzz on 820 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:52,319 Speaker 1: those screens comes from this background radiation. Really, and the 821 00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,880 Speaker 1: snow on those screens comes from this microwave background radiation. 822 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 1: So you could literally see this evidence years and years 823 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,759 Speaker 1: and years ago. So I don't need a radio telescope, 824 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:04,040 Speaker 1: I just need an old TV and I can I 825 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:06,560 Speaker 1: can see it. That's right, you can see the secrets 826 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:12,560 Speaker 1: of the early universe. That's a really great TV show. Amazing. Yeah, 827 00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 1: And I think another thing that people are often confused 828 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:18,000 Speaker 1: by sort of again this like where was it? And 829 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:20,200 Speaker 1: I think the thing to remember is that it was everywhere. 830 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:22,360 Speaker 1: And so the CNB they were seeing in one direction 831 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,680 Speaker 1: was hot plasma that was in one place, and the 832 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,040 Speaker 1: stuff we're seeing another direction was hot plasma we're seeing 833 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,520 Speaker 1: from somewhere else. So I know in academia there's often 834 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:36,680 Speaker 1: multiple schools of thought about really important things, theories, hypotheses, etcetera. 835 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:41,520 Speaker 1: And it sounds like the detection of these radio waves 836 00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:48,680 Speaker 1: this microwave um background helped to resolve one of those disagreements. 837 00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:52,040 Speaker 1: Has it caused others do people not believe in it? 838 00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: Or are there heated debates happening in the whole hallowed 839 00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:01,760 Speaker 1: halls of the Ivory Tower about the CMB. I think 840 00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: it's a sort of a process, like a lot of 841 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:05,520 Speaker 1: the old question has been put to rest. I don't 842 00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:09,520 Speaker 1: think anybody seriously disagrees with the Big Bang theory anymore. 843 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:11,560 Speaker 1: But of course there are new questions, and some of 844 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:13,640 Speaker 1: those new questions are about like what do we see 845 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,560 Speaker 1: in the CMB. There are some weird things we don't understand, 846 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,040 Speaker 1: and those lead to like crazy ideas. For example, there's 847 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,440 Speaker 1: one spot in the CNB that's colder than all the 848 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,279 Speaker 1: other spots. It's called the cold spot. What a great name. 849 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:28,439 Speaker 1: And it's also kind of big. And you can say, well, 850 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:30,800 Speaker 1: you know, there's random fluctuations. You would expect, some cold 851 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:32,440 Speaker 1: and some hot, but this one is colder than you 852 00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,680 Speaker 1: would expect and bigger than you expect. So it's it's 853 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,919 Speaker 1: kind of unusual. And anytime you see something a little 854 00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:39,840 Speaker 1: out of the ordinary, you wonder, is that a clue 855 00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:43,480 Speaker 1: or is that, you know, just random. And so people 856 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:47,440 Speaker 1: speculated things like maybe that cold spot is evidence that 857 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,760 Speaker 1: our universe when it was really young, bumped into another 858 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:55,440 Speaker 1: universe and left basically a bruise. I know that's hard 859 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:57,200 Speaker 1: to imagine, it's hard to even think about. But some 860 00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:00,400 Speaker 1: people have this theory that there are multiple universes created 861 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,960 Speaker 1: one sort of in a multiverse theory, and if those 862 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,080 Speaker 1: universes were near enough each other, they could have interacted 863 00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,400 Speaker 1: very early on, and they predict exactly this kind of 864 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,279 Speaker 1: signature in the CMB as evidence for that. Now is 865 00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:15,800 Speaker 1: that a prediction or is this sort of a post addiction, 866 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,080 Speaker 1: Like Okay, I saw this weird thing and now I'm 867 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,600 Speaker 1: gonna try to explain it, and I get to make 868 00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:22,640 Speaker 1: this crazy theory. I don't know, but that's the kind 869 00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:27,279 Speaker 1: of thing people argue about. So still TBD, watch it, 870 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,680 Speaker 1: watch this space. That's right, there's a lot left to 871 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,480 Speaker 1: learn about the universe from the cosmic microwave background. How 872 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,680 Speaker 1: should I be thinking about this? Like when I'm having 873 00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,160 Speaker 1: my you know, shower thoughts are so important. I think. 874 00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,520 Speaker 1: You know, when you're idly at rest doing a mundane 875 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,480 Speaker 1: task that your brain doesn't have to think about, it 876 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:48,040 Speaker 1: wanders off and usually for me into like existential questions. 877 00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:53,360 Speaker 1: That's when you think about physics. Physics, Yeah, more more philosophy. UM, 878 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,560 Speaker 1: you know those big questions like why why are we here? 879 00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,400 Speaker 1: Is this seven am call I'm getting ready for? Really 880 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:03,040 Speaker 1: that important in the grand scheme of things, like on 881 00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:07,600 Speaker 1: a universal time scale? You know, does anything matter? Should 882 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,160 Speaker 1: I just be watching a Netflix marathon all day to day? 883 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,120 Speaker 1: These types of things. So as I'm having those thoughts, 884 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:17,000 Speaker 1: deep deep thoughts, how should I be thinking about the 885 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,840 Speaker 1: cosmic microwave background? Is it um fossil as you said before, 886 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,640 Speaker 1: because that sounds very static, but it's something that's continuing 887 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:28,160 Speaker 1: to move and continuing to give information. Is it a 888 00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:33,399 Speaker 1: comforting um wrap of radiation from the early universe that's 889 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,120 Speaker 1: giving me a hug? How should I? How should I 890 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:39,279 Speaker 1: think about this? UM? I think you should think about 891 00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:43,160 Speaker 1: it aspirationally. You should wonder what else is out there? 892 00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:46,399 Speaker 1: What other information is floating out there in space. It's 893 00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,680 Speaker 1: going to give us some incredible deep knowledge about the universe. 894 00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:53,120 Speaker 1: It's going to change the entire context of our lives. 895 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:55,880 Speaker 1: And we don't even know it exists yet, and then 896 00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,200 Speaker 1: in a hundred years or fifty years or two years, 897 00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,480 Speaker 1: somebody will discover it reveal something deep about the universe, 898 00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,680 Speaker 1: and we will have not even known. Um, I like 899 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:06,360 Speaker 1: to look at the history of physics that way and 900 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,080 Speaker 1: be like people stumble across something and it changes the 901 00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:11,680 Speaker 1: way we think about the universe. And I hope that 902 00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:13,719 Speaker 1: there are so I said aspirationally, because I hope there 903 00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:15,600 Speaker 1: are more of these. I hope there are more moments 904 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:18,400 Speaker 1: when we dig up something from the early universe and 905 00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:21,120 Speaker 1: it teaches us something and maybe it's surprising, and people 906 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,759 Speaker 1: are trying to do that right now. The plasma from 907 00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:27,040 Speaker 1: the early universe ended about four hundred thousand years after 908 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:29,560 Speaker 1: the Big Bang, and that this is the only light 909 00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:31,680 Speaker 1: we can see because before that all the light was 910 00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:33,720 Speaker 1: just reabsorbed by the plasma, so it's sort of gone. 911 00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:36,319 Speaker 1: But people are trying to dig deeper, just saying, well, 912 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,400 Speaker 1: what about like neutrinos from before from inside of that plasma, 913 00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:41,319 Speaker 1: because they don't interact very much, and maybe we could 914 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,480 Speaker 1: see them were gravitational waves from the very first moment. 915 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:46,960 Speaker 1: So we're trying to open up new kinds of eyes 916 00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:48,560 Speaker 1: to see deeper and deeper into the history of the 917 00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:51,560 Speaker 1: universe and answer our questions about that. So, um, yeah, 918 00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:53,840 Speaker 1: I think about that. I think about what your children 919 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:55,880 Speaker 1: or their children will know about the universe that we 920 00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,920 Speaker 1: can't even imagine. So I'm like, I'm in justest imagining 921 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:02,040 Speaker 1: the situation in which the people that ask questions and 922 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,960 Speaker 1: want to know things are kind of like this nerve center. 923 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:07,400 Speaker 1: And we have so many different senses like you and 924 00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:10,319 Speaker 1: I would have site and and sound, but we have 925 00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,000 Speaker 1: all of these different detectors that scientists have have developed 926 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,839 Speaker 1: as as part of their senses. And so what I'm 927 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:18,640 Speaker 1: hearing you say is that we're going to continue to 928 00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:22,200 Speaker 1: develop more senses as we want to be able to 929 00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:25,680 Speaker 1: detect the information around us. Is that accurate science is 930 00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:29,160 Speaker 1: making esp real. We are developing new senses to experience 931 00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 1: the university you already here. First, guys, the universe was 932 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,720 Speaker 1: in a state in which this type of radiation wasn't 933 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:40,720 Speaker 1: able to escape, and then there was a cooling event 934 00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:45,719 Speaker 1: in which, uh, the universe became transparent, allowing light to 935 00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:51,120 Speaker 1: emanate through it. And this radiation is part of that 936 00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:56,320 Speaker 1: early expansion, and it's coming from all of these different 937 00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:59,560 Speaker 1: directions because we're expanding our idea of the Big Bang 938 00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:04,439 Speaker 1: beyond the point theory um, and so it's radiating from 939 00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,440 Speaker 1: everywhere because we are the center of the universe. Obviously 940 00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,799 Speaker 1: we're humans. It's meeting here on Earth right where we 941 00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:13,359 Speaker 1: are standing in the world and able to give us 942 00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:17,400 Speaker 1: information about the past experiences that that it had and 943 00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:21,439 Speaker 1: helping us understand the universe. That's right. But aliens somewhere else, 944 00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:24,040 Speaker 1: they're also seeing a CMB. They see a slightly different 945 00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:26,600 Speaker 1: map because the light that's getting to them left from 946 00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:29,400 Speaker 1: a different place, but the same way, they see different 947 00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,160 Speaker 1: stars in the sky than than we do. They're seeing 948 00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:36,319 Speaker 1: a slightly different CNB, So everyone would see everyone, all 949 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,319 Speaker 1: of the different extraterrestrials in our universe is seeing a 950 00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:42,319 Speaker 1: different one and studying it differently. And maybe one day 951 00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,880 Speaker 1: we'll be able to put our data together and I 952 00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:49,160 Speaker 1: get the most accurate picture of what started all of this. 953 00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:51,960 Speaker 1: That's right, So I hope we do one day get 954 00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:53,799 Speaker 1: to talk to alien physicists. I have a lot of 955 00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,319 Speaker 1: questions for them about how the universe works and how 956 00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:59,320 Speaker 1: they think about it, and whether we're UM studying objective 957 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:01,880 Speaker 1: truth or just based on our human bias and and 958 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,319 Speaker 1: uh on our senses. I think they probably have all 959 00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,120 Speaker 1: sorts of other ways to observe the universe. We can't 960 00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,279 Speaker 1: even imagine UM. But I hope that they're impressed with 961 00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:12,399 Speaker 1: what we've accomplished and that we can learn from them. So, 962 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:16,160 Speaker 1: the universe began, and had it begun slightly differently, we 963 00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:19,640 Speaker 1: wouldn't be here, but it developed the way that it did, 964 00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:22,400 Speaker 1: and so we're able to ask questions about how it 965 00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:25,680 Speaker 1: all started. That's right. So the amazing thing about the 966 00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:28,200 Speaker 1: Cosmic Microwave Background Edition is that it's all around us 967 00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,360 Speaker 1: and it gives us clues about the very beginning of 968 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:33,400 Speaker 1: the universe, and hopefully one day we'll find more clues 969 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,920 Speaker 1: and learn even more about the origins of our very existence. 970 00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,200 Speaker 1: And it's heating me the way that I heat soup. 971 00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,000 Speaker 1: That's my gutso made my big tang out for this. 972 00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,319 Speaker 1: That's right. It's exciting you. It's exciting you the way 973 00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:49,160 Speaker 1: you're microwave excitor soup. And I hope this podcast is 974 00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:52,080 Speaker 1: excited our listeners. I hope so too. So thanks Crystal 975 00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:54,120 Speaker 1: very much for joining me today. Oh thank you for 976 00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:56,719 Speaker 1: having me. This was a great conversation. And for those 977 00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:58,560 Speaker 1: of you out there, if you still have questions about 978 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,120 Speaker 1: this topic, send them to us to questions at Daniel 979 00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:03,719 Speaker 1: and Jorge dot com. We really do answer all of 980 00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:14,560 Speaker 1: our emails and thanks for tuning in. If you still 981 00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:17,560 Speaker 1: have a question after listening to all these explanations, please 982 00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,200 Speaker 1: drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. 983 00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:23,040 Speaker 1: You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at 984 00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:26,480 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge That's One Word, or email us at 985 00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:30,440 Speaker 1: Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, 986 00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:33,200 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is 987 00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:36,759 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from 988 00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:40,480 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Podcasts, 989 00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:43,000 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.