1 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, what's one of the hardest physics questions someone's 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: ever asked you? Oh? Well, someone asked me once. If 3 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: the Earth is round, why don't people fall off the 4 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: bottom of it? That is a pretty good question. Yeah, 5 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: I think we got that one on live radio ones, 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,320 Speaker 1: didn't we Yeah, we did exactly no preparation. But why 7 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:29,319 Speaker 1: is that a hard question? Well, the hard part is 8 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: figuring out why that question makes sense to the person 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: asking it. You mean, like, how does gravity even work? Yeah, 10 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: you have to know like what they are misunderstanding so 11 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:41,360 Speaker 1: that you can find a path to get them some 12 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: actual understanding. So what's the answer. Why don't people just 13 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: you know, fall off Australia? How do you know they don't? 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: I mean, have you been to Australia? Maybe the whole 15 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: thing is a hope. You mean Australia as a hoax 16 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: or gravity? So hoax which one kangaroos don't really exists. 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: I think my lawyers would advise me not to answer 18 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: any of those questions. Hi am or handmade cartoonists and 19 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: the creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a 20 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,839 Speaker 1: particle physicist and a professor. You see Irvine and I 21 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,200 Speaker 1: have never been to Australia or New Zealand. Really, you've 22 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: never been down on the never been down there, planned 23 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: it many times, never actually happened. How about you, You've 24 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:34,399 Speaker 1: been Australia. I think I've seen a picture of you 25 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: talking to kangaroos. Yeah. Yeah, they're very chatty if you 26 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:42,279 Speaker 1: can get them to sit still. No, it's amazing. Australia's awesome. 27 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: I mean it's like going to another continent, literally, but 28 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: it's it's really like going to know the world. Like 29 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: all the plants are different, they're bigger, or the animals 30 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: are bigger, they're different. It's pretty amazing. Definitely on my 31 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,919 Speaker 1: to do list. Yeah, but welcome to our podcast, Daniel 32 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I Heart 33 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: Radio in which we explore all the continents of modern physics, 34 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:03,640 Speaker 1: the weird, the strange, the ones that we understand, the 35 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: ones that are unfamiliar, the ones that seem weird, and 36 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: the ones that might bite you in the night. We 37 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: talk about all the biggest questions in the universe, from 38 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: the scope of the whole shebang, how it started, where 39 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: it came from, how big is it, how does it 40 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: all work? Where is it going? All of these questions, 41 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: we talk about them without fear, without shame, and without hesitation, 42 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: and we explain all of them to you. Yeah, because 43 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: physics bites is what you're saying. I think sometimes you've 44 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: got an understanding or problem. They can really sting. Yeah, 45 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:34,520 Speaker 1: but it is pretty cool Australia to think about Australia 46 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: because if you think about it, they sort of see 47 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,640 Speaker 1: a whole different side of the space then we do 48 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: here in North America. Yeah, and you are used to 49 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: thinking about the Solar System with the Earth on the 50 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 1: sort of top side of it, but that's sort of 51 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: North Hemisphere centric. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, then 52 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,240 Speaker 1: that half of the Solar System is sort of looking 53 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: out and up into the universe just as much as 54 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: we are. Yeah. And we have a lot of listeners 55 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,239 Speaker 1: in Australia. Do you think they listen to it upside 56 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: down or or sort of weird to think that they're 57 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,400 Speaker 1: listening to this upside down from us right now? They 58 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: are exactly in Australia. You're the physicist and I'm the cartoonist. 59 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: That's right. You're the funny one, and I'm not so funny. 60 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: You can grow goatee in Australia and I can't. But yeah, 61 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: it's a pretty interesting universe, and it's a three sixty universe. 62 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: It's all around us in all directions where we look 63 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: from anywhere on Earth. But it's sort of interesting to 64 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: think about directions in space. It is, and for a 65 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: long time humans have sort of imagined that the Earth 66 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,239 Speaker 1: is at the center of the cosmos, that we look 67 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: at the universe in every direction, but that we are 68 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: sort of in a special location. And it wasn't until 69 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: about five hundred years ago with Copernicus that we started 70 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: to realize whole on a second, maybe there is no 71 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,960 Speaker 1: special location in space. Maybe we're just at some random point, 72 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: and that gives you a completely different view about the 73 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 1: shape and the nature of the universe that we are seeing. Yeah, 74 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: it was weird for humans to think that we are 75 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: not the center of the universe, although I am sort 76 00:03:57,560 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: of the center of my universe, or wait, actual may 77 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: actually right, and my kids and my my spouse are 78 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: the center of my universe. Of course, I think there's 79 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: an emotional moment there also when kids grow up and 80 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: realize that they are not the center of everything, that 81 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: the whole universe doesn't revolve around them. That other people 82 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: are people too, ye, unless your your kids are aliens, 83 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: which case it might have been more interesting realization. And 84 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to understand what a big mental 85 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:22,880 Speaker 1: shift that was, you know, something that we now are 86 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,480 Speaker 1: very comfortable understanding that we are just in a random 87 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: spot in the universe. But it was a huge conceptual shift, 88 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,719 Speaker 1: the kind of I don't think we can even really 89 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,040 Speaker 1: ever understand because we weren't firmly rooted in the other 90 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: idea that we are special at the center of the universe. 91 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: But giving up a long held assumption about the nature 92 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,799 Speaker 1: of the universe. That's sort of the joy of physics, 93 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,280 Speaker 1: you know. That's when physics stings, when it tells you, oops, 94 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: you've been thinking about things completely the wrong way. The 95 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: universe is fundamentally really different from the way you imagined it. 96 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: I long for that kind of cosmic realignment, when it 97 00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: crawls up your pants and bite seeing the behind. That's 98 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: what you look forward to. Yes, But so yeah, at 99 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 1: some point humans realized or not in a kind of 100 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: special point in space, you know, and it sort of 101 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: informs everything right and informs the theories sort of the 102 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: equations about physics. It has to do with symmetry and 103 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,159 Speaker 1: all that. So there's no specific or special point. We 104 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: don't even know if we're at the center of the 105 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: universe or like in a corner of the universe, or 106 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: we don't even know if it makes sense in an 107 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: infinite universe to have a point. Right, Yeah, and the 108 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: joke you made earlier is actually true. You are at 109 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,480 Speaker 1: the center of your observable universe. You know, we don't 110 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: know how big the universe is. We can only see 111 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,479 Speaker 1: a portion of it, and that portion is limited by 112 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: the speed of light. And so the part of the 113 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: universe that you can see is the part where light 114 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: has had time to get to you since the beginning 115 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,240 Speaker 1: of the universe. And that's actually a different if you're 116 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:50,919 Speaker 1: in our son and if you're at another sun, because 117 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: you can see a different portion of the universe because 118 00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:55,919 Speaker 1: light that has reached you know, Alpha Centauri may not 119 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,839 Speaker 1: have come yet to our sun. And that's also true 120 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: for my head in your head. So technically speaking, we 121 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,040 Speaker 1: are the centers of our own observable universes, and so 122 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: the universe doesn't seem to have any kind of preference 123 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: for any particular point in space, but there's sort of 124 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: a bigger question about whether it has a special direction 125 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 1: in space that it likes. Yeah, they're connected questions where 126 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,359 Speaker 1: they actually are separate when it is connected to the 127 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 1: question of are the laws of physics the same everywhere 128 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: in the universe? You know, if you do an experiment here, 129 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: does it matter? Would you get a different answer if 130 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: you do it somewhere else, or if you do it 131 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: in another star system or alien physicists measuring the same 132 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,279 Speaker 1: law physics. We're pretty sure that they are. But there's 133 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: another question, which is does the universe have a preferred direction? Right? 134 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: Like if you rotate your experiment, could you possibly get 135 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 1: a different answer? Could you measure some like preferred direction 136 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:49,400 Speaker 1: of the universe, like is there an up or down 137 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: in the universe kind of or left or right? Yeah, 138 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: or like a special direction around which the universe prefers 139 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: or something like an axis. All right, So to be 140 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: on the podcast, we'll be asking the question does the 141 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,360 Speaker 1: universe have a preferred direction? Now? I assume this is 142 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: there like a like a spatial direction, not like an 143 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: emotional direction or acting direction, creative direction. Yeah, the universe 144 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: prefers method actors. Yeah, you know, prefers a comedy as 145 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: opposed to draw. What's the tone of the universe, Danue? 146 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 1: Maybe it's all universal hooks now. And that's why this 147 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: is a physics podcast and not a Hollywood industry podcast. 148 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: We're not talking about the latest trends in you know, 149 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: representation in Hollywood movies or anything. We are talking about 150 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: directions in space. You know, if the universe had some 151 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,160 Speaker 1: specific direction that was different from the other ones, then 152 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: in principle, you might be able to measure that. You 153 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: could like design an experiment that would be sensitive to it. 154 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: The way, for example, the surface of the Earth does 155 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: have preferred directions or different directions. Right, there is a 156 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: north on the Earth and the south on the Earth, 157 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: and you can design an experiment it's called a compass, 158 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: to measure it, to detect it, and to use that 159 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: to navigate or like if you're an Earth, there's sort 160 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: of an up and down, right, I mean it depends 161 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: on where you are on Earth, but there's sort of 162 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: like a towards the center of the Earth or away 163 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: from the center of the Earth. Is that kind of 164 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: would that also count as a direction? Absolutely? Yeah, Gravity 165 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: defines a direction on the surface of the Earth. Absolutely, 166 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: and as you say, it's towards the center, which is 167 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: actually the answer of the question why don't people fall 168 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: off Australia. I'm sure people fall in Australia, but do 169 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:27,960 Speaker 1: they fall off of Australia. I don't think they trip 170 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: and then fly off into space, you know. And I 171 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 1: think we would have seen that on YouTube if that 172 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: was happening. Maybe have a rocket power, you know, parachute 173 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: or something, right, And the answer is intuitive and obvious 174 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:39,719 Speaker 1: to everybody who understands the Earth is the sphere. But 175 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: obviously down is towards the center of the Earth, which 176 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: is why people fall down towards the center of the 177 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,719 Speaker 1: Earth everywhere they are on the planet. And you're right, 178 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:50,080 Speaker 1: like the direction there is relative to the center of 179 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:53,079 Speaker 1: the Earth. But that's just arbitrary, right, you could pick anything. 180 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:55,439 Speaker 1: But the question is, you know, is there a non 181 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: arbitrary choice. Is there a direction which makes sense no 182 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: matter where you are in the universe. Well, you just 183 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: made me think that. You know, we feel gravity towards 184 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: the center of the Earth, but we're also being attracted 185 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:08,719 Speaker 1: by the Sun a lot, right, So does that mean 186 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: that our gravitational vector or the reck kind of gravity 187 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,960 Speaker 1: is sort of slight, always slightly tweaked towards the sun. Yeah. Absolutely, 188 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: the gravity of everything is affecting how much you weigh, 189 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: and so as the Earth rotates, your weight changes a 190 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 1: very small amount. But you know, the amount that the 191 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 1: Sun pulls on you versus the Earth pulls on you 192 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: is very small. So at noon is when I'm lightest. Right, 193 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: technically there's when I weigh less. That's right. At noon, 194 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: the Sun is pulling you off of the Earth, and 195 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 1: at midnight the Sun is helping the Earth pull you 196 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: towards its center, so you gain weight at night. So 197 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: this is the travel the Earth's are always at noon diet, 198 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:48,319 Speaker 1: that's right. That This is why I eat a big 199 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: lunch because I can. Right, every meal is lunch, the 200 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,280 Speaker 1: physics diet. I avoid meals at midnight, although sometimes you 201 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: can't help them. I've been t thing with you. I 202 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: know you eat meals at midnight made at midnight at 203 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: one am, I am. I have no preferred time for 204 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: directing my meals. So I guess the question is the 205 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: Earth has a preferred sort of gravitational direction. But you're saying, 206 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:17,959 Speaker 1: like does the universe have maybe not a gravitational direction, 207 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: but just like you know, a different direction or some 208 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: sort of different effect that changes depending on which way 209 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: you're pointing in out there in space. Yeah, and really 210 00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: sort of the cleanest way to define this is imagine 211 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 1: getting transported to an arbitrary location in the universe. Could 212 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: you build an apparatus which could measure some location so 213 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: that if you're transported to some other location and randomly rotated, 214 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: you could like tell how far you've been rotated. You 215 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 1: can measure it. And you know, like on the surface 216 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 1: of the Earth, you can tell your direction because you 217 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,079 Speaker 1: could just use the magnet, but you know that doesn't 218 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:52,360 Speaker 1: work obviously off the surface of the Earth. So could 219 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:55,800 Speaker 1: you build like a universal compass that always tells you, 220 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:58,240 Speaker 1: you know, a reference direction. And if the universe has 221 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,960 Speaker 1: no preferred direction, then that's imp possible because there's no 222 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,920 Speaker 1: physical mechanism which prefers one direction over another. Right, that 223 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,319 Speaker 1: would help you sort of navigate the universe in a way, right, 224 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,199 Speaker 1: Like if you get lost in the universe, you can 225 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:12,560 Speaker 1: sort of look at your cosmological compass and be like, oh, 226 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: I need to go you know, east or whatever in space, 227 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: and I might reach Earth again. It certainly would help 228 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,559 Speaker 1: you navigate, but it would also like blow up our 229 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: idea of how the universe works. Right now, we really 230 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: assume that the universe has no preferred direction and no 231 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:29,360 Speaker 1: preferred rotation. But recently there have been some ideas that 232 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: suggest that maybe there is a preferred direction. And these 233 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,800 Speaker 1: go by sort of a cosmically silly name. Yeah, because 234 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:39,040 Speaker 1: we've been assuming that if there is a special direction, 235 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,440 Speaker 1: it would be the universe is preferred direction. But what 236 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,840 Speaker 1: if there's a direction of the universe does not like like, 237 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:46,680 Speaker 1: what if it's the opposite, What if it's like a 238 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: least favorite direction in the universe, a cosmological axis of evil. Yeah, 239 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:54,679 Speaker 1: that's the sort of name that you have for it 240 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,440 Speaker 1: in the in the in the physics community, right, the 241 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 1: cosmological access of evil, that's right, has been this idea 242 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,040 Speaker 1: of bubbling up that maybe we were wrong in thinking 243 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: that the universe has no preferred direction. Maybe it does 244 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,079 Speaker 1: or non preferred direction, right. I think the origin of 245 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 1: the idea access of evil is that it undermines our 246 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:15,960 Speaker 1: idea that the universe doesn't prefer anything. It's like, nobody 247 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,760 Speaker 1: should be preferred to the access of evils like spoiling 248 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,480 Speaker 1: an otherwise pristine and beautiful idea. Oh, I see, but 249 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 1: it is a phrase that people use in the physics 250 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:28,320 Speaker 1: community to like, oh, you're talking about the cosmological access 251 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: of evil? Oh? Absolutely or c A for sure. Absolutely. 252 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,720 Speaker 1: There's a paper titled the Axis of Evil, which I 253 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,120 Speaker 1: just read yesterday. Like, this is not something I came 254 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,959 Speaker 1: up with or just a joke on podcasts. It's really 255 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,280 Speaker 1: a physics term for a deep concept. I feel like 256 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 1: you just use I read it in a paper as 257 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:50,599 Speaker 1: in like that's supposed to be an ultimate authority. I 258 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: saw it on YouTube. It must be right. I saw 259 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:55,199 Speaker 1: it an archive dot X, it must be true. I 260 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: don't know the physics is sound or if it's actually right, 261 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,040 Speaker 1: but it is something people actually say in the A 262 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: is its community. So there's that much cosmological access of evil. 263 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,280 Speaker 1: That's what we'll dig get into today. And so, as usually, 264 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: we were wondering how many people out there had heard 265 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:11,480 Speaker 1: of this cosmological access of evil and whether they have 266 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: any idea about what it means. So Daniel went out 267 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,800 Speaker 1: there into the Internet to ask people this question. Here's 268 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:20,560 Speaker 1: what they had to say on a guess cosmological something 269 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: to do with very large scale structures in the universe. 270 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: Access of evil. Perhaps it's something to do with the 271 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: way that certain fields are calculated and there's some weird 272 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:38,080 Speaker 1: mathematical structure that causes problems. I have no idea. I 273 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:43,120 Speaker 1: have no idea. I couldn't even begin to guess. It 274 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,959 Speaker 1: sounds familiar, but I don't know what it is. Probably 275 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,720 Speaker 1: i'm watching too much theory. I can tell you right 276 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:52,839 Speaker 1: off the bat, I'm stealing that and that is going 277 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:54,640 Speaker 1: to be the name for my new punk rock band. 278 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: But aside from that, I have no clue. My only 279 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:01,680 Speaker 1: guess is that that is what we would call the 280 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:03,440 Speaker 1: things that are going to be responsible for the end 281 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: of the universe. So maybe dark energy and entropy are 282 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:13,480 Speaker 1: the cosmological access of evil. The cosmological access of evil 283 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,200 Speaker 1: is the nexus in the universe where everything that is 284 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: evil intersects. Think the dark side of the force live, 285 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: because evil backwards is life. What does that have to 286 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: do with the access of evil? I guess that's a 287 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,040 Speaker 1: good enough answer because I have no idea either, So 288 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: I'll go with it's something with the bow taste void 289 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: and the Great Attractor and the void is somehow funneling 290 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,080 Speaker 1: all of the matter from the universe into the Great 291 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,960 Speaker 1: Attractor to create a super giant black hole that's going 292 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:47,040 Speaker 1: to swallow everything. Does that sound that's an access of evil? 293 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: We could throw mustache twirling enemies in there, or I 294 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,400 Speaker 1: guess go t Jorge because he was in one of 295 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: those are Parallel Universe episodes before. So I have no 296 00:14:56,560 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: idea what the cosmological axis of evil. It's how I 297 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:07,760 Speaker 1: see Austin powers and battling. The cosmogical access of evil 298 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 1: um in my brain when I read this question, I 299 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:16,560 Speaker 1: I don't know anything beyond that. All Right, nobody has 300 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:20,280 Speaker 1: any idea, Daniel. It has not broken out of the 301 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,120 Speaker 1: physics community out into the larger population. And that's our 302 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 1: job is to funnel the craziest, funnest, most interesting, wackiest 303 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,680 Speaker 1: ideas that are poorly named out into the larger community. Yeah, 304 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:33,800 Speaker 1: so you call an acts of evil because I guess 305 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 1: an access is sort of like a direction, and you're 306 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:39,240 Speaker 1: saying that maybe this direction is sort of evil in 307 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: the sense that it sort of ruins the universe or 308 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,880 Speaker 1: ruins your sort of perfect symmetry picture of the universe. Yeah, 309 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: I think that's right, although historically and sort of philosophically, 310 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 1: it's fascinating because I think, you know, the idea that 311 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: the universe doesn't have a preferred direction went up against 312 00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 1: a lot of theological friction, you know, five years ago, 313 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: because people preferred the concept, you know, that the Earth 314 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: was at the center of the universe and in a 315 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: special location and sort of at the heart of the cosmos. 316 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: So the idea that the universe didn't have a preferred 317 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,760 Speaker 1: direction was sort of seen as evil five years ago, 318 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: and now doubting that idea is again seen as evil. 319 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,800 Speaker 1: So in that sense, maybe evil is just like you know, 320 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: the upstart. Well, I think if there's anything movies has 321 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,640 Speaker 1: taught us is that evil is a relative cosmet you know, 322 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:30,560 Speaker 1: maybe not the Marvel movies, but you know, more art 323 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 1: artful movies. Yeah, I think it's a pretty ridiculous name. 324 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: You mean, like in religious times or in a religious sense, 325 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: like you want the universe who have a preferred direction, 326 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: you know, you want your DT to have some sort 327 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: of point of view. Well, I think the Catholic Church, 328 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,000 Speaker 1: for example, was not a big fan of the idea 329 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:48,479 Speaker 1: that the Earth was not at the center of the cosmos. 330 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: Galileo spent a long time under house arrest for insisting 331 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:53,760 Speaker 1: that it was. And I don't think that Copernicus was 332 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 1: like number one favorite person by the pope either. So 333 00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 1: I think that you know, scientists got a lot of 334 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:00,960 Speaker 1: flat several hundred years ago first suggesting that the Earth 335 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: was not at the center of the cosmos. But now 336 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:06,040 Speaker 1: there's maybe an inkling or a suggestion that maybe the 337 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:10,200 Speaker 1: universe does have a special access, a special direction it likes, 338 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: and so break it that ros what does that mean 339 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:14,640 Speaker 1: and where does that come from? So we've been operating 340 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 1: under this assumption for a long time now that we 341 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:19,080 Speaker 1: don't have a special place in the universe, that there 342 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 1: is no special place, that there is no preferred direction. 343 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:24,880 Speaker 1: And this really has grown out of like the Copernican principle, 344 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:27,560 Speaker 1: you know, from five years ago, and these days we 345 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:30,480 Speaker 1: call it the cosmological principle because we say it even 346 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:34,400 Speaker 1: more broadly. We say that the whole universe is homogeneous, 347 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:37,720 Speaker 1: is isotropic, that on a large scale, everywhere in the 348 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 1: universe is basically the same. There's no center, there's no edge, 349 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,119 Speaker 1: there's no place that's different from any other place. And 350 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: so if you spotted a deviation from that if you like, 351 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: detected something which seemed to prefer a direction that would 352 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,879 Speaker 1: spoil something really deeply fundamental at the heart of basically 353 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: all of modern cosmology. Are those two things tied together, 354 00:17:56,920 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: you know, like a special preferred location and I prefer direction? 355 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,199 Speaker 1: Or are those you know independent, like can you have 356 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,280 Speaker 1: a preferred direction without a preferred location? Those are independent? 357 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: There in the same family of ideas, but there are 358 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,360 Speaker 1: actually two separate things, and you know, it really is interesting. 359 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 1: The idea that the universe has no preferred location is 360 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,119 Speaker 1: a symmetry, right. It says you do an experiment here 361 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: and you do an experiment there, you get the same answer. 362 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: Space is the same here and there. That leads to 363 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,720 Speaker 1: a conservation law. We talked about it once in the podcast. 364 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: I mean Nuther's theorems tells you that every symmetry gives 365 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,200 Speaker 1: a conservation law. And in the case of having no 366 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: preferred location, that's why momentum is conserved. And in the 367 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,920 Speaker 1: case of rotation, the idea that if you rotate the 368 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: universe you should always get the same answers to your experiments. 369 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,919 Speaker 1: That's what gives you conservation of angular momentum. So there 370 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:46,000 Speaker 1: are two separate ideas, but they are closely connected, right, 371 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:48,639 Speaker 1: They're both connected to momentum. But I guess when that 372 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: people start questioning whether there was a preferred direction, because 373 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: I've never heard of this idea that it could have 374 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,520 Speaker 1: a preferred direction, right, it comes out of some observations 375 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: that have been made in the last few years. People 376 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 1: have been assuming that things are equally smooth and the 377 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,280 Speaker 1: same in every direction, but recently there's been this sort 378 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: of like strange, unexplained alignment of various measurements that should 379 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,320 Speaker 1: be random, And when you see a bunch of coincidences 380 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,399 Speaker 1: line up, you start to wonder, like, are these coincidences 381 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: or are these sort of like the first clues into 382 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 1: a new way to look at the universe? Interesting? So 383 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: this is based on some experimental results, Yeah, these are 384 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,560 Speaker 1: unexplained coincidences that have people starting to wonder if the 385 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,919 Speaker 1: universe might actually have a preferred direction. Well, you make 386 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,879 Speaker 1: it seem like a conspiracy or like a sort of secret, 387 00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:39,560 Speaker 1: secret undercurrent, some dark underbelly kangaroo pouch of the universe, 388 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: exactly like some access of evil hatching some plan to 389 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,400 Speaker 1: spoil our view of cosmology. Bunch of us hands thinking 390 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,560 Speaker 1: about how to keep from falling out the Earth. Yeah, 391 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:50,800 Speaker 1: and I think it's worth exploring for a moment what 392 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:53,480 Speaker 1: this principle that we're doubting means the idea of the 393 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:57,000 Speaker 1: universe is the same everywhere, because obviously it's not exactly 394 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,640 Speaker 1: the same everywhere. Like, you know, there's a star here 395 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: and it is not a star there. There's a galaxy 396 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:04,360 Speaker 1: over here, but it's not a galaxy over there. It's 397 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,520 Speaker 1: not true that every place in the universe is exactly identical. 398 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,960 Speaker 1: It's a statement we make about very very large scales, 399 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: like if you really zoom out out past galaxies and 400 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:18,080 Speaker 1: past galaxy clusters, out to galaxy superclusters, and you look 401 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,439 Speaker 1: at sort of like the filaments in the foam of 402 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,679 Speaker 1: the largest scale structure of the universe, things should be 403 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 1: about the same everywhere. It just made me think, like, 404 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: is it possible to go out there into space and 405 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,399 Speaker 1: measure gravity and whether or not gravity kind of pulls 406 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:35,119 Speaker 1: you in one particular direction. Would I tell you if 407 00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:37,160 Speaker 1: you're at the edge of a universe, a finite universe 408 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: or not. Yeah, and that would be a deviation, right, 409 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,240 Speaker 1: and so on the very largest scales, you should basically 410 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,920 Speaker 1: feel no effective gravity because there should be an even 411 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: distribution of stuff in every direction. Pick a random place 412 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,080 Speaker 1: in the universe and there should be you know, like 413 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: superclusters over there and superclusters over here, and in the 414 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: end they should all roughly balance. Of course, if you 415 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,560 Speaker 1: land near a black hole, you're gonna feel some gravity, 416 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,240 Speaker 1: but on average there should be you know, effective bugging. 417 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 1: And that comes from you know, we think the universe 418 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,560 Speaker 1: was created smoothly and created homogeneously, and you know, the 419 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: variations that we do see the fact that there's a 420 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: galaxy here and not a galaxy there, those come from 421 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:15,720 Speaker 1: the little perturbations, the little fluctuations in that smooth beginning 422 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,000 Speaker 1: of the universe. I see. All right, so there's some 423 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 1: experimental measurements that tell us that maybe things are not homogeneous, 424 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 1: that maybe things do have a preferred direction. So let's 425 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,119 Speaker 1: get into this secret result. But first let's take a 426 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:43,160 Speaker 1: quick break. All right, we are determining whether the universe 427 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,840 Speaker 1: has a specific direction it likes or dislikes, or I 428 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 1: guess we're asking whether the universe leads a certain way 429 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,520 Speaker 1: Daniel right, or what's the universe's orientation? That's right? Is 430 00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: it a chocolate universe. Is it a vanilla universe? I 431 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,639 Speaker 1: was gonna say, you know, bananas or Paris? Is it 432 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: more of all or is it d C? Right? Yeah, 433 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: and that would determine whether I like the universe or not. 434 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: Although both of those universes have villains in it, right, 435 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:10,480 Speaker 1: Which do you think actually has more? Which is the 436 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:14,399 Speaker 1: darker universe? Oh? For sure? D see in the Marvel universe, 437 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,439 Speaker 1: people are more more through dimensional. I think evil has 438 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,800 Speaker 1: more dimensions to it. There's certainly more ridiculous jokes in 439 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:21,960 Speaker 1: the Marvel universe. Alright. So we were talking about how 440 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: maybe there's some sort of result or some sort of 441 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: experimental observation that maybe it doesn't look like it's random 442 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 1: and maybe hints that that maybe there could be a 443 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,199 Speaker 1: special direction in the universe. Yeah, and there is actually 444 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: several of these measurements which together are very suggestive because 445 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 1: they're all sort of line up to seeing to prefer 446 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,200 Speaker 1: one direction. And the first one comes from information which 447 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: would be very familiar to listeners of the podcast. It's 448 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,000 Speaker 1: the cosmic microwave background radiation. This is light that comes 449 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:51,359 Speaker 1: from the very very early universe. Remember when the universe started, 450 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:53,639 Speaker 1: it was very hot, and very dense, but it was 451 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,919 Speaker 1: also very opaque. It was sort of like the center 452 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 1: of the sun when things are really hot and nasty 453 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: than light gets abs or by other molecules as soon 454 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,440 Speaker 1: as it's made. But then the universe expanded and it cooled, 455 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,320 Speaker 1: and at some moment, around three eighty thousand years after 456 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: the Big Bang, it cooled enough to become transparent. And 457 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,639 Speaker 1: so the cosmic microwave background radiation are those photons that 458 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: were created at that moment, the first moment the universe 459 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: was transparent, and are still flying around the universe today. Yeah, 460 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: Like if you point your antenna anywhere in space, you 461 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: sort of get a hum, right, you get a little 462 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 1: like a static hiss that it actually turns out to 463 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: be from the Big Bang. Yeah, and the universe was 464 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: super duper hot back then. It was like three thousand 465 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: degrees kelvin. But in the fourteen billion years that those 466 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,439 Speaker 1: photons have been flying around, the universe has expanded and 467 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: so they've been sort of red shifted. They've been pulled 468 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,240 Speaker 1: into longer wavelength which we then translate into a temperature. 469 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: And so the temperature of the CNB is around two 470 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 1: point seven kelvin, and so it's very very long wavelength, 471 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: which is why like you can't see the CMB with 472 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: your eyes, you need a special antenna. And it was discovered, 473 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: you know, several decades ago. We have a whole episode 474 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,840 Speaker 1: about it, and it was really nice piece of evidence 475 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,400 Speaker 1: that the universe was at one point a very hot 476 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,600 Speaker 1: and dense plasma. But it's not like a perfectly smooth picture. 477 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: It is kind of like bumpy and lumpy, and it 478 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,680 Speaker 1: has a certain texture to it if you point your 479 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: intent and want in some directions that the sort of 480 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,560 Speaker 1: the sky feels hotter than than other spots. Yeah, and 481 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:19,840 Speaker 1: it's a great way to visualize what we mean by 482 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: the universe being like smooth and isotropic, because if you 483 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: look at the CNB, there are variations and it there's 484 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:28,840 Speaker 1: little spots that are hotter and little spots that are colder. 485 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:30,919 Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that any preferred direction. It just 486 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:33,560 Speaker 1: means that there are some random quantum fluctuations in the 487 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:37,439 Speaker 1: early universe over this smooth background, and those fluctuations are 488 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,919 Speaker 1: exactly what led to you know, like a galaxy forming 489 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,639 Speaker 1: here or a supercluster forming over there. These were like 490 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,479 Speaker 1: the seeds of structure of the later universe, and so 491 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: we study this in great detail to understand exactly how 492 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: the universe formed, and those seeds of structure really controlled 493 00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:54,919 Speaker 1: the rest of the evolution of the universe. So it's 494 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,159 Speaker 1: super interesting to look at that. And that's one of 495 00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: the scale in which we study the universe to under 496 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,160 Speaker 1: dan whether it's smooth. We'd like take a big chunk 497 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: of the CMB and say, is this, on average the 498 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,640 Speaker 1: same as another big chunk of the CMB. So mostly 499 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,840 Speaker 1: it's very smooth, but you're right, there are these variations, 500 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,920 Speaker 1: like one part in a hundred thousand or sponsored a 501 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:14,960 Speaker 1: little hotter or a little colder, right, And you sort 502 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: of look at a picture of it, it sort of 503 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 1: looks like a camouflage pattern almost in a way, right, 504 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,480 Speaker 1: Like it's sort of blobby, and it has these kind 505 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,840 Speaker 1: of texture to it. And that's when that has been exaggerated. Right, 506 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: If you just looked at a plot of CMB on 507 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,240 Speaker 1: a normal scale, it would look perfectly smooth. It's only 508 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: when you like really zoom in or you exaggerate these 509 00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,199 Speaker 1: fluctuations that you can even see them. And we've been 510 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: sending satellites up into the sky to sample it for 511 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: decades now, and we started out looking like a very 512 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: fuzzy picture of it, and then a clear and crisper 513 00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:45,919 Speaker 1: and crisper, and now we can see it like with 514 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,960 Speaker 1: really high resolution and great accuracy. We can measure all 515 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,000 Speaker 1: these ripples and allows for incredible studies of the nature 516 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,480 Speaker 1: of the universe. The shapes of those fluctuations tell us 517 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:56,520 Speaker 1: about like how much dark matter there was back then 518 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,119 Speaker 1: in the early universe, and how much dark energy there was, 519 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,719 Speaker 1: and how the universe is expanded since then. It's an 520 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:05,359 Speaker 1: incredible treasure trove of information about how the universe looked 521 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:07,920 Speaker 1: back then at the very beginning, and how it's evolved 522 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,320 Speaker 1: in the meantime. Yeah, and so it's sort of textured 523 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,919 Speaker 1: like a camouflage pattern, and so which sort of varies 524 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,400 Speaker 1: locally in like a small spot. But if you sort 525 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: of step away from the camouflage pattern, it all sort 526 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: of generally looks the same, or it looks sort of 527 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,680 Speaker 1: homogeneously and a textured But I guess here you're saying 528 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,840 Speaker 1: that maybe there's a larger a symmetry to it, like 529 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:32,239 Speaker 1: maybe some areas of the sky are differently textured than 530 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,200 Speaker 1: other areas of the sky. That's right, It turns out 531 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: there is a little bit of an asymmetry. If you 532 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: look at the top half of the sky, that is 533 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,960 Speaker 1: the part of the universe that's like above the plane 534 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 1: of the Solar System, it turns out to be a 535 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,680 Speaker 1: tiny little bit colder. Those photons have a wavelength it's 536 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,640 Speaker 1: a little bit longer, And if you look down sort 537 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,160 Speaker 1: of the bottom half of the Solar system, then that 538 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 1: portion of the sky is a little bit hotter. Those 539 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 1: photons are a little bit bluer. Well, that makes sense, right, 540 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 1: Australia is a little bit hotter. In general, it's so 541 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: hot it's heating the entire universe. That's just kidding. But wait, 542 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,480 Speaker 1: when you say like the top half in the bottom half, 543 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:09,720 Speaker 1: do you mean like the north, like if you look 544 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:13,399 Speaker 1: in the northern hemisphere of the sky, or do you 545 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,200 Speaker 1: mean like some other direction? I mean roughly the north, 546 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: but I'm talking about relative to the Solar system. So 547 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:20,879 Speaker 1: the Sun has a north pole and a south pole, 548 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,520 Speaker 1: and the planets orbited around the Sun in a plane 549 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 1: that's perpendicular to the Sun's north pole and south pole. 550 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,439 Speaker 1: I mean, like the disc that where all the planets 551 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: are spinning, it sort of forms a like a plate. Yeah, 552 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: it forms a plate, and the Sun's north pole south 553 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,680 Speaker 1: pole goes like straight up and down through that plate, 554 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:38,600 Speaker 1: and the Earth moves along that plane. We call it 555 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,800 Speaker 1: the ecliptic. The Earth is a little bit tilted, so 556 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:44,119 Speaker 1: the Earth's north and the Sun's north are not quite aligned. 557 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,320 Speaker 1: But when we study these things about the universe, we 558 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 1: try to orient ourselves relative to the Sun or to 559 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: the center of the galaxy rather than to the Earth. 560 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,640 Speaker 1: Turns out that the cosmic microwave background radiation in the 561 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,919 Speaker 1: Sun's northern hemisphere, that is, the portion of the universe 562 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,399 Speaker 1: that's like above the plane of the Solar System, is 563 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: a little bit colder than the rest of the universe 564 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,960 Speaker 1: below the Solar System. Interesting, and so we we're sure 565 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: it's not like an error in measurement, like maybe they're 566 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,360 Speaker 1: using different units done in Australia or Argentina where they're 567 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:16,480 Speaker 1: measuring this. No, it's definitely a real thing. It's super fascinating, 568 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,560 Speaker 1: and there's two things to understand about it. One is 569 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:21,199 Speaker 1: like what does it mean? And the other is what 570 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:23,439 Speaker 1: does it mean that it's oriented with the plane of 571 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: the Solar System, Like it's not necessarily a huge surprise 572 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: that there is an asymmetry because we can interpret this 573 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:32,880 Speaker 1: as the Earth or the Solar System at least moving 574 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,399 Speaker 1: through the cosmic microwave background radiation. Like the universe doesn't 575 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: have to have a preferred location or preferred direction or velocity. 576 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 1: But the stuff in the universe, that plasma that made 577 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: that light fourteen billion years ago, it was somewhere, It 578 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 1: had a location, had a rest frame, a place where 579 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: you could say, okay, I'm at rest relative to that plasma. 580 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 1: And so then you can say, well, you can be 581 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: at rest relative to this constic microwave background radiation. And 582 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,240 Speaker 1: it turns out that we sort of moving through that radiation, 583 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: which red shifts some of it and blue shifts other 584 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,080 Speaker 1: parts of it. Right. It's it's almost like if you're 585 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: running really fast towards a flashlight being pointed at you, 586 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,320 Speaker 1: you would see the light slightly not perfectly white, but 587 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 1: a slightly different color. And if someone was pointing a 588 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,880 Speaker 1: flashlight at you running away, you would also when you 589 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: look back, see that light slightly shifted in color. Yeah, 590 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,040 Speaker 1: and so it's nice to think about the cosmic microwave 591 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 1: background radiation as sort of a cosmic rest frame something 592 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: against which you can measure your velocity. That doesn't mean 593 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: the universe has a rest frame, right, It's just like 594 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:36,960 Speaker 1: these things do exist. They're out there, they're shining lights 595 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: at us, and so you can measure these Doppler shifts 596 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: as you said, the red shifting and blue shifting. And 597 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,719 Speaker 1: so we are moving through the CNB like three hundred 598 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: and seventy kilometers per second. It's almost like there are 599 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 1: flashlights pointed at us from every direction. That's kind of 600 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,280 Speaker 1: the CNB, right, And so if we're moving with and 601 00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: then we're going to see some of those flashlights a 602 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,560 Speaker 1: different color than the ones, for example, behind us. Yeah, 603 00:29:57,640 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: I think it's a point of confusion here. A lot 604 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:01,480 Speaker 1: of people writing a skiing like why is it we 605 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,520 Speaker 1: can see the CNB right now and not earlier or 606 00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,440 Speaker 1: not later? And I think that the conceptual idea here 607 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: to unpack is that the CNB was everywhere. This plasma 608 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,240 Speaker 1: filled the whole universe and generated light in every direction. 609 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: What we are seeing now is just the portion of 610 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:19,719 Speaker 1: it which happens to be arriving right now. So, as 611 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 1: you said, imagine people shining flashlights fourteen billion years ago 612 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: in every direction, which flashlights would we see right now, 613 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: we'd see like a shell of flashlights that are super 614 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 1: far away from us that happened to arrive right now. 615 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,440 Speaker 1: As time goes on, we see a different slice of 616 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: the CMB, so we don't see the whole CNB. We 617 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:38,959 Speaker 1: see sort of like a spherical shell of it at 618 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,200 Speaker 1: any moment. All right, So us moving through this radiation 619 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: this light would explain why it feels cooler and hotter 620 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: on one side of the solar system north pole or not. 621 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,000 Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that the universe has it preferred 622 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: the direction. It just means we're moving through it in 623 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,440 Speaker 1: as certain direction, that's right. The weird thing is that 624 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,720 Speaker 1: it's aligned with the plane of our solar system, Like 625 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:02,160 Speaker 1: why is that the CNB having some rest frame and 626 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,840 Speaker 1: us moving through it no big deal? Why are we 627 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,960 Speaker 1: moving through it exactly aligned with the plane of our 628 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,280 Speaker 1: solar system because our solar system, you know, has no 629 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,239 Speaker 1: connection to the CMB. It just is what it is. 630 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:16,520 Speaker 1: It's not even that well aligned with the plane of 631 00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: our galaxy, which is not well aligned with the CMB. 632 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: So it's a little bit odd. It's like strange, maybe 633 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: a coincidence, maybe not the plane of our solar system 634 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,640 Speaker 1: is aligned with this other cosmic plane. Well, if it's 635 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,160 Speaker 1: not a coincidence, what else could it be. Well, that's 636 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 1: the question. Like, if it's not coincidence and needs to 637 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: have some explanation, there needs to be some mechanism that says, like, 638 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: all right, the universe has a preferred direction which causes 639 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:42,880 Speaker 1: both of these things to line up in this direction. 640 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:44,760 Speaker 1: If you didn't know what a compass was, and you 641 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,000 Speaker 1: saw two compasses and they're like, oh, look, the red 642 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,360 Speaker 1: arrows are both pointing in the same direction, I wonder 643 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:51,600 Speaker 1: why You've got to dig deeper and find some like 644 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,360 Speaker 1: mechanism that explains what aligns those two in the same direction. 645 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: And so we're just the beginning of like understanding what 646 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:02,520 Speaker 1: that might be. You know, large scale gravitational effects on 647 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: the outside of our observable universe could like distort the 648 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,640 Speaker 1: whole universe in a way that makes things aligned in 649 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,000 Speaker 1: this way. For example, Oh, I think I see what 650 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000 Speaker 1: you're saying. You're saying that the fact that we see 651 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,280 Speaker 1: the CMB colder in one direction and harder in another direction, 652 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: it's not evidence that the universe is somehow biased. It's 653 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 1: the coincidence that our solar system is aligned to this direction. 654 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: That's the weird thing. Like maybe whatever caused us to 655 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: be moving in that direction and whatever caused our solar 656 00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 1: system to be pointed in that direction, maybe it's somehow related. Yes, 657 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: and it's a little weird, and you might just brush 658 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 1: it off and say like, oh, it's just coincidence. Whatever. 659 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,200 Speaker 1: They both have to have a direction. But there are 660 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,440 Speaker 1: other things aligned with our solar system that have been 661 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,840 Speaker 1: like slowly piling up the coincidences enough that people are like, 662 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,480 Speaker 1: maybe this is a thing. All right, yeah, so what 663 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:51,760 Speaker 1: are those things? Well, the second one also relates to 664 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,320 Speaker 1: the CMB because people were wondering, like are we moving 665 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 1: relative to the CNB or is the whole universe moving 666 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: relative to the CNB? Like is the entire current existing 667 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:05,479 Speaker 1: stuff in the universe? Is that at rest with respect 668 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 1: to the CNB. So people try to make another measurement 669 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,520 Speaker 1: of our velocity independent of the CNB. They try to 670 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: measure the Earth or the solar systems velocity relative to 671 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: the whole universe of stuff that exists right now, I 672 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:19,600 Speaker 1: mean the stuff that we can see, the stuff that 673 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,120 Speaker 1: we can see. Yes, And so instead of using the 674 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,160 Speaker 1: CMB they're like, let's look at the stuff that exists 675 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: right now, the stuff we can see. So what they 676 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: did is they looked at a bunch of quasars. These 677 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:32,240 Speaker 1: are very energetic black holes the hearts of galaxies and 678 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,880 Speaker 1: black holes of course are themselves dark, but these black 679 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 1: holes are so powerful they have millions or billions of 680 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,720 Speaker 1: times the mass of the Sun that they create incredible 681 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:44,160 Speaker 1: radiation around them because of the tidal forces causing friction 682 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 1: in the gases that are falling into the black holes. 683 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: So these are some of the brightest things in the universe, 684 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,120 Speaker 1: which is really helpful because then you can see a 685 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: lot of them, and you can see them really far away, 686 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: and you can see the distortion in them because if 687 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: they're like shifted in one frequency or shifted in another frequency, 688 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,320 Speaker 1: you can use that to measure our velocity relative to 689 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: these quasars. So people ask this question, like, are we 690 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 1: moving relative to like all the quasars that we can 691 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,920 Speaker 1: see out there in the universe. M I see. It's 692 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:12,720 Speaker 1: trying to get a sensor of like in the observable universe, 693 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,480 Speaker 1: are we moving left or right? And what they found 694 00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,200 Speaker 1: is that we are moving relative to those quasars we're 695 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:23,239 Speaker 1: moving around six hundred kilometers per second relative to those quasars, 696 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: which is a big surprise. First of all, people are like, 697 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:27,880 Speaker 1: what why are we moving so fast relative to like 698 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: the average stuff in the universe. But when you say 699 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,040 Speaker 1: we're moving, do you mean like our solar system or 700 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: or our Milky Way or our galaxy cluster? What? What 701 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,839 Speaker 1: do you mean? I mean our solar system? Okay, but 702 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,600 Speaker 1: don't we know how our solar system is moving relative 703 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,400 Speaker 1: to our the Milky Way? Yeah? Absolutely we do. All right, 704 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: So you're saying that our galaxy itself is sort of 705 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,040 Speaker 1: moving through through the observable universe. Yeah, our galaxy seems 706 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:53,200 Speaker 1: to be moving through the observable universe. And the really 707 00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,960 Speaker 1: surprising thing is that it seems to be moving relative 708 00:34:55,960 --> 00:35:00,840 Speaker 1: to these quasars in the direction aligned with this cmb anisotropy. 709 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:02,799 Speaker 1: That is, it seems to be moving in the same 710 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:06,359 Speaker 1: direction along the Sun's north and south pole. Well that's 711 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: a little weird, I guess, because you know, like we're 712 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,680 Speaker 1: spinning on Earth, and the Earth is spinning around the Sun, 713 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:14,000 Speaker 1: and the Sun is spinning around the galaxy, and the 714 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,800 Speaker 1: gacy I imagine is spinning around sort of the larger 715 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,040 Speaker 1: galaxy cluster. Are you saying, I guess I'm not sure 716 00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,240 Speaker 1: quite what you're saying. You're saying, like all of those 717 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: sort of velocity vectors, all those directions of motion are 718 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:29,279 Speaker 1: somehow pointing in the same direction right now, wouldn't that change? Like, 719 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:31,880 Speaker 1: aren't we moving sometimes in this direction and that direction 720 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,520 Speaker 1: as we're going around the Sun or the galaxy? Sure, 721 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,239 Speaker 1: the Earth is moving around the Sun, and the Sun 722 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: is moving around the center of the galaxy, and the 723 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,719 Speaker 1: galaxy is orbiting the center of the galaxy cluster, and 724 00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,400 Speaker 1: so each of those has a velocity and a direction 725 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,959 Speaker 1: relative to the CNB. Right now, we're talking about one 726 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: of those in particular, which is just the velocity of 727 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,400 Speaker 1: the Solar system, and that velocity vector seems to point 728 00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,560 Speaker 1: right towards the direction of the hotter part of the 729 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 1: c m BE. So that's really interesting and also seems 730 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,400 Speaker 1: to be aligned with the direction of those quasars. And 731 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: there's no reason to think that these three directions should 732 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,680 Speaker 1: be aligned. They could have been anything that The question 733 00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,200 Speaker 1: of the Earth's velocity and the galaxy's velocity are separate, 734 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: right those are different vectors, But the Solar system velocity 735 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:23,399 Speaker 1: is aligned with the CNB and with those quasars, which 736 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: is somehow aligned with the direction of the solar system. 737 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:28,919 Speaker 1: Is it also aligned with the direction of the Milky Way. 738 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: Is our solar system disc in the disc of the 739 00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:35,320 Speaker 1: Milky Way? It's not right. Our solar system is actually 740 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:37,759 Speaker 1: tilted relative to the disc of the Milky Way. So 741 00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:41,360 Speaker 1: this required just our solar system to somehow be weirdly 742 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:46,799 Speaker 1: aligned with this two cosmic axes, the CMB and the quaisars. 743 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:49,719 Speaker 1: It's a very strange coincidence. But I guess if we 744 00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:52,480 Speaker 1: wait a few you know, hundred years or a thousand years, 745 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: would in our direction change because we're going around the galaxy. 746 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,719 Speaker 1: So our velocity relative to the galaxy does change as 747 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,279 Speaker 1: we move around the galaxy. The period of that is 748 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,200 Speaker 1: you know, very very long. It's millions and millions of years. 749 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:07,200 Speaker 1: But the direction of the solar system shouldn't change. Our 750 00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,279 Speaker 1: conservation of angularmentum should mean that the basically the north 751 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,920 Speaker 1: and south pole of the Sun shouldn't change even as 752 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: it moves around the center of the galaxy. The same 753 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,720 Speaker 1: way like the direction of the earth tilt doesn't change 754 00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,080 Speaker 1: as it moves around the Sun. I see, but you're 755 00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:23,239 Speaker 1: saying that, then the Milky Way is moving in the 756 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,879 Speaker 1: same direction as our Solar system is pointed at, which 757 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,240 Speaker 1: is the same as what we measure with the CNB. 758 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: The Solar system is aligned with the direction of the CMB, 759 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: but the Milky Way is a little bit tilted relative 760 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 1: to the Solar system, so it's not quite as a line. 761 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,360 Speaker 1: And there's a third weird coincidence in the same direction. 762 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:43,759 Speaker 1: What is it? So people are constantly looking for things 763 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,160 Speaker 1: that are weirdly lined, and so what they did is 764 00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,520 Speaker 1: they looked at the spins of galaxies. You can look 765 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:51,560 Speaker 1: out deep into the universe and look at all these 766 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,520 Speaker 1: galaxies and you can measure which direction they're spinning in 767 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 1: Like a galaxy is like a little swirl, and you 768 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,040 Speaker 1: can tell which direction it's spinning, like as it's spinning 769 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,279 Speaker 1: left or is it spinning based on the direction that 770 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:03,480 Speaker 1: the arms are sort of trailing behind it. And you 771 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:05,080 Speaker 1: can look out and you can count like how many 772 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,520 Speaker 1: of them are clockwise and how many they are anti clockwise. 773 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,239 Speaker 1: And you might expect if the universe is random and 774 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,920 Speaker 1: isotropic and no preferred directions, for that to be like 775 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:15,879 Speaker 1: roughly even everywhere well, what they see is that there 776 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,920 Speaker 1: isn't asymmetry, and they see this asymmetry again aligned with 777 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:22,520 Speaker 1: the plane of the Solar System. That galaxies you can 778 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:26,160 Speaker 1: see above the ecliptic are more clockwise, and the galaxy 779 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 1: you can see below the ecliptic tend to be more 780 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:33,600 Speaker 1: counterclockwise swirling. What wouldn't that be explained by the fact 781 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,239 Speaker 1: that you know, like you're looking at the bottoms of 782 00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:38,840 Speaker 1: some galaxies and you're looking at the tops of some galaxies, 783 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:40,600 Speaker 1: depending on how you look at them. Yeah, but if 784 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,040 Speaker 1: they're randomly oriented, you should see the same number of 785 00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: clockwise and counterclockwise, like the same galaxy. If it's spinning 786 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,880 Speaker 1: in one direction, you'll see a clockwise or counterclockwise depending 787 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,000 Speaker 1: on which side of it you are on. But if 788 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,560 Speaker 1: they're all in random places and all in random directions, 789 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 1: you should see the same number in every direction. It's 790 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,160 Speaker 1: like if you throw a million coins in a room him, 791 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 1: you should have the same number of heads and tails 792 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,320 Speaker 1: in every direction. Right, But we see an asymmetry. We 793 00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,560 Speaker 1: see like more heads over here and more tails over here, 794 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,120 Speaker 1: which is weird already, But that asymmetry is then aligned 795 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,440 Speaker 1: with these other asymmetries. We see the one in the 796 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,880 Speaker 1: CMB and the motion relative to the quays AARs interesting. 797 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:17,680 Speaker 1: You mean it's sort of like the whole toilet flushing 798 00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,799 Speaker 1: in the different direction of the southern hemistry, right, yeah, yeah, 799 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,719 Speaker 1: though I don't know if that's really a thing. Yeah, 800 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:25,719 Speaker 1: I think it is a thing, right, because we know 801 00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:29,000 Speaker 1: that the hurricanes spin in different directions, right, they do 802 00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,200 Speaker 1: spin in different directions because of the corial is for us. 803 00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:33,000 Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, but I don't know if that actually 804 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:36,480 Speaker 1: controls the direction in which toilets flush. So Australian listeners, 805 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:39,120 Speaker 1: let us know, but don't all flush at the same time, 806 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,359 Speaker 1: because you're gonna drain the continent. You'll slow the earth 807 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,160 Speaker 1: spin if you'll flush at the same time. All right, Well, 808 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:48,080 Speaker 1: so there's a lot of interesting coincidence. Is that maybe 809 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:50,400 Speaker 1: tell you that the universe has a preferred direction? And 810 00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,719 Speaker 1: so let's get into what this all means. But first 811 00:39:52,800 --> 00:40:07,520 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, Daniel, here's a 812 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: now our favorite question. What does it all mean? Man? 813 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,840 Speaker 1: What does it mean that the universe has a preferred directions? 814 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:16,560 Speaker 1: I guess the theory is, the hypothesis is that the 815 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,440 Speaker 1: universe has some sort of preferred direction that is somehow 816 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,520 Speaker 1: making galaxies also of spinning roughly the same direction, and 817 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:27,879 Speaker 1: it's making our solar system roughly spinning that direction, and 818 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:30,759 Speaker 1: everyone's moving in that direction. To what what does that mean? 819 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,359 Speaker 1: We really don't know what it means. And mainstream cosmology 820 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:36,880 Speaker 1: is very certain that it's all just random, that it's fluctuations. 821 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,600 Speaker 1: They're very strong believers in the cosmological principle of the 822 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:41,799 Speaker 1: universe is the same everywhere and that there is no 823 00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:44,560 Speaker 1: preferred direction. It would just be very difficult for them 824 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,960 Speaker 1: to give up this principle, which is precisely why it's 825 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:48,759 Speaker 1: so much fun to think about and to talk about, 826 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,239 Speaker 1: because it's those kind of like huge mental revolutions that 827 00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,759 Speaker 1: are the best moments in physics. And so what does 828 00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: it mean. It means that people should spend some time 829 00:40:57,239 --> 00:40:59,840 Speaker 1: thinking about how it might be possible to have a 830 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 1: universe with a preferred direction and how that might manifest itself. 831 00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:05,319 Speaker 1: And so the next step is to like come up 832 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,400 Speaker 1: with an explanation that could link all these things together 833 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,880 Speaker 1: and then figure out a way to test that. You know, 834 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,239 Speaker 1: before you get there, you gotta like really make sure 835 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 1: that these things are real. So we've done a lot 836 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:17,839 Speaker 1: of careful studies, like make sure these aren't like an 837 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: artifact or some problem with the data processing. You know, 838 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,200 Speaker 1: that it really is real. But a lot of these 839 00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 1: things have been confirmed independently by like several different satellites, 840 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:29,359 Speaker 1: especially the CMB and issotropy. All right, so what are 841 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:31,759 Speaker 1: some of the possibilities about what could be going on? Well, 842 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:33,879 Speaker 1: I had a hard time finding anything that was really 843 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,280 Speaker 1: very credible. The only idea I could find that really 844 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,480 Speaker 1: wasn't immediately dismissible was the idea that there could be 845 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:44,200 Speaker 1: some like giant cloud of matter outside the observable universe. 846 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,279 Speaker 1: You know, we think maybe the universe is infinite. We 847 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,080 Speaker 1: can see a piece of it, but there should be 848 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,960 Speaker 1: parts of the universe beyond the things that we can see, 849 00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,920 Speaker 1: And in principle, those could be affecting things in our universe. 850 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,840 Speaker 1: Like the things outside the observable universe we can't directly see, 851 00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,359 Speaker 1: but things in our observe universe could see them. They 852 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,840 Speaker 1: could be influenced by them gravitationally. So now imagine some 853 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,880 Speaker 1: like crazy collection of stuff on the outside of the 854 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 1: observa universe that's like distorting what's happening inside the observa universe. 855 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:19,120 Speaker 1: It's ridiculous, and we require like incredible cosmic structures and 856 00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:23,440 Speaker 1: gravitational effects, but it's sort of the only plausible direction 857 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 1: to explain this interesting alright, So maybe there's a giant 858 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,080 Speaker 1: I don't know, kangaroo space kangaroo which is outside of 859 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: our field division that is somehow skewing the whole universe. 860 00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:36,200 Speaker 1: What else could be going on? It could also just 861 00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:38,520 Speaker 1: be random, you know, it's very difficult to know what 862 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:41,279 Speaker 1: the chances of this are happening. In physics, whenever we 863 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,360 Speaker 1: want to conclude that something is real, we need to 864 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,200 Speaker 1: know what are the chances that this could have just 865 00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:48,040 Speaker 1: happened by a random you know, eventually, if you flip 866 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,799 Speaker 1: enough coins you will see weird deviation. So we want 867 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,720 Speaker 1: to not conclude something deep and true about the universe 868 00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,160 Speaker 1: if it just happens to be a strange fluctuation. In 869 00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,719 Speaker 1: this case, it's very difficult to evaluate that because we 870 00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,040 Speaker 1: didn't set out try to measure this. We sort of 871 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:04,440 Speaker 1: noticed it after the fact, and it's easy to notice 872 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,560 Speaker 1: coincidences after the fact. That it's hard to account for 873 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:10,920 Speaker 1: all the coincidences you didn't notice and sort of really 874 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:14,000 Speaker 1: like measure what the chances are of this happening. You 875 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,040 Speaker 1: need to imagine, like what are all the other things 876 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: you might have seen and noticed? And and that's impossible. 877 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,359 Speaker 1: For example, somebody went through the CNB spectrum and they 878 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,000 Speaker 1: found that the initials of Stephen Hawking can be read 879 00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:30,600 Speaker 1: in the cosmic microwave background radiation. What he graffitied the 880 00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:33,080 Speaker 1: beginning of the universe. It's ridiculous, but there is a 881 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,919 Speaker 1: patch in the CNB which, if you're looking for it 882 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,759 Speaker 1: spells out the letters S and H. You know, what 883 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,080 Speaker 1: are the chances of that? For example? Well, you know 884 00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:44,399 Speaker 1: who can know, because you know who knows what other 885 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,960 Speaker 1: things you would have looked for in the constate microwave 886 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,480 Speaker 1: background radiation. Yeah, that could be a coincidence. But then 887 00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:51,319 Speaker 1: the other part of it is the part that says 888 00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:56,399 Speaker 1: was here that's harder takes plain there was here's a joke, 889 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:58,560 Speaker 1: the S n H really is there, Like you can 890 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:00,200 Speaker 1: go in the foro it. This is not something I'm 891 00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,200 Speaker 1: making up. It's just an example of how things that 892 00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:06,680 Speaker 1: seem totally implausible really can just be random. Because it's 893 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:10,000 Speaker 1: very hard to measure the chances of something happening also 894 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:11,480 Speaker 1: depends on your point of view, Like if you look 895 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,960 Speaker 1: at it upside down, it says HS. So maybe it 896 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:18,320 Speaker 1: was really Harry Styles who graffiti the beginning of the universe. 897 00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,840 Speaker 1: That guy seems eternal, you know, and he's pissed that 898 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,319 Speaker 1: Stephen Hockey is getting all of his press. Or maybe 899 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,560 Speaker 1: it's all a big joke, the same person Harry Styles is. 900 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:30,480 Speaker 1: But you know, to really answer this question, you need 901 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,919 Speaker 1: to either develop a theory which explains these coincidences and 902 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,040 Speaker 1: make some prediction we could test, or you know, you 903 00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:41,200 Speaker 1: need to build like another CNB telescope and teleported to 904 00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:43,480 Speaker 1: other parts of the universe to see if it measures 905 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,399 Speaker 1: the same thing somewhere else. Because really the question we're 906 00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:48,920 Speaker 1: asking is are we in a privileged location? Is what 907 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,719 Speaker 1: we're seeing weird? And the most direct way to answer 908 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:53,640 Speaker 1: that is to go to other parts of the universe 909 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:57,279 Speaker 1: and to make these measurements there. That's of course totally impractical, 910 00:44:57,480 --> 00:44:59,920 Speaker 1: but that would sort of like really deeply answer the question, 911 00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:02,000 Speaker 1: right or I wonder if it could be there also 912 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:04,800 Speaker 1: that the universe doesn't have a preferred direction, but somehow 913 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,800 Speaker 1: the matter and the way it formed in the universe 914 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,120 Speaker 1: that we are living in. Maybe somehow it started spinning 915 00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:13,719 Speaker 1: in one direction, just like our Solar system randomly picked 916 00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:15,920 Speaker 1: the direction to be spinning it. Yeah, although if the 917 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:18,960 Speaker 1: universe is infinite, then we would expect all those things 918 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,160 Speaker 1: to average out. Right that you do have clumpiness here, 919 00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:24,560 Speaker 1: and you do have rotation there, but on average things 920 00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:26,840 Speaker 1: should be even. And the kind of things we're measuring, 921 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,560 Speaker 1: you know, the spinning of galaxies across these huge distances, 922 00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:33,280 Speaker 1: we do expect things to average out on those distances. 923 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:35,480 Speaker 1: They don't average out on the Solar system distance or 924 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:39,480 Speaker 1: the galaxy distance, but you know, across huge superclusters, they 925 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,120 Speaker 1: really should average out. All right. Well, I think there's 926 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,759 Speaker 1: all just kind of points to how interesting it is 927 00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:47,680 Speaker 1: that we're trying to decode the entire universe from this 928 00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,359 Speaker 1: one little spot in the corner that we're sitting on. 929 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,719 Speaker 1: You know. It's like, you know, we're sticking our finger 930 00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:54,680 Speaker 1: out trying to measure the wind of the universe, and 931 00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:57,560 Speaker 1: but really we're just like confined to this one spot 932 00:45:57,600 --> 00:45:59,600 Speaker 1: where we are. Yeah, And it also gives you a 933 00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,360 Speaker 1: glimpse into sort of the process of physics. When you 934 00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:04,200 Speaker 1: look back on the history of physics, it seems sort 935 00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,240 Speaker 1: of like inevitable, like we found this, then we figured 936 00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:07,920 Speaker 1: that out, then we figured this other thing out. But 937 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,880 Speaker 1: at any moment we're really just clueless. When we're exploring 938 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:13,680 Speaker 1: lots of different paths, some of which are totally bonkers 939 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,279 Speaker 1: and some of which could be the seeds of a 940 00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:20,080 Speaker 1: future understanding. People could look back on these moments be like, oh, yeah, 941 00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:22,600 Speaker 1: people first found out about this crazy thing in the 942 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,400 Speaker 1: universe back then, and people didn't really believe it for 943 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,880 Speaker 1: a long time, and it took forever to take hold. 944 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,640 Speaker 1: That could be this idea right now, or this could 945 00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:33,959 Speaker 1: just be another in the long series of science dead ends, 946 00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,399 Speaker 1: I guess. In the meantime, if you're in Australia, watch 947 00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,760 Speaker 1: your step, don't fall off, and don't flush the toilet 948 00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,480 Speaker 1: at the same time. That's right, keep spinning everyone, All right, Well, 949 00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:45,399 Speaker 1: we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, See 950 00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:55,760 Speaker 1: you next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel 951 00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:58,319 Speaker 1: and Jorge explained the Universe is a production of I 952 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,960 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit 953 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,520 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 954 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,080 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H