1 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: Hey, Jorge, remember when we talked about particles spin trying 2 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,599 Speaker 1: not to remember you mean, you mean the spin that 3 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 1: isn't really a spin. Yeah, And then we talked about 4 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: particle color. Huh, the color that isn't actually a color. 5 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: And particle flavors. You mean the flavor that doesn't actually 6 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: taste like anything. That's the one. Well, I got some 7 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: news for you. Turns out particles can be left handed 8 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: or right handed. Hi am orhandmade cartoonists and the creator 9 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,840 Speaker 1: of PhD comics. I'm Daniel, I'm a particle physicist, and 10 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: I'm mostly right handed. And welcome to our podcast Daniel 11 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: and Jorge give weird names to particle properties in the Universe, 12 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio, in which we do 13 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: our best to connect the weird, the strange, the amazing, 14 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 1: the bonkers universe that we find ourselves in. Two things 15 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: that actually do make sense to you, that are familiar 16 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: in every day Yeah, Because I think sometimes the universe 17 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: does feel really familiar, you know, and relatable, and I 18 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: feel like I understand it. But sometimes I feel like 19 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: the universe is this crazy, unknowable, confusing and totally unintuitive 20 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: thing that we're all living in. I mean, every time 21 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: you leave your house, every time I turn on the news. 22 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: If I just stay in my living room, everything feels 23 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:48,920 Speaker 1: so familiar. Why do I have to go outside? Yeah, 24 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:50,960 Speaker 1: but I guess. I mean, you know, sometimes the universe 25 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: and you know, particles and stars and black holes behaving 26 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: ways that really are don't make a lot of sense 27 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, and it's fast dating. How as humans 28 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:03,760 Speaker 1: we try to make sense of them in terms of 29 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: things that we do understand, Like we talk about the 30 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: life cycle of stars, even though of course stars are 31 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: not alive, but you know, they begin and they burn 32 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: and then they die spectacularly, Like I hope I will 33 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: die spectacularly one day. I think most people wish for 34 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: quiet death. Daniel not a spectacular who wants to go 35 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:26,120 Speaker 1: out with a whimper man. I want to end with 36 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: a supernova that sounds just like a physics super villain 37 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: Daniel in a comic book. Look, my budget from my 38 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: funeral is not like all coffins and flowers and stuff. 39 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: It's all sticks of dynamite. Great, I'll be sure to 40 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: turn on that invitation, all right, um, But the point 41 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: is that we do our best to understand this weird, 42 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: cold lifeless, dramatic world in terms of things that do 43 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: make sense to us. You know, we think of particles 44 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: as little balls. We think of photons is like waves 45 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 1: in the ocean. We think of things as having a 46 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: life cycle. What else can we do? We try to 47 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 1: map the universe into things that we know. Yeah, and 48 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,080 Speaker 1: so today we'll be talking about a particular property of 49 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: the universe, or I guess particles in particular. Is that 50 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: a good way to say it? Say it, um, particular 51 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,079 Speaker 1: particle property. Oh my goodness, I feel like we're I'm 52 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: talking to my kids and they're giving me a riddle. 53 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers. Peter Piper 54 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: picked a pack of pickle particles. Yeah, we'll be talking 55 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: about a really amazing particle property that we might not 56 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 1: even discovered if it didn't turn out that the universe 57 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: preferred one kind rather than the other. Yeah, sometimes the 58 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: universe has a preference. You know, it's just, um, it's 59 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: just the way it is. Is it just the way 60 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: it is? It the kind of thing that makes us wonder, like, 61 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: why is the universe this way and not the other way? 62 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: Every time the universe has to make a choice and 63 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: it chooses one direction over the other, um one place 64 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: over another, makes us wonder why this and not something else. Yeah, 65 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: So usually is as physicists, we like when the universe 66 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: is balanced, when it's symmetric and it doesn't make a preference, 67 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: because then we don't have to know why. But every 68 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: time it does make a choice, that's a clue. It 69 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: tells us there's something weird in particular about our universe. 70 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: It could have been different, right, and so to be 71 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 1: on the podcast, we'll be talking about is the universe 72 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: left handed? M hm? Why didn't we say is the 73 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 1: universe right handed? Yeah? Well, because the universe does have 74 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: a preference, and it turns out it's not the same 75 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:38,000 Speaker 1: as a biology interesting, so meaning that the universe is 76 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: maybe not the perfect symmetrical, un judgmental thing that we 77 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: kind of wish it were, right, I mean, you wish 78 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: it weren't. Well, we're always looking for symmetries in the 79 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,720 Speaker 1: universe and wondering what those means. We have lots of 80 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: really deep symmetries, like we don't think it matters where 81 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: in the universe you are. The laws of physics should 82 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: be the same if you're here or if you're there 83 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: or you're somewhere else the same way, there's no preferred 84 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,280 Speaker 1: direction in the universe, no up and down. That sort 85 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 1: of makes sense to us, right. We like to think 86 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: of the universe is like democratic in that way, right, 87 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: But really it's more of an electoral college kind of thing, 88 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: which is the source of all of our problems. You know, 89 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: that's a fascinatingly accurate description because the universe is dominated 90 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,040 Speaker 1: by mostly empty space. Empty space that contributes most of 91 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:28,880 Speaker 1: the energy of the universe, because that's where all the 92 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,559 Speaker 1: dark energy is. So you no, we we are trying 93 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: really hard to stay a political on this show. We 94 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: are applying you know, reason and logic to trying to 95 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 1: understand the universe, but of course we have to map 96 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:42,960 Speaker 1: it sometimes too, things that make sense to us. Right, 97 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,920 Speaker 1: So it turns out that the universe is not perfectly symmetrical. 98 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: It does have kind of a preference for one direction 99 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: or another, and so that's what we'll be talking about 100 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: here today. We're talking about the property of particles called 101 00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: handedness right left and right handedness of particles which I 102 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: don't actually have any hands. Well, I'll give you a 103 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: hand for that one. Particles, As we know don't have hands, 104 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:10,360 Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean we can't talk about handedness, right, 105 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: and like we call it handedness because it's a property 106 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: we first noticed of our hands. Like if you look 107 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: at your hands, the two are not the same. Right, 108 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 1: your left hand your right hand are not the same. 109 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:22,160 Speaker 1: And even if you put them next to each other, 110 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: is no way to like rotate your left hand to 111 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 1: make it look just like your right hand. They really 112 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,599 Speaker 1: are differently. The pattern, the order of the fingers is 113 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: just different from one to the other. Right, there's a 114 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:35,600 Speaker 1: our hand. My hand, right hand is not the same 115 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: as my left hand. It's like a mirror image. That 116 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:41,479 Speaker 1: would be word if both my hands looked exactly the same. 117 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 1: Though that's kind of a disturbing saying you like symmetry, 118 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: would you prefer to have two identical hands? Um, well, 119 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: that's different than symmetry because I feel like it hands 120 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: are symmetric, but there it's like mirror symmetry. Right, there's 121 00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: a difference between merror symmetry and like exact exactness. That's right, 122 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: and that's the property we're interested in here today. Things 123 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 1: that have a handedness that have a mirror symmetry, like 124 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: your hand if you put up your left hand in 125 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,360 Speaker 1: the mirror, it looks just like your right hand does 126 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: in real life, but the mirror turns left handedness into 127 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: right handedness and the other way around. Right by the way, 128 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:18,280 Speaker 1: like a sphere. A sphere doesn't have a handedness because 129 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: it looks the same in the mirror. But your hand 130 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: it does have a handedness because it looks like the 131 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: other one in the mirror. And so we're interested in, like, 132 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 1: all right, here's a symmetry, here's a property. Does universe 133 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:31,880 Speaker 1: prefer one or the other. And we know, for example, 134 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 1: in people, that there are more right handers than left 135 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: handers and you and you have to wonder, like why 136 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: is that? What does that mean about biology or evolution 137 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: or something? And now we can ask that same kind 138 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: of question about particles, right, and it turns out that 139 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: the particles have a handedness and that the universe kind 140 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: of prefers one over the other. Yeah, it's kind of fascinating. 141 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: All right, we'll get into that, but first we want 142 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: to give a quick shout out to Chris McKinnon in England. 143 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,760 Speaker 1: That's right, we gotta request from your partner, Georgia Arnold, 144 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: who says thanks for listening to the podcast and for 145 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,880 Speaker 1: teaching science to others. So Chris apparently is a fan 146 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: of our podcast in England. So happy holidays, Chris, and 147 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 1: happy birthday coming up in January. Yeah, happy birthday, and 148 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: to everyone whose birthday is coming up in the next year, 149 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 1: which I guess includes everybody except for those four and 150 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 1: enough every right, I guess that's that's right. We want 151 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: to be inclusive, but we also want to be accurate, right, 152 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: And happy holidays to everyone out there, and happy non 153 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: holidays to all the atheists as well. Are you saying 154 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: atheists don't know holidays? I think by definition they don't 155 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: have holidays. Oh man, I don't know this is the 156 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:43,559 Speaker 1: topic we should dive into. But um, but yeah, thanks, 157 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,680 Speaker 1: And if you are interested in writing to us and 158 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: let us us know what do you think of the podcast, 159 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: please follow us on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. All right, well, 160 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: let's get back on the topic here of the handedness 161 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: of the universe, and so we might say, to the 162 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,680 Speaker 1: topic at hand, let's get back to the do the 163 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: bad puns? Guys, we trailed off into some holiday cheer. 164 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: We forgot to get to all out the bad puns. 165 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: But as usually what we were wondering how many people 166 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: out there knew that the universe or that particles have 167 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:17,559 Speaker 1: a preference, or even an idea or or a property 168 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,240 Speaker 1: called handedness. Yeah, so I walked around campus that you 169 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,679 Speaker 1: see Irvine, and I asked books if they knew what 170 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: it meant for a particle to be left or right handed. 171 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: So think about it for a second. If you were 172 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:33,560 Speaker 1: approached by a physicist on a holiday morning and you 173 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: were asked if you knew whether particles can be left 174 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: or right handed? What would you answer? Here's what people 175 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: had to say. Do you know what it means to 176 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:44,440 Speaker 1: say a particle can be left handed or right handed? No? No, 177 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:46,839 Speaker 1: they don't have hands? Well is isn't it talking about 178 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,440 Speaker 1: the movement of the current? Um So that's where I 179 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: can remember from physics I took on the micro level, 180 00:09:54,679 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: there's certain orientations and movements happen, and do there are 181 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: going too one way or the other way? But I'm 182 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:08,360 Speaker 1: not superfamulate with outwards unfortunately, not now doing particles with hands? Well, well, 183 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,559 Speaker 1: I would guess that it has something to do like 184 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: we're like the electrons around it, maybe more to the 185 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,959 Speaker 1: blaster to the writer or something all right. Not a 186 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,719 Speaker 1: lot of people knew that particles have handedness. No, No, 187 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,200 Speaker 1: it a little bit of pushback, like, nope, particles do 188 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 1: not have hands. I thought as well, I'm gonna give 189 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: a hand to this person here. No. So not a 190 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: lot of familiarity with this concept. Yeah, which is uh, 191 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I know. I knew about this 192 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:42,920 Speaker 1: idea just from talking to you, Daniel another physicists, because 193 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: I know that it's related to like the spin of particles, right, 194 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: and how they look at each other in the mirror. Yeah, 195 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,839 Speaker 1: and it's related to parody. And we did a whole 196 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: fun video with Derek Mueller of Veritassium about parody and 197 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: charge parody and its impact on time with particles. It's 198 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: a gorgeous video. Folks out there really interested in this 199 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:06,160 Speaker 1: concept of symmetries and particles, go check it out. I 200 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: think it's called do Particles Tell Time? On YouTube? And 201 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: so so, just to clear things up, particles don't have hands. 202 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,199 Speaker 1: We we've established that, at least we don't think that 203 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: we've seen, right, they could have point hands, that's right. 204 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 1: We have to qualify what we understand here. We have 205 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,719 Speaker 1: not seen particles hands. It doesn't mean they don't have them. 206 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:32,720 Speaker 1: They could be super duper tiny cute, little tiny particle hands. Yeah, 207 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: that's how they that's how they hold on to each other, 208 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:39,600 Speaker 1: they do how they make those bonds. Right, that's how 209 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,559 Speaker 1: the universe is connect the tiny little hands. That's right. 210 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:45,960 Speaker 1: But you know, you can have handedness even if you 211 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: don't have hands, and let's get into it. But I 212 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: feel like even if particles were a little spherical balls, 213 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: which I know they're not, it seems weird that they 214 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:57,160 Speaker 1: would have like a preference between right and left, because 215 00:11:57,200 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: what's the right and left of a perfect sphere? You're 216 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,680 Speaker 1: exactly right, and um, if you had a perfect sphere, 217 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 1: it's perfect sphere is not handed. Right. To have something 218 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 1: be handed you need at least two different directions that 219 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: you can compare. And so a perfect sphere, however, can spin, 220 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,320 Speaker 1: and when it spins, the axis along which it's spinning 221 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: gives you one direction, and then you can compare that 222 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 1: spin direction to something else, like the direction it's moving, 223 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: and you can ask, like, do those two directions line up? 224 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: This kind of stuff. So particles can have handedness because 225 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: it's built on top of other properties they have. But 226 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:36,680 Speaker 1: You're right, a sphere that has no handedness, it looks 227 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,040 Speaker 1: the same in the mirror by itself. And and as well, 228 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:41,800 Speaker 1: I guess a point as well, right, Like a point 229 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: would have even less of a less of a hand 230 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: unless it has plenty point hands right, which is not 231 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,640 Speaker 1: really the matter at hand. But you're saying that handedness 232 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 1: for particles is related to you get like you got 233 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,160 Speaker 1: to throw in another property into the conversation in order 234 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: to have handedness in a point particle. Yeah, And here's 235 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,079 Speaker 1: where we get into murky territory, because handedness it's a 236 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 1: quantum property with particles. It's like an intrinsic property. It's 237 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:16,360 Speaker 1: like charge right, or it's like spin it's not physically spinning, 238 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:19,280 Speaker 1: or there is no place where the charge is. It's 239 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,000 Speaker 1: just like a label we put on a particle. And 240 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: so these particles have this intrinsic leftiness or rightness really, 241 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: and we can make it connected to this other physical thing, 242 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: but in the end it really is deeply, fundamentally just 243 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: sort of an internal quantum label that we can never 244 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,280 Speaker 1: really truly understand. Really, because I've never seen handedness in 245 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,360 Speaker 1: any of the you know, posters or graphics for the 246 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: standard model of physics. You know, I see spin, I 247 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: see charge, I see color, but I never see like 248 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 1: left ear righty. You know. Yeah, Well it's mostly connected 249 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,760 Speaker 1: to the weak force, because the weak forces what revealed 250 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: to us that handedness was a thing we had to 251 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,480 Speaker 1: think about and that it was actually important. So I 252 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: guess we should call it quantum handedness because that's the 253 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:10,439 Speaker 1: that's the solution to any confusion in physics is just 254 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:12,640 Speaker 1: at a at a word that says you're right. It 255 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,679 Speaker 1: is confusing, It's okay, don't try to understand it at 256 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 1: an intuitive level. It's weird. No, you're right. Quantum X. 257 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: What we mean when we say that in physics is like, well, 258 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:26,280 Speaker 1: this is like some other weird version of X. We're 259 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: using X because it's similar kind of in some way 260 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: to the thing you're familiar with. There's an analogy that 261 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: that's maybe helpful, but it's not really the same thing. Right. 262 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,160 Speaker 1: It's kind of like how our podcast is known for 263 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:43,000 Speaker 1: quantum humor. That's right, only particles get it. It's neither 264 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: here nor there, but just still try to understand it. 265 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: That's right. That's what we're getting a lot of quantum 266 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 1: clasks and making a lot of quantum bucks. It's it's 267 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 1: all theoretical, Daniel. No. But in the case of particles, 268 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,360 Speaker 1: you can sort of define this handedness by saying, let's 269 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 1: look at the direction it's moving, and then let's look 270 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,160 Speaker 1: at the axis around which it's spinning, and ask are 271 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: those two things pointing in the same direction or not? 272 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: And so we call it right if they're in the 273 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: same direction, and left handed if they're in opposite directions. 274 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,520 Speaker 1: But that's arbitrary. We could have just labeled them any way. 275 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 1: You know. We can call them alpha and beta, or 276 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: blue and red, or left and right or right and 277 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: left right. These are just labels we deside. Oh, I see. 278 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: It'd be like saying, like, some particles like to be 279 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:32,160 Speaker 1: positive and green, and some particles like to be negative 280 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: and blue, and you might call that handedness or some 281 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: other property. Yeah, some of the properties, but this particular 282 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: one that we found, it turns out the universe cares about. 283 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,200 Speaker 1: So you could construct all sorts of things and column handedness, 284 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 1: but the universe might be like, yeah, that's fine, I 285 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: don't care about that doesn't matter to me. But this 286 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,240 Speaker 1: one is interesting because the universe does seem to care 287 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:56,520 Speaker 1: it is something that is important. It changes the way 288 00:15:56,560 --> 00:16:00,200 Speaker 1: the universe treats these particles, and so it really does matter. Okay, 289 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: so you're saying that handedness in a particle means that 290 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:06,440 Speaker 1: the spin of the particle is sort of a line 291 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: to its motion. Yeah, And it's a bit confusing to 292 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,160 Speaker 1: think about the direction of spin because it's going in 293 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:15,400 Speaker 1: every direction. Right, it's a spinning thing. It's turning and 294 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 1: turning and turning. What if I just turned my head 295 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:20,800 Speaker 1: upside down, wouldn't it flip it on its head? Well, 296 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: it wouldn't change the direction of spin. Right, But so 297 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: you use your right hand, and if your fingers are 298 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 1: curling the direction the particle spinning, your thumb tells you 299 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: where we sort of define the direction of the spin vector, 300 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: and it's along the axis of spin. It's kind of 301 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: like a top if you're spinning a top. M I 302 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: guess you can spin a top both ways. But it's 303 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: kind of a screwdriver, I guess, or like a screw 304 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,640 Speaker 1: it's like clockwise versus counterclockwise. Right, you have to define 305 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: one direction or the other. And we say that the 306 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,240 Speaker 1: direction that you're the fingers curl on your right hand 307 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:55,520 Speaker 1: is a certain way, and that helps us define a 308 00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: certain direction. And so if the particle is moving in 309 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 1: the same same direction that this spin is pointing, where 310 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: again the spin comes from your thumb. If your fingers 311 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:07,720 Speaker 1: curl the way the spear is spinning, we call that 312 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:12,160 Speaker 1: a right handed particle. Really. Yeah, So parts of particles 313 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,479 Speaker 1: don't have the option of moving either way, like they 314 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: always either move in the direction of spin or not 315 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,240 Speaker 1: in the direction of spin. Oh, that's fascinating question. Remember 316 00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:24,399 Speaker 1: spin is quantized, right, and so you measure spin along 317 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,600 Speaker 1: any axis. And because it's quantized either along that axis 318 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,200 Speaker 1: or in the other direction, spin is not a infinitely 319 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: valued quantity. It has to be either positive or negative. 320 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,000 Speaker 1: It's quantitied. It's this quantum spin. Like let's say that 321 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:41,479 Speaker 1: spinning and the spinning direction is up. You're saying that 322 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,400 Speaker 1: particles can move up and down. They have to move 323 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,119 Speaker 1: up or down. You can't say the particle is spinning 324 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:49,639 Speaker 1: and its spinning direction is up. That's quantum mechanically impossible 325 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: to know the complete spin direction, right, because there's three 326 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:56,960 Speaker 1: different axes, and you can't know spin along three axis simultaneously. 327 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,159 Speaker 1: Because the Heisenberg is certain principle. Oh, boy, the you 328 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,199 Speaker 1: have to go the other direction. You say, all right, 329 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:05,200 Speaker 1: which direction is my particle moving? All right? That define 330 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,439 Speaker 1: some direction. Now I can ask is it spinning along 331 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,640 Speaker 1: that direction or in the opposite direction? I see, And 332 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:14,879 Speaker 1: that what I get if I ask it if is 333 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: it spinning in the direction of moving or not? Is 334 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,399 Speaker 1: something that particles Some particles will always give you the 335 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:23,679 Speaker 1: one answer, and other particles will always give you the 336 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,680 Speaker 1: other answers. Or is it random? Like a particle can 337 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,400 Speaker 1: be moving either aligned or not aligned with its spin. 338 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: That's what we call handedness. If a particle is right handed, 339 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,120 Speaker 1: then it's moving with its spin. If it's left handed, 340 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: it's moving away from its spin. Now, some particles, like neutrinos, 341 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,520 Speaker 1: you only ever see left handed neutrinos. Right handed trinos 342 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: do not exist. Other particles you can have both a 343 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,439 Speaker 1: right handed version or a left handed version. Oh, I see, alright. 344 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: So some particles are ambidexterous. They can right with the 345 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: right or left hand. But some particles in nature are 346 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: definitely lefties or right ease. Yeah, And it's it's a 347 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 1: little bit more subtle than that. It's like, do you 348 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,639 Speaker 1: think of the electron and the positron is different particles 349 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,399 Speaker 1: or sort of two sides of the same coin in 350 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,320 Speaker 1: the same way. Do we think of like the left 351 00:19:11,359 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: handed electron and the right handed electron is two different 352 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 1: particles or just sort of like two different versions of 353 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,200 Speaker 1: the electron, because it turns out nature sees them as different. 354 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: So the electron can be right or left handed, or 355 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,680 Speaker 1: you could say it that there are right handed electrons 356 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:29,720 Speaker 1: and left handed electrons. Oh, I see, but is it 357 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,360 Speaker 1: like fifty fifty or what is it? Um? The universe 358 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,400 Speaker 1: prefers left handed electrons. You mean meaning there are more 359 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: of them, There are more left handed electrons. Yes, wow, 360 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,399 Speaker 1: huh so it's kind of the opposite of people. No, 361 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:45,400 Speaker 1: that's right. And also for our DNA, you know, our 362 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:47,919 Speaker 1: d N A has a handedness to it also, and 363 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 1: it's also right handed. All of our organic molecules in 364 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 1: our body are right handed molecules. Uh. Interesting, alright, So 365 00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,879 Speaker 1: that's kind of what handedness is is um, do particles 366 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: like to move into direct in which they spin or 367 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: do they not? Or that they like to move in 368 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:05,840 Speaker 1: the direction which they not spin. So that's a handedness 369 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: in particles. And so let's get into what that means 370 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:14,399 Speaker 1: for the universe is prospects in Major League Baseball, whether 371 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,720 Speaker 1: there are going to be drafted early or not, and 372 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,440 Speaker 1: why it matters maybe to you and me. But first, 373 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:37,119 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, all right, Danniel. So you're 374 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,880 Speaker 1: saying that some particles in nature, like the electron, can 375 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: be right or left handed, meaning they can move. You 376 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:46,320 Speaker 1: see them moving in the direction that they're spinning, and 377 00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: some of them you see them moving not in the 378 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,119 Speaker 1: direction they're spinning. But some particles, like the neutrino, do 379 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,000 Speaker 1: have a preference. That's exactly right. Neutrinos are only left 380 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 1: handed and anti neutrinos are only right handed. And this 381 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,120 Speaker 1: is a really fascinating thing that we discovered only about 382 00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: fifty years ago, that this concept of particle handedness is 383 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,040 Speaker 1: a real thing in the universe. And you know, we've 384 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,359 Speaker 1: been like over the history of science adding labels to 385 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,879 Speaker 1: particles as we discover them, we'll we'll see something happen 386 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:17,480 Speaker 1: and we're like, well, we can't explain that with the 387 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,520 Speaker 1: labels we currently have. So maybe particles are a little 388 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,400 Speaker 1: bit more complicated, like we have to add spin to them, 389 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,280 Speaker 1: or we have to add flavor or color or whatever 390 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,320 Speaker 1: to sort of have our theory have enough wrinkles in 391 00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,880 Speaker 1: it to describe all the weird effects that we observe, 392 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:35,399 Speaker 1: and so handedness is like one of the latest ones. 393 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,879 Speaker 1: In the late fifties, people saw these really strange experiments 394 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,800 Speaker 1: where it looked like the universe didn't work the same 395 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: in the mirror as it does not in the mirror, 396 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,920 Speaker 1: and to explain them, they had to add this new 397 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,920 Speaker 1: property to particles called handedness. Oh, I see, Like, if 398 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,879 Speaker 1: every particle in nature was right and left handed, we 399 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: wouldn't even have a name for it. It could just 400 00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: be like, you know, it wouldn't matter. But you're saying 401 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: it's sort of does matter in the universe. Yeah, we 402 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,520 Speaker 1: wouldn't know if it was real. Like you and I 403 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:08,119 Speaker 1: could right now invent a new particle label right, call 404 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 1: its strip nous And all right, the electrons we're gonna 405 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:13,480 Speaker 1: say are blue stripe and with red, and those electrons 406 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 1: are green striped with white or whatever I'm gonna go with. 407 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,639 Speaker 1: Bananan is banan is. But if the universe treats particles 408 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: the same, whether or not johe has labeled them to 409 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,679 Speaker 1: be banana equals one or banan equal zero, then it 410 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,720 Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It's not a physical thing, right, It's just 411 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:29,720 Speaker 1: like an idea in your mind. It's like literally another thing. 412 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,600 Speaker 1: Like you would say, that's not a thing, dude, but 413 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,000 Speaker 1: nobody cares. But let's say somebody doesn't experiment one day 414 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,360 Speaker 1: and they just and they realize, you know what particles 415 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,960 Speaker 1: that Joe has little labeled having banan equals one, the 416 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: universe treats differently than we'd be like, the universe is 417 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: not symmetric to banananus, and then it would be a 418 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:50,639 Speaker 1: real physical thing. That's exactly what happened in physics. People 419 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: had this idea of handedness, but they thought that's ridiculous. 420 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,879 Speaker 1: How could the universe prefer one to the other. Clearly 421 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,360 Speaker 1: it's symmetric. There's two options there. It's just a thing 422 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,119 Speaker 1: in your head. And they didn't experiment. That proved them wrong. 423 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: It was like in Clueless, where one of them the 424 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:09,040 Speaker 1: other stopped trying to make it a thing. It's not 425 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:11,000 Speaker 1: a thing, but it turns out it is a thing. 426 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,159 Speaker 1: It turns out it is a thing. And you know, 427 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,919 Speaker 1: there's a lot of really interesting deep philosophical questions. They're like, 428 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:21,440 Speaker 1: how many other things are there? Of particles? That are 429 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,159 Speaker 1: really exists, but we just haven't figured out either the 430 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 1: way the universe prefers one to the other or an 431 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: even deeper question is what if there are particle things 432 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,399 Speaker 1: that the universe is just totally symmetric to so we 433 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 1: will never discover them, Like it is a thing, but 434 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: we can't tell a thing. Yeah, in which case is 435 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,840 Speaker 1: it really a thing? I think that's what's happening with 436 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: the banana is of particles. You guys just can't see it, 437 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,879 Speaker 1: but I know it's there. Maybe we just need a 438 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: really big accelerator once you raise fifty dollars and we'll 439 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 1: discover bananan this. You wouldn't go to a circle. We're 440 00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: just going to half circle. That's right. We need to 441 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:01,440 Speaker 1: sort about elliptical accelerator, you know the been and a curve. Yeah, 442 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,119 Speaker 1: and forget and forget those cryogetic magnets. We would just 443 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: use banana appeals to lubricate the particles. It's not a 444 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:16,720 Speaker 1: particle accelerator. It's a particle slipper. There you go. Comedy 445 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:21,399 Speaker 1: would be a plentiful in this accelerator. Yeah. Okay, so 446 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: particles have a handing this and so what does that mean? 447 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:27,080 Speaker 1: What does that mean that the universe has the preference 448 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 1: in some cases or not you saying You're saying it's 449 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,320 Speaker 1: related to the weak force. Yeah, Well, we have all 450 00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 1: these fundamental forces of physics, you know, the weak force, 451 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,560 Speaker 1: the strong force, electromagnetism, and gravity, and they all are 452 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,400 Speaker 1: different forces. Were trying to understand, of course, how they're related. 453 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,240 Speaker 1: But they have different effects, and most of them don't 454 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,200 Speaker 1: care one whit about whether a particle is left handed 455 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: or right handed. But the weak force is weird, Like 456 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,959 Speaker 1: the electromagnetic force doesn't care if an electron is right 457 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 1: handed or or left handed. It's democratic. It treats those 458 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 1: two the same, and the strong force treats left handed 459 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,320 Speaker 1: corks and right handed corks the same way. It's like, 460 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:09,000 Speaker 1: I see you both the same, I am handedness blind. 461 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 1: I'm gonna attract you or force you to do something, 462 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: and I don't care. That's right. If you didn't experiment 463 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,439 Speaker 1: with the strong force, and you had it set up 464 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 1: next to a mirror, and you watch the experiment unfolding 465 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,920 Speaker 1: in the mirror, you could use the exact same laws 466 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,960 Speaker 1: of physics that we have in our universe to describe 467 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,240 Speaker 1: what you see in the mirror. Because in the mirror universe, 468 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 1: all the handednesses are flipped, but the strong force doesn't care. 469 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,520 Speaker 1: It's like, oh, left handed corks now are now right 470 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,240 Speaker 1: hand corks? I treat him the same. Oh I see 471 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: the equations kind of work out. The same equations are 472 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,360 Speaker 1: perfectly symmetric, and the effects are perfectly symmetric, so flipping 473 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,680 Speaker 1: them does nothing, Like what do you see in the mirror? 474 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,320 Speaker 1: Could may as well not be in the mirror? Yes, 475 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,159 Speaker 1: or you can't do an experiment to tell are you 476 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: in the mirror world or not? As the results of 477 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: the same interest. But that's not true of the weak force. Okay, 478 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: so the weak force, it's different different. It does affect 479 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:06,040 Speaker 1: particles differently depending on this idea of handedness. That's right. 480 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,160 Speaker 1: And it was in the fifties of people realized nobody's 481 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,280 Speaker 1: ever checked to see if the weak force breaks this 482 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,400 Speaker 1: rule or not. People just sort of assumed it's such 483 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 1: a deeply ingrained assumption, like, of course the universe doesn't 484 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,159 Speaker 1: prefer one or the other. And then the theorists went 485 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,879 Speaker 1: through and said, well, has anybody ever checked? And people 486 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,159 Speaker 1: had checked for a electro magnetism and for the strong 487 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: force and all that stuff, but nobody had checked for 488 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 1: for the weak force, and if physicist did it, well, 489 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: I feel like there are two ways in which handedness 490 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,639 Speaker 1: can matter. Like one is which are the right or 491 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: lefties do we see more of? And that's kind of interesting, 492 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,959 Speaker 1: Like the fact that we see more left handed new 493 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,120 Speaker 1: trinos and right handed new trinos is sort of one 494 00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:51,360 Speaker 1: way that the universe is a preference. But then you're 495 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,400 Speaker 1: you're I feel like there's also another way in which 496 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,520 Speaker 1: the universe has a presence, which is in through the forces. 497 00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:59,919 Speaker 1: Like the laws of physics actually applied differently to the 498 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 1: lefties or right easy, but those are the same concepts. 499 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:07,200 Speaker 1: Right we interact with things using forces, so we only 500 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,120 Speaker 1: see left handed neutrinos because we interact with them. It's 501 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,200 Speaker 1: possible there are right handed neutrinos out there that we 502 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: can't interact with because our forces don't touch them. We 503 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,560 Speaker 1: only see what we what it's visible and what we 504 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: can interact with as a whole. You know, we won't 505 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 1: recently discovered that there's huge parts of the universe. We 506 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,720 Speaker 1: barely have hints that actually exist, and so there could 507 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,720 Speaker 1: be other particles out there that are right handed neutrinos. 508 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,120 Speaker 1: We haven't seen because we can't interact with them. Oh 509 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,200 Speaker 1: I see, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. 510 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: There could they have plot thickens or um passes throughs 511 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: like neutrinos. We're not I'm not quite sure what how 512 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,800 Speaker 1: people are getting this, but we're just saying that there could. 513 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,919 Speaker 1: There isn't more of the left handed neutrinos in the universe. 514 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: Is just that's the only kind we see. But we 515 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: don't know if there are right handed neutrinos because we 516 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,600 Speaker 1: can't interact with them. Therefore, we can't prove whether or 517 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,679 Speaker 1: not they exist because what we us to interact with 518 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:03,879 Speaker 1: them has a preference. It's like a filter. Now, the 519 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:06,920 Speaker 1: other particles, electrons and quarks, we can interact with them 520 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: in other ways that are democratic, right, because the strong 521 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: force and electromagnetism doesn't prefer one or the other. Neutrinos, 522 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,720 Speaker 1: we can only interact with them via the weak force. 523 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: Oh I see. It's the only way we can see 524 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,199 Speaker 1: them and they and it certainly does prefer it. So 525 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 1: there could be as many right handed nutrinos out there 526 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,120 Speaker 1: in the universe as left handed neutrinos. We just can't 527 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,000 Speaker 1: see them because the weak force only lets us interact 528 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,359 Speaker 1: with left handed ones. That's right. And you know in 529 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 1: the same way that like the space could be filled 530 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: with invisible, imperceptible bananas, we can't see them, so are 531 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 1: they really there? Well, we have to use the banana force, 532 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: which I've yet to discover, but I'm sure it's it's 533 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: on the horizon there. Yeah. And it's fascinating because this 534 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 1: effect has to do also with charge, right, because the 535 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: particle that mediates this thing from the weak force, the 536 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:04,840 Speaker 1: W particle, which carries electric charge. So you have W 537 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:10,960 Speaker 1: minuses can decay to left handed electrons and W plus 538 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: is decay to right handed positrons. Okay, so what does 539 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 1: that mean. It's relevant because the way we sort of 540 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: patched up this symmetry is by adding charge to it. 541 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:22,440 Speaker 1: You can tell whether or not you're in the mirror world. 542 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,520 Speaker 1: By doing this experiment, um to see whether things are 543 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,520 Speaker 1: reversed right, whether the weak force is giving you left 544 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 1: handed stuff or right handed stuff. But if you in 545 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: the mirror you also flip the charge of everything, then 546 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,640 Speaker 1: the experiment looks exactly the same. Okay, Well, maybe step 547 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: us through a little bit, like what does it mean 548 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 1: that the weak force prefers left handed to right hand, 549 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: like it only interact with left handed things as far 550 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:51,000 Speaker 1: as we know, or or like it only works with 551 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: left handed things. Yeah. The w bosons in particular will 552 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: only interact with left handed matter particles or right handed 553 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 1: antimatter articles. So left handed electrons, left handed corks, left 554 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: handed neutrinos, or right handed positrons, right handed anti neutrinos, 555 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,960 Speaker 1: right handed anti corks. The z the z boson, which 556 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: is another particle that communicates the weak force, is even weirder. 557 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,520 Speaker 1: It will interact with both, but it prefers the left 558 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: hand like interacts with the left lefties more than the rightings. 559 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: Oh you're okay, now, I guess now. Now you're taking 560 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:31,560 Speaker 1: me through the particles that mediate that like helps us 561 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,480 Speaker 1: communicate these forces. Right, that's exactly right, because the weak 562 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: forces three of them. Okay, you're saying that the particles 563 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: that communicate the weak force, those are the ones that 564 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: have the preference. It's not like the concept of the 565 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 1: weak force as a preference, but the particles that communicated 566 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,120 Speaker 1: have a preference. Yeah. Well, the particles, they are the 567 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,040 Speaker 1: manifestations of the force. Right, we think about these particles 568 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: as doing the duty of the force the Jedi does. 569 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: The Jedi order exists without the Jedi, you know, they're 570 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,200 Speaker 1: carrying out the mark in orders, the Jedi hierarchy. So well, 571 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like saying like, it's not that 572 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,360 Speaker 1: the police force has a preference for left handed right 573 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: hand the people. It's more like, you know, it's like 574 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,959 Speaker 1: parking offers have a preference, but uh, you know, detectives 575 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:17,880 Speaker 1: have a different preference. You know what I mean, Like, 576 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,080 Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's different than saying that the whole 577 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: thing has a preference. Yeah, and you're right. And there 578 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: are three particles there, the media, the weak force, the 579 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: W plus, the W minus, and the Z those are 580 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,400 Speaker 1: sort of like the analogies of the photon. But for 581 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: the weak force and the W plus and the W 582 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: minus they only interact with left handed particles or right 583 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,160 Speaker 1: handed antiparticles. I see. It's like that's how the preference 584 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: manifests itself. It's like the messengers for this force have 585 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 1: a preference. That's why we can't communicate with right hand 586 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: the netrinos, because the messengers are kind of blinded to 587 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: that the other kind. Yeah, and that's how they discovered it. 588 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,479 Speaker 1: They took a bunch of atoms and they lined up 589 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,920 Speaker 1: their spins in a certain direction, and then they saw 590 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,040 Speaker 1: which do direction do the particles shootout? Do the shoot 591 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:03,760 Speaker 1: out in the same direction of the spin, in which 592 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,840 Speaker 1: case they'd be right handed. Do they shoot out against 593 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:08,440 Speaker 1: the direction of the spin, in which case they'd be 594 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,560 Speaker 1: left handed. And they sort of expected it to be 595 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,360 Speaker 1: balanced so you couldn't tell, Like they expected to get 596 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: the same number of right and left handed particles, so 597 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,160 Speaker 1: that you couldn't tell if you were in the mirror world. 598 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: But what they saw was a total shocker. Not only 599 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:24,440 Speaker 1: was it not balanced, but it was totally unbalanced, like 600 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 1: zero right handed particles a left handed particles were shot out. 601 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,240 Speaker 1: And so the weak force doesn't just prefer left handed particles, 602 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: It like maximally prefers it as far as we know. 603 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,280 Speaker 1: I mean, could it be producing right hand at once 604 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,720 Speaker 1: that we just can't see or interact with. It could 605 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: be there could be right handed particles that we don't 606 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,160 Speaker 1: interact with, but they don't interact with the weak force, 607 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: so they have to be some other new force for 608 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:48,960 Speaker 1: us to interact with them. If they interacted via the 609 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,000 Speaker 1: weak force, we would see it. Well, but I mean, 610 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: I guess one question is, how do we know it's 611 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,600 Speaker 1: the weak forces fault or those particles is fault? Like 612 00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,560 Speaker 1: what if it's our fault? You know, like what if 613 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:05,640 Speaker 1: we were parents, it's always our fault. Yeah, what do 614 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,520 Speaker 1: you mean our faults? Well, I mean, like maybe maybe 615 00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: there's a new kind of boson we'll call it the 616 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:15,520 Speaker 1: ex boson, which does interact with the right ten particles 617 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,239 Speaker 1: through the weak force, but we just don't interact with 618 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: the ex boson. Totally possible. Yeah, there could be a 619 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,280 Speaker 1: whole complicated sectors of particles out there that interact with 620 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: each other but not with us, and we just haven't 621 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,400 Speaker 1: seen them or haven't yet discovered them. Nobody's invited us 622 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: to the party. That's the whole hypothesis for dark matter, right. 623 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: We know that there's a lot of dark matter out there. 624 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:37,720 Speaker 1: We don't know what kind of particle is it. We 625 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,680 Speaker 1: don't know if it feels forces with um among those particles, 626 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: we don't know if there's like ten different dark matter 627 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: particles are always changing into each other. So there could 628 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,800 Speaker 1: be a whole complicated sectors and oceans of physics there 629 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: that we are not primy tune because we don't have 630 00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,080 Speaker 1: like a portal into them, no way to interact with 631 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: anything that's happening there. Right, If only we had that 632 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:02,800 Speaker 1: banana particle accelerator, it would open new doors to the 633 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,720 Speaker 1: universe for us. It would peel away the layers hidden 634 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,919 Speaker 1: from us. It would slip us into a new era 635 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,719 Speaker 1: of physics. Al Right, well, that's that. That makes it 636 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,239 Speaker 1: a bit clearer for me, and how the universe has 637 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,160 Speaker 1: this preference, and so let's get into why it matters 638 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,080 Speaker 1: to the universe and maybe to us. But first let's 639 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:37,320 Speaker 1: take a quick break, all right, Daniel, So the universe 640 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:41,400 Speaker 1: apparently prefers lefties. You know, I think left handed people 641 00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: always have felt pretty special, is my understanding. And now 642 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 1: they know why, and now they know why the universe 643 00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:50,880 Speaker 1: likes you better. Yeah, well, the weakest part of the 644 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,479 Speaker 1: universe at least likes them better. Oh no, that's not true. 645 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:57,719 Speaker 1: Gravity is the weakest force. Week the weak forse just 646 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: sort of has that name. But it it's fascinating, you know, 647 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,719 Speaker 1: not only that the universe is asymmetric that seems to 648 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: notice that there's a handedness, but that it prefers this one, 649 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: and you can wonder, like, why don't we live in 650 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,439 Speaker 1: a universe that's asymmetric the other way that prefers right 651 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,600 Speaker 1: handed particles right where the weak force interacts only with 652 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 1: the right handed particles. It's this kind of arbitrary seeming 653 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:27,360 Speaker 1: choice that makes us wonder about like the multiverse right, well, um, 654 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,840 Speaker 1: meaning like maybe it's weird that it has a preference, 655 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:33,040 Speaker 1: So there must be a twin out there who is 656 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,960 Speaker 1: right handed. Well, that's the symmetry in your brain screaming 657 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,120 Speaker 1: out for an explanation, right, I think there must be balanced, 658 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,080 Speaker 1: but there doesn't have to be. You know, imagine you're 659 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,200 Speaker 1: at the control panel of the universe in the first 660 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 1: moment of the Big Bang, when the laws of physics 661 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,280 Speaker 1: are being set in stone, and you have to choose 662 00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,319 Speaker 1: left handed or right handed universe. You know, how is 663 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: that choice made? Are there a billion universes out there 664 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:56,960 Speaker 1: and it's randomly assigned for each one, or is there 665 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,640 Speaker 1: some deep underlying principle of physics that demand hands that 666 00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:02,759 Speaker 1: the weak force be left handed? There could be no 667 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,280 Speaker 1: other way? Or could they could it just flip the coin? 668 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,080 Speaker 1: It could be We we don't know, Like according to 669 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,719 Speaker 1: our current understanding, you could write consistent laws of physics 670 00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: where the weak force um prefers them equally, or the 671 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: weak force prefers only right handed particles, or were prefers 672 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,759 Speaker 1: one by a little bit. We don't understand why it 673 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:24,960 Speaker 1: is this way. Does it have to be this way? 674 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,080 Speaker 1: We have no reason to believe it has to be 675 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 1: this way, and yet it is so. That seems to 676 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,120 Speaker 1: me like a clue. Right, do we know in people 677 00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:35,520 Speaker 1: why some people are left handed or right handed? And 678 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 1: does it depend on genes or is it just some 679 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,920 Speaker 1: random process um Well, based on my deep expertise in 680 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:44,959 Speaker 1: biology from being married to biologists, is she right handed 681 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,799 Speaker 1: or left hand? She's right handed, but we have some 682 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,960 Speaker 1: lefties in her family. There's actually two layers of answer there. 683 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,000 Speaker 1: One is people like what they prefer to write with, 684 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,640 Speaker 1: and we're mostly right handed. We don't know why, And 685 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,160 Speaker 1: it's again a great question, like was that just an 686 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:02,359 Speaker 1: arbitrary choice that the brain decided to specialize and this 687 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,239 Speaker 1: side of the brain is better at this, and the 688 00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:06,000 Speaker 1: other side of the brain is better at that, And 689 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 1: maybe there were equal populations at some point and then 690 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,480 Speaker 1: it just sort of randomly drifted in one direction. We 691 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:14,760 Speaker 1: just don't know. Um. And then there's this deeper question 692 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: about the chirality of molecules in life. All the molecules 693 00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:23,960 Speaker 1: in life, including d NA, have a corality that's right handed, 694 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: which means they have the same sort of um orientation 695 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:31,360 Speaker 1: when you rotate the object right and like molecules have 696 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:36,360 Speaker 1: a mirror image version of themselves too. Precisely, every single 697 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,359 Speaker 1: organic molecules right handed. And if you were fed like 698 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: food made out of left handed molecules, you couldn't eat it, 699 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:48,520 Speaker 1: like they die, you cannot process it. And so that's 700 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,400 Speaker 1: another just like seems like an arbitrary choice could have 701 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,560 Speaker 1: been something else. Um, we don't understand any of these things. 702 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 1: And I don't know if the if the mystery of 703 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: particle physics handedness is connected to those at all, because 704 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,680 Speaker 1: it's definitely the other direction, or if this is just 705 00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:05,319 Speaker 1: sort of a mathematical connection where you can identify handedness 706 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,839 Speaker 1: and sort of see a similarity in the sort of question. Well, 707 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:12,560 Speaker 1: I see, huh, Like, um, like everything that might be 708 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:17,160 Speaker 1: possible would have a handedness preference or something like biology 709 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:21,960 Speaker 1: particles you know, like just a fundamental you know, property 710 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,720 Speaker 1: of of existing. Yeah, but it makes our universe interesting, 711 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,520 Speaker 1: and for example, the reason why the weak force is 712 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:33,239 Speaker 1: so weird and so left handed is one of the 713 00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 1: reasons why the Higgs boson is so fascinating. What do 714 00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:39,319 Speaker 1: you mean, Well, the Higgs boson, what it does is 715 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,920 Speaker 1: it connects the left and right handed particles together to 716 00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,920 Speaker 1: give them mass. It interacts with the left and the right. 717 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,160 Speaker 1: It touches, it talks to both of them, and to 718 00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,680 Speaker 1: talking to them together is how it gives those particles mass. 719 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,919 Speaker 1: And neutrinos we don't know. We think they have mass, 720 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: but we don't quite really know how much mass they 721 00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:58,560 Speaker 1: have and how they get the mass, and do they 722 00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:00,600 Speaker 1: get it from the Higgs boson or not. It's a 723 00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 1: whole bit complicated question. But the Higgs, it treats the 724 00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,600 Speaker 1: left and the right totally equally and sort of combines 725 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,960 Speaker 1: them into one combined particle that has a specific mass. Right, 726 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:13,760 Speaker 1: But I guess the main point is that the universe 727 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,480 Speaker 1: has a preference for left or right hand. It is, 728 00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,680 Speaker 1: it seems, but we don't know why it has that preference. Right, 729 00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: it's a big mystery. Right, And it's weird. Yeah, it 730 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,640 Speaker 1: is weird. And if it wasn't for this little effect 731 00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: in the weak force, which took a long time to discover. 732 00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,080 Speaker 1: We wouldn't even know, so it could have been that, 733 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,600 Speaker 1: you know what if the weak force was totally symmetric 734 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,240 Speaker 1: for some weird reason. Particles have handedness, but we didn't 735 00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:41,040 Speaker 1: even know, like that they have this property, Well, we 736 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 1: wouldn't care, I guess, right, I care? I care. I 737 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,160 Speaker 1: want to know the truth, man, not just what's relevant 738 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:50,480 Speaker 1: for some excises. You want to see all the features, 739 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:52,880 Speaker 1: even if you can't see the features, of course. I 740 00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:54,960 Speaker 1: want to know what does it mean to be a particle? 741 00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 1: All right? What are the number of labels you need 742 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,719 Speaker 1: to define a particle? Mass, spin, charged, color, flavor? Why 743 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,440 Speaker 1: all those things? What do they mean? Why this and 744 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,200 Speaker 1: why not that? Why not bananimists? To me, these are 745 00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,200 Speaker 1: really deep, fascinating questions about like the very nature of 746 00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,440 Speaker 1: the universe. So yeah, I want to know, Like if 747 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:13,880 Speaker 1: you found out half of all particles had an asterisk 748 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 1: next appin to them, But no, it didn't matter at 749 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,520 Speaker 1: all for anything else, Like nobody would care, but you 750 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,759 Speaker 1: would care me and all the other particle physicists in 751 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,200 Speaker 1: the world, and anybody who cared about understanding the nature 752 00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:31,040 Speaker 1: of reality. But yeah, you're right. Nobody else you like, 753 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:34,759 Speaker 1: why does that have an asterisk? I see, all right, 754 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,520 Speaker 1: well I want to know why the universe has an asterisk? 755 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:40,520 Speaker 1: All right? Well, I think this is all just a 756 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,440 Speaker 1: big lesson on ways in which we explore the universe. 757 00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:47,920 Speaker 1: You know, we look for interesting phenomenon and interesting preferences 758 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: that the universe has, and that tells us something about 759 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:53,920 Speaker 1: how it's all put together. Yeah, and we don't understand 760 00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:57,400 Speaker 1: the importance um and the ramifications sometimes of these things. 761 00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:00,279 Speaker 1: Like people thought about particle handedness as sort of an 762 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,640 Speaker 1: abstract idea a hundred years ago when particles were first 763 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: being understood. They thought, now, whatever, it's just a mathematical curiosity. 764 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,480 Speaker 1: It's not relevant, and then later turned out to be relevant, 765 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:12,600 Speaker 1: and it might even turn out to be more relevant. 766 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:15,719 Speaker 1: Maybe we'll discover a new force that's very powerful and 767 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,400 Speaker 1: does prefers left to right or right to left or 768 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,319 Speaker 1: something like that. So it's it's worth just sort of 769 00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:24,160 Speaker 1: like exploring and trying to understand because you never know 770 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,280 Speaker 1: where the next big discovery is going to be. Yeah, 771 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:29,480 Speaker 1: it would be pretty cool. Would you like Daniel to 772 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:34,600 Speaker 1: have a hand in that discovery? Only, but only if 773 00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,520 Speaker 1: it's a left hand. I'd like to discover it. And 774 00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:39,160 Speaker 1: then I've got like you to give me a hand 775 00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,600 Speaker 1: when I did. You'd like to get both your hands 776 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,040 Speaker 1: on this discovery. I just want to get my hands dirty, okay. 777 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,280 Speaker 1: And that with that, we've exhausted all the bad puns, Daniel, 778 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,400 Speaker 1: so maybe we should wrap it up. That's right, we've 779 00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,080 Speaker 1: done all the left handed punts and the right handed punts. Well, 780 00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:56,640 Speaker 1: thank you all for listening to me. This is a 781 00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,000 Speaker 1: fascinating question about the sort of deep nature of the universe, 782 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 1: us in this stuff that makes it up, and how 783 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,040 Speaker 1: we understand it in terms of our macroscopic ways of thinking, 784 00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:10,640 Speaker 1: flavor of color, spin, and now left handedness and right handedness. Yeah, 785 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,000 Speaker 1: so we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us. 786 00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,839 Speaker 1: On the other hand, we're not done yet. We're gonna 787 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,920 Speaker 1: do the mirror mirror image of this podcast episode, but 788 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:23,879 Speaker 1: the whole thing backwards, the back course, and we'll say 789 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:27,600 Speaker 1: the universe has a preference for right handed particles. We've 790 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:32,239 Speaker 1: got to do it backwards and positively charged. And where 791 00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:36,920 Speaker 1: the jokes are good this time, that's right, where I 792 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,000 Speaker 1: make the jokes and you laugh at them all right, 793 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:42,480 Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for tuning in, and I hope that podcast 794 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,120 Speaker 1: reached a parody of our other ones and it's not 795 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:55,640 Speaker 1: a parody of itself. See you next time. Before you 796 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,600 Speaker 1: still have a question after listening to all these explanations, 797 00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,040 Speaker 1: please drop us a line and we'd love to hear 798 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,520 Speaker 1: from you. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and 799 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,560 Speaker 1: Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's one Word, or email 800 00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,440 Speaker 1: us at Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks 801 00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:14,080 Speaker 1: for listening and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the 802 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,279 Speaker 1: Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. For more 803 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 804 00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:24,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.