70. Dr. Brian Keating — Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2019

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this wide-ranging conversation Science Salon host Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with cosmologist and inventor of the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment Dr. Brian Keating about the following topics:

how he almost won the Nobel Prize for his research that confirmed the inflationary model of the Big Bang
the problems with the Nobel Prize as it is currently structured, such as its limitation to only three people (when modern experiments are typically directed by a great many more); that it can’t be awarded posthumously (thereby neglecting people like Amos Tversky, who did as much work as his Nobel Prize-winning collaborator Daniel Kahneman); its neglect of many women scientists as deserving of the prize as their male counterparts, and especially how it distorts incentives to collaborate in science
his upbringing and what inspired him to probe the deepest questions about the nature of the cosmos and reality
what it’s like conducting research in the harsh conditions at the South Pole
what banged in the Big Bang and what there was before the Big Bang
the possibility (or not) of a multiverse model and a cyclical model of universes outside of, or before, our universe
the relationship between science and religion and why they need not always be in conflict
his Prager U video on why believing in the multiverse takes as much faith as believing in God.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and thank you everyone for tuning in to the Science Salon Podcast.
0:05.0	I'm your host Michael Schirmer and I bring you this show from California once a week
0:10.0	as part of the larger mission of the Skeptic Society to promote science and reason,
0:15.0	and to ensure that sound scientific viewpoints are heard worldwide.
0:20.0	As a 501c3 non-profit, we rely heavily on the ongoing and generous patronage of listeners like you.
0:28.0	To pledge your support, please visit our website at skeptic.com. Thank you. My guest today is Dr. Brian Keating. He is the author of
0:40.7	losing the Nobel Prize, a story of cosmology, ambition, and the perils of
0:47.1	science's highest honor. Brian is a professor of physics at the University of California San Diego, a fellow of the American Physical
0:56.0	Society, a commercially rated pilot, and the director of the Simon's Observatory.
1:01.6	He received the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for
1:05.7	Scientists and Engineers for his work on Bicep, Bicep, and he lives with his family
1:11.6	in Lohio, California.
1:12.7	So we get into all of his details of all of his work with the Bicep Observatory at the South Pole,
1:20.1	which, along with another experiment
1:23.4	basically confirmed inflation theory of immediately after the Big Bang,
1:29.6	I mean just like microseconds after the Big Bang,
1:32.0	what happened to the universe that way.
1:35.0	And as he explains in my conversation with them, why do they have to be at the South Pole
1:38.8	has to do with how much moisture is in the air for collecting the data that's coming from very, very far away.
1:47.0	Anyway, Brian came onto my radar because Ben Shapiro had mentioned him when I did Ben's show last year, and then I noticed he did a Prager U video for Dennis
1:57.6	Prager so I wondered why is this experimental physicist getting praise from Ben Shapiro and Dennis Preger.
2:05.0	Well first of all he is Jewish as are they but is he a theist? That's what I was
	...

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