Across the Universe (Update)
Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2016
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Where do you find crazy ideas and some of the world's smartest people? In theoretical physics - the world of parallel universes, super strings and black holes. We go on a whirlwind tour of the universe - from the multiverse to an imaginary walk on Mars. Mathematical Universe - Max Tegmark; Copernicus - Dava Sobel; Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Cosmic Wonder; Walking on Mars - Craig Childs; Steven Weinberg's Dangerous Idea; Sean Carroll's Very Big Picture.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for WPR comes from the Hampton Inn and Suites in downtown lacrosse near the convention center and regional airport for business travelers, with a boardroom and a conference center available. Hampton Lacrosse Downtown.com. |
| 0:18.4 | It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strange Champs. |
| 0:21.4 | Today, across the universe. |
| 0:23.6 | One thing we love to do on this show is talk about big ideas, |
| 0:27.1 | and there's no bigger idea, literally, than the universe. |
| 0:30.7 | Today we travel across time and space, |
| 0:33.9 | wonder what it would be like to walk on Mars |
| 0:35.9 | and reflect on an unforgettable childhood visit to a planetarium. |
| 0:40.5 | I was born in the Bronx, New York, where I pretty much thought I'd seen all the stars visible. |
| 0:45.3 | It was about 11 stars at night. |
| 0:47.2 | And here were thousands. |
| 0:48.4 | And in fact, I thought it was a hoax at first. |
| 0:50.7 | I would later recognize that, of course, that was the real sky. |
| 0:56.1 | And I was struck, star, of course, that was the real sky, and I was struck, |
| 1:02.8 | star struck, really, by it. But first, there is actually one thing that could be bigger than the universe, and that's the multiverse. Theoretical physicist Max Tegmark is one of the leading |
| 1:08.5 | proponents of the idea that we could be living in just one of many universes. |
| 1:14.2 | Steve Paulson caught up with him recently to talk about his new book, Our Mathematical Universe. |
| 1:19.3 | Max, you have a rather audacious theory that reality is ultimately a mathematical structure, not just that math describes our universe, but that our universe |
| 1:27.5 | is made out of math, that it's a giant mathematical object. Can you explain what you mean? |
| 1:33.5 | Yeah, this sounds kind of crazy. We look around ourselves in the world, and it doesn't look |
| 1:38.5 | particularly mathematical at all. But yet, we physicists have, of course, discovered that everything |
| 1:43.7 | in our universe is made of these elementary particles like quarks and electrons. And if you ask, what properties does an electron actually have? You know, my friend Anthony's little son was shocked when his dad told him that electrons don't actually have a color. He was like, what? How can an object not have a color? But now, as far as |
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