How Strange Anomalies Lead to World-Changing Discoveries with Harry Cliff

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 If we look back at the history of physics, many of the biggest discoveries were triggered by strange anomalies that sparked curiosity in the minds of great scientists. But how do anomalies drive scientific discovery? What are some anomalies that are currently reshaping our understanding of the universe? And are we on the brink of discovering new physics? Here today to shine a light on this fascinating topic is none other than Harry Cliff. Harry is an experimental physicist at CERN and renowned science communicator who recently published “Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe.” In it, he examines a catalog of weird phenomena that simply can’t be explained by our long-established theories of the universe. Are these anomalies just accidents, or are they pointing us to new discoveries like they did many times in the past? Find out in our exciting conversation! — Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 00:34 Judging a book by its cover 02:25 From anomalies to discoveries 05:03 Understanding sigma and confidence in science 13:30 Muon g-2 and its implications 19:18 Neutrinos and the search for new physics 21:58 Hubble tension and the future of cosmology 24:58 LHCb experiment 33:37 The matter-antimatter asymmetry problem 37:39 Harry’s gut feeling on dark matter 42:10 The role of anomalies in scientific discovery 46:10 Black hole information paradox 46:57 The importance of skepticism 49:13 Outro — Additional resources: ➡️ Learn more about Harry Cliff: 💻 Website: https://www.harrycliff.co.uk/ 📚 Space Oddities on Amazon: https://a.co/d/eV4xhAv ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The people that have the instinct to follow those little clues that often make the biggest discoveries,
0:04.5	whether that's Penzias and Wilson and their microwave buzz or it's Rutherford and his blurry alpha
0:09.1	particles. It's those little strange things that you really need to pay attention to.
0:13.1	It's very rare that discovery reveals itself in a big flash in the way that maybe we've imagined
0:17.6	through the kind of popular tellings of the history of science.
0:19.9	Harry Cliff, welcome back to your second appearance on The Into the Impossible podcast.
0:23.9	So good to see you.
0:25.0	Great to be back, Brian.
0:26.1	And you've written a book about David Bowie this time.
0:28.9	Space Audit.
0:29.5	No, space audit.
0:30.4	Yeah.
0:32.5	So I was very pleased.
0:34.2	I didn't have to pay for the advertisements.
0:36.0	But there's two of my experiments mentioned
0:37.7	in this wonderful new book.
0:39.1	New in paperback, I should say.
0:40.5	I listened to it.
0:41.5	I read the hard copy and I bought the audible, but now the paperback is out.
0:45.1	So double congratulations there.
0:47.2	As is our want, I want you to take us through the cover, the title, the artwork, but also
0:52.5	the subtitle. I always love subtitles because that's the one thing
	...

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