How We Measure the Universe
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2019
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How to Measure the Universe
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by comedian Jo Brand, and physicists Prof Jo Dunkley and Dr Adam Masters to look at how we go about measuring our universe, from measuring the contents of atmospheres of planets and moons at the outer edges of our solar system to looking far back in time to study the very earliest beginnings of the cosmos. Our ability to learn about phenomena and worlds that seem almost impossibly out of reach, now give us an incredible insight into the universe we occupy, and how we got here. Brian and Robin find out about some of the big new missions providing information into our own solar system and beyond, and find out what big questions in cosmology still remain a tantalising challenge?
Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Hello, hello. |
| 0:06.1 | We used to be the centre of a conveniently small cosmos |
| 0:09.5 | with a sky made of crystal spheres |
| 0:11.6 | and only the peculiar path of Mars to worry about. |
| 0:14.4 | But as usual, science couldn't leave it alone, could it? |
| 0:18.4 | No, so Galileo stuck his telescope in spots |
| 0:21.8 | and moonsircling around Jupiter. |
| 0:23.7 | Typically, the next thing you know, |
| 0:24.9 | we're stuck in the backwater of a galaxy |
| 0:26.4 | that's among two trillion other galaxies |
| 0:28.6 | with billions of planets in each and the universe |
| 0:30.3 | is expanding at 70 kilometres per second per mega-parsec. |
| 0:34.2 | Did it sometimes make your hunger |
| 0:35.6 | through a simpler time of inquisitions |
| 0:38.6 | and where truth was found out through fear and torture? |
| 0:41.9 | LAUGHTER |
| 0:43.4 | So the moral of the story, as you see it, Robin, |
| 0:45.7 | is that nature is unnecessarily complicated |
| 0:48.4 | and it will be better in any case if we knew less. |
| 0:50.4 | Yep, that's roughly what I'm saying. |
| 0:51.7 | I want to go back to a time |
... |
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