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Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Paul Halpern: Flashes of Creation (#177)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. A prolific author, he has written sixteen science books and numerous articles. His interests range from space, time and higher dimensions to cultural aspects of science. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Literary Award, he has appeared on C-SPAN, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the PBS series "Future Quest," and "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special." Halpern's books include Time Journeys, Cosmic Wormholes, The Cyclical Serpent, Faraway Worlds, The Great Beyond, Brave New Universe, What's Science Ever Done for Us?, Collider, What's the Matter with Pluto?, Edge of the Universe, Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat, The Quantum Labyrinth, Synchronicity and Flashes of Creation. In his most recent book, Flashes of Creation, Professor Halpern breaks down the great debate over the Big Bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe. In Flashes of Creation, Paul Halpern Shows that just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half-baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned out to be right — mostly — and Hoyle, along with his many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: "The Big Bang." Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, imagination, and the universe itself. Support our Sponsors! LinkedIn Jobs! Use this link to post your first job ad for FREE LinkedIn.com/impossible biOptimizers for better sleep https://magbreakthrough.com/impossible Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating And please join my mailing list to get resources and enter giveaways to win a FREE copy of my book (and more) http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 📝 🎥 🎥 Watch my most popular videos🎥 🎥 Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Weinstein and Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sheldon Glashow: https://youtu.be/a0_iaWgxQtA?sub_confirmation=1 Michael Saylor The Physics of Bitcoin https://youtu.be/CaN_CDKqXOg?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuqyAvX7Wo?sub_confirmation=1 Jill Tarter https://youtu.be/O9K9OBd3vHk?sub_confirmation=1 Sara Seager Venus LIfe: https://youtu.be/QPsEDoOTU6k?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1 Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1 Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM 🏄‍♂️ Find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔥 Find me on Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating 📖 Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA 🔔 Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 ✍️Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 📧Join my mailing list: http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php 👪Join my Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/losingthenobelprize 🎙️Please subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-impossible/id1169885840?mt=2 🎙️Listen on all other platforms: https://wavve.link/into A production of http://imagination.ucsd.edu/ Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

0:07.0

Welcome everybody to another sure to be thrilling and fascinating episode of the Into the

0:13.9

Impossible podcast because it features my friend my

0:18.8

inspiration and muse in some of my writing and that's Paul Halpern is a professor at the University of the Sciences in

0:25.8

Philadelphia, the author of many many books, the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and the fellow of the

0:31.7

American Physical Society. He lives near the cradle of our

0:36.0

democracy in Philadelphia. Paul, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks

0:41.1

so much for having me back on your show Brian. This book is so so fascinating.

0:46.7

I thought I knew most of the stories in it. I thought I understood the stakes, which could not be bigger.

0:51.6

It's really the creation of all that is.

0:54.3

The matter that matters.

0:55.6

Yeah, the matter that matters, the protons, the neutrons,

1:00.1

the crutons that are so important to me and a lot of it takes place here in

1:04.8

La Jolla in San Diego where UCSD is located so it's delightful and thank you so

1:09.7

much for giving me an acknowledgement in the book I don't deserve it but I will take anything I can

1:14.6

get from you because you are one of my inspirations when I write Paul.

1:18.4

Thank you so much for coming on.

1:20.0

This book will definitely get into all the details of, although I never like to give it away.

1:24.3

It's out today when this video comes out.

1:26.4

It's sure to be a bestseller and for all the right reasons, this book characterizes the struggle to understand the universe in its first and earliest moments

1:36.9

and to understand the contradistinction between an eternal universe or a steadily evolving

1:42.3

universe in a static steady state perhaps from all eternity

...

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