Saul Perlmutter: Third Millennium Thinking
The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss
Lawrence M. Krauss
4.4 • 592 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2024
⏱️ 146 minutes
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Summary
Saul Permutter won the Nobel Prize for his eventual role in the discovery of dark energy. In 1996 when I was lecturing at LBL he bet me that he would show dark energy didn't exist. His group had been measuring supernova distances for years, in hopes of determining the deceleration rate of the universe. Instead, after recalibrating some of his earlier data, his group and an independent group discovered the universe was actually accelerating.
That is the beauty of science, it supersedes any individual prejudices, and scientists actually change their minds if the data requires it. This is one of the many important characteristics of science that Saul and his collaborators discuss in their recent book, Third Millennium Thinking. It is a good read, full of useful examples about how scientific thinking is important in the world beyond just science.
Saul and I had a lively conversation about science, the scientific method, and his own experiences as a scientists. It was an enriching and enlightening discussion, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, and welcome to the Origins podcast. I'm your host Lawrence Krause. In this episode, I had the |
| 0:14.9 | chance to talk to a longstanding colleague, Saul Permanuator, who won the Nobel Prize in 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of something near and dear to me, |
| 0:24.8 | the fact that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and the apparent fact that the dominant energy of the universe resides in empty space. |
| 0:34.7 | This was a fun discussion because it wasn't just about Saul's own scientific |
| 0:39.3 | background in history, which we covered at the beginning, but in fact, I wanted to focus on this |
| 0:45.0 | because of a new book that he wrote. And that new book is a collaborative effort with two other |
| 0:51.6 | colleagues, a psychologist and a philosopher called Third Millennium |
| 0:55.3 | Thinking. And it's really about how scientific thinking can be important in affecting the way |
| 1:00.2 | we think about the world. Obviously a subject I've talked a lot about in this podcast and in my own |
| 1:05.2 | work. But we had a great discussion of his own background and the many tools that scientists that the people can use |
| 1:12.9 | from science to make the world a better place and and also the limitations of those tools. |
| 1:18.3 | And it was a really enjoyable discussion, including a frank discussion of some of his own work |
| 1:23.3 | and some of my work and how that fits fit in. I think listeners who want to learn more about science and about |
| 1:30.4 | Saul's science, |
| 1:31.6 | but about the importance of science in the world will really benefit from listening to this |
| 1:36.4 | discussion, which I really enjoyed, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. |
| 1:40.0 | You can watch it ad-free on our Critical Massstack site and subscriptions to that site, paid subscriptions, will go to supporting the Origins Project Foundation, which produces this podcast. |
| 1:53.1 | Or you can watch it or listen to it on our YouTube channel or listen to it on any podcast listening site. |
| 1:59.0 | And no matter how you listen to it or watch it |
| 2:01.1 | i hope you'll enjoy it and i hope you'll consider supporting the foundation so with no further ado |
| 2:06.4 | saul permuter well saul thanks so much for being on the program i really appreciate it's been a |
| 2:12.9 | long time so i've been with you in person but we go back long way, and so it's nice to see you again. |
... |
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