The Elephant In The Universe: Govert Schilling (#242)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2022

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos—some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation. Govert Schilling is an internationally acclaimed astronomy writer in the Netherlands. He is a contributing editor of Sky & Telescope, and his articles have appeared in Science, New Scientist and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. He wrote over fifty books (in Dutch) on a wide variety of astronomical topics, some of which have been translated into English, including Evolving Cosmos, Flash! The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe, The Hunt for Planet X, and Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries. In 2007, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid (10986) Govert after him. Find him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/govertschilling 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 A New Contender is Here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6A6myur--c 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 Neil deGrasse Tyson https://youtu.be/1kxgK6J4S5Y Michio Kaku: https://youtu.be/3to9ymn-XKI Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Topics Include: Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) What is the most convincing evidence for the existence of Dark Matter? When do you stop an experiment? What tool or technology is the most promising for unlocking more secrets of the Universe? Some secretive dark matter experiments. The Xenon Wars. Be my friend: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast.php 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	Our world has shrunk into the 30 centimeters between our eyes and our smartphone.
0:11.3	We are all zoomed in. Let's stop that and zoom out instead. Learn about the universe and your life will change forever for the better.
0:27.0	My crash course in astronomy will give you a fresh look at your own existence, a new perspective on life, and a gentle way to view the world and the people on it.
0:42.0	So put your smartphones away for a minute.
0:45.0	Give yourself some space in the most literal sense.
0:49.0	Don't look down at your screen.
0:52.0	Look up at the stars.
0:54.0	At the stars.
0:56.0	Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, it is I, your fearful host, Dr. Brian Keating,
1:04.2	proprietor of the Into the Impossible Podcast,
1:07.5	today coming to you with a phenomenal episode
1:10.7	featuring Govert Schilling, a Dutchman of great renown who has written many, many books
1:16.5	endorsed by some of your friends on the previous episodes of The Into the Impossible
1:21.3	Podcast, including Lord Martin Reese
1:24.3	The Astronomer Royal who reads the Queen Her Horoscope on a day of no he doesn't do that
1:28.6	but he endorsed Goveret's first book called Ripples in Space Time.
1:36.6	He not only endorsed it, wrote a forward.
1:38.5	And this book, The Elephant in the Universe that we're talking about today.
1:42.2	His next book was endorsed and forwarded by past guest,
1:45.8	multiple guest, Avi Lobe at Harvard. And we talk about the parallels between looking
1:50.6	for unseen extraterrestrials as obvious want to do and Goveret in his
1:57.8	depiction of astronomers, physicists, computational scientists,
	...

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