The Fifth Dimension
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2018
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"What is the fifth dimension?" asks Lena Komaier-Peeters from East Sussex.
Proving the existence of extra dimensions, beyond our 3D universe, is one of the most exciting and controversial areas in modern physics. Hannah and Adam head to CERN, the scientific cathedral for quantum weirdness, to try and find them.
Theoretical physicist Rakhi Mahbubani explains why we think that dimensions beyond our own might exist. Adam meets Sam Harper, who has spent 14 years hunting for an elusive particle called the 'graviton', which could provide a portal to these extra dimensions.
But if they exist, where have these extra dimensions been hiding? Sean Carroll from Caltech explains various ideas that have been dreamt up by physicists, from minuscule hidden planes to gigantic parallel worlds.
Producer: Michelle Martin Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 0:10.8 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. |
| 0:16.5 | I like it. Hello, Curios. Extraordinaryly excited this morning, because we've got a really, |
| 0:26.0 | really super ridiculously special podcast today. We have been allowed else of the cupboard |
| 0:33.1 | that is our BBC studio. And I've got on an actual plane. Yeah. And travelled to a very |
| 0:40.9 | special place. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Where it's on. Where it's on. Let's just |
| 0:45.8 | set the scene here, because it's, what is it? It's nine o'clock in the morning, and we're |
| 0:50.3 | in the canteen at sunset. There's the Swiss mountains over there. Smells beautiful. |
| 0:56.1 | It smells so pure. It smells, it does. It smells like clean, fresh, Swiss air. Clean, fresh |
| 1:01.6 | Swiss air and protons. There are some addrons kicking around. Heady accent. It's so exciting |
| 1:08.4 | here. And the, the, the cafe is really the hub of this, this whole ridiculous 27 kilometer |
| 1:16.4 | wide circle of physics. Well, yeah, what you need to imagine is that you got all of the |
| 1:23.8 | physics nerds in the world distilled them down so they were extra physics-y, an extra |
| 1:30.4 | nerdy, and then just filled a building with them. And that's where we are. And when we talk |
| 1:36.0 | about these people as being nerds, really what we mean is these are our people. Yeah, obviously |
| 1:42.1 | I don't know, there's a bad thing. It's so, so comfortable here. It is like a cathedral |
| 1:48.2 | to science. They've got a joke about Neil's ball on their ping pong table. This is my |
| 1:53.0 | spirit of your home. I didn't, I didn't get that joke, by the way, |
| 1:56.0 | because this is like maths and physics and stuff, things that I don't really understand. |
| 1:59.7 | I've been here a couple of times now, and Sirn is in many ways, it's about 50% 1970s |
| 2:05.0 | and 80s, quite drab buildings, and 50% proton accelerators that could destroy the universe. |
| 2:11.4 | It's a nice sort of balance. I think, I mean that's what you want. Yeah, good mix. And also |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.