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TED Talks Daily

The missing 96 percent of the universe | Claire Malone

TED Talks Daily

TED

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4.111.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've misplaced the building blocks of the cosmos -- and particle physicists like Claire Malone are on a mission to find them. Despite scientists hitting a "major snag" in uncovering what exactly makes up dark matter and dark energy, she explains how questioning our fundamental understanding of nature itself invites a different, more meaningful perspective universally.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu. We're about to hear from physicist Claire Malone, whose work asks the most fundamental questions about the universe. And the news she shares with us about what she's learned is wild. I should mention that because of cerebral palsy, she gives her talk with a synthesized voice to aid her.

0:21.7

And as you take a listen, you'll learn how her personal story was particularly linked to her success in the field.

0:30.9

Have you ever taken your 3D glasses off at the cinema?

0:35.1

The picture looks blurry and it can be difficult to see exactly what is happening.

0:40.3

This is because 3D glasses trick our brain into forming a 3D image, by controlling the

0:46.3

color of the light that each eye sees, using a different filter in each lens.

0:51.3

You could say, sometimes seeing things from a different perspective, can make them look clearer, and easier to understand. This is exactly the approach that has helped me with my research, looking to answer some of the most fundamental questions we have about our universe. To put this in a different context, I could see some people

1:12.9

finding my voice difficult to understand due to my cerebral palsy, as an insurmountable barrier

1:19.1

to giving a TED talk. Even if I saw that there are alternative ways for people who have difficulties

1:25.4

with communication to speak to an audience, I could be put

1:29.3

off from using them, thinking that this dry computerized voice has no life in it, and would put

1:35.5

you all to sleep within five minutes. Alternatively, I could see the dodgy, female, British

1:42.4

synthesized voice as something to be embraced.

1:45.7

Pepper this talk with jokes and gags, sometimes at the poor communication aids expense,

1:51.9

and, hopefully, make you laugh and keep you engaged with what I want to tell you about.

1:57.9

Luckily for you, I have chosen the second option. And what do I want to tell you about? I'm here to tell you about. Luckily for you, I have chosen the second option. And what do I want to tell you about?

2:03.9

I'm here to tell you that we have completely misplaced 96% of the entire universe, everything in existence.

2:12.0

That's an awful lot of missing socks. I am a particle physicist, analyzing data from the large Hadron Collider,

2:20.1

at Sir in Switzerland, to answer the most fundamental questions about our universe. At school,

2:27.0

I was the archetypal geeky kid, just wanting to get the other lessons done to get into the

2:32.6

science lab. My work now focuses on what I truly

2:36.3

believe is one of the greatest achievements of scientific research in the last century,

...

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