The Multiverse

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2008

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests will be leaving the studio, the planet and indeed, the universe to take a tour of the Multiverse. If you look up the word ‘universe’ in the Oxford English Dictionary you will find the following definition: “The whole of created or existing things regarded collectively; all things (including the earth, the heavens, and all the phenomena of space) considered as constituting a systematic whole.” That sounds fairly comprehensive as a description of everything, but for an increasing number of physicists and cosmologists the universe is not enough. They talk of a multiverse – literally many universes – to explain aspects of their theory, the character of the universe and the riddle of our existence within it. Indeed, compared to the scope and complexity of the multiverse, the whole of our known reality may be as a speck of sand upon a beach.The idea of a multiverse is still controversial, some argue that it isn’t even science, because it is based on an idea that we may never be able to prove or even see. But what might a multiverse be like, why are physicists and cosmologists increasingly interested in it and is it really scientific to discuss the existence of universes we may never know anything With Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge; Fay Dowker, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College; Bernard Carr, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, if you look up the word universe in the Oxford English dictionary you'll find a following definition
0:17.0	the whole of created or existing things regarded collectively
0:21.0	all things including the earth the heavens and all the
0:23.6	phenomena of space considered as constituting a systematic whole. That sounds fairly
0:29.3	comprehensive as a description of everything but for an increasing number of
0:32.3	physicists and
0:33.0	cosmologists the universe is not enough they talk of a multiverse literally many
0:37.8	universes to explain aspects of their theory the character of the universe and the
0:42.2	riddle of our existence within it.
0:43.7	Indeed, compared to the scope and complexity of the multiverse, the whole of our known reality,
0:48.6	may be as a speck of sand upon a beach.
0:51.3	But what might a multiverse be like? Why a physicist and
0:54.3	cosmologist increasingly interested in it? And is it really scientific to
0:58.1	discuss the existence of universes we may never know anything about? With me to
1:02.3	discuss the multiverse of Faye Dauker,
1:04.4	reader in theoretical physics at Imperial College.
1:07.4	Lord Reese, Martin Reese, present of the Royal Society
1:09.6	and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics
1:11.5	at the University of Cambridge and Bernard Carr,, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London.
1:17.6	Margin Reese, before we get to grips with the other universes, those that we can't see, What do we know about the universe we have?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.