The Origin of the Universe 1
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 1958
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year's Reith Lecturer is Professor Bernard Lovell, the first Director of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Observatory, and Professor of Radio Astronomy at Manchester University. During the Second World War, he helped to develop radar systems for aircrafts, for which he received an OBE in 1946. He delivers six lectures on the wonders of the solar system in his series entitled 'The Individual and the Universe'.
In his fifth lecture entitled 'The Origin of the Universe 1', Professor Bernard Lovell explores how we observe the horizon of the universe, and contemplates how we formulate theories in terms of known physical laws. He gives examples of evolutionary models and explains the implications of this evolutionary theory.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures. |
| 0:04.7 | This lecture in the series The Individual and the Universe, given by Bernard Lovell, was originally broadcast in 1958. |
| 0:14.0 | This is the BBC Home Service, the Reith Lectures. |
| 0:19.3 | We're now broadcasting the fifth of Professor A.Cll's six lectures on the individual and the universe. |
| 0:26.6 | Tonight's broadcast is the first of two, dealing with the origin of the universe. |
| 0:31.6 | Professor Lovell. |
| 0:35.6 | This week and next week, I want to talk to you about the problem of the origin of the universe. |
| 0:41.6 | I suppose it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that this is the greatest challenge to the intellect which faces man, |
| 0:48.5 | and I cannot pretend that I have any new solution to offer you. |
| 0:52.9 | However, you may have gathered from my earlier talks that today the air is alive with a new hope and expectancy, |
| 1:00.0 | because our new instruments may be reaching out so far into space that we may soon be able to speak with more confidence. |
| 1:07.0 | I am going to set out the problem as I see it, and I hope that you will get an idea of these vast cosmological issues |
| 1:14.6 | and of the implications of the alternative solutions which lie ahead. |
| 1:19.6 | At the end, I should tell you what I think about it all as an ordinary human being. |
| 1:25.6 | We've seen that observational astronomy tells us about the universe |
| 1:30.9 | as it exists out to distances of about 2,000 million light years. |
| 1:36.4 | At that distance, we're seeing the universe as it existed 2,000 million years ago. |
| 1:43.3 | Within this vast area of space and time, |
| 1:46.0 | we can study the innumerable stars and galaxies, |
| 1:49.0 | and from these observations, |
| 1:51.0 | we can attempt to infer the probable nature |
| 1:54.0 | and extent of the cosmos beyond the range of observations. |
... |
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