WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:02.960 Do you know what real power is? It's knowing you're 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.719 on the same rate for energy all day, every day 3 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:08.679 with a smart all day plan from board Gosh Energy, 4 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.039 save up to eight hundred and eighty euro on dual 5 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.519 fuel plus get a two hundred and thirty five You're 6 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:17.480 a welcome bonus switch today at Boardgosh Energy dot Ie 7 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:20.519 Board Gosh Energy. Know your power. 8 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:22.399 Estimating on your bill at twenty six hundred and twenty 9 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.920 nine Your new customers only thirst of percentis Kento Smart 10 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:27.280 all Day Electricity unierates in twenty nine percent of GUSSA. 11 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:29.839 You see Pocusha Energy dot E for fulltiesncies. 12 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:33.439 Oh hey, it's your three half scratched off to do 13 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.439 lists that you really should combine into one. But then 14 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:38.880 you'd have to confront the tasks that you want to 15 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:41.439 do the least. Hi Ali Ward, what is life? Where 16 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:44.320 do we come from? Why do I have thoughts? Where 17 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.560 does my spirit go when I die? Does anything matter? 18 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:49.039 Does anyone know anything? These are just some of the 19 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:52.560 exitential crisis you're about to enjoy, all under the guise 20 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:56.840 of understanding particle physics. It gets spooky and I love it. 21 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.960 Come along, So you're about to meet u see. Riversides 22 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:04.719 Associate professor of theoretical particle physics who studied mathematics and 23 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:08.000 physics at Stanford and Cambridge, got a pH d at Cornell. 24 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:12.840 He's also so lovable. Oh you don't love him. So 25 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.680 his life's work and passion is figuring out how an invisible, 26 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:21.040 mysterious matter fits in our understanding of a universe and nature. 27 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:24.040 So we recorded this before the holidays, and I have 28 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:27.079 been hanging on to it so excited to finally release 29 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.319 it into the cosmos and into your face. So I 30 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:32.280 went to campus on what I later found out was 31 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:35.920 the very first day of UC Riverside's fall semester. It 32 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.120 was a broiling hot September afternoon. I took my little 33 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:42.000 grubby purse full of chords and microphones. I showed up 34 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.760 at his office door like someone waiting to meet a 35 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:45.439 Broadway star. 36 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:49.159 Hello, I'm ally it's such a pleasure to matri It's 37 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.840 I Justica cotest for I left. 38 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:52.959 It's so good to me. 39 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:56.040 Yeah, I'm super excited. I feel like I should be 40 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:59.760 interviewing you now. Is there anything you need, like, oh 41 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.719 my god, I mean other than like a time machine 42 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.519 and a hairdresser than that. 43 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:07.879 So we chatted in his office and I made him 44 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.360 tell me his life story and also explain things that 45 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:13.599 are way above my own pay grade. But before we 46 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:15.560 get into it, just a quick thanks to patrons of 47 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:17.919 the show who make it possible, and you can join 48 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.400 and submit questions for just a dollar a month. We're 49 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.960 about to record a new slew of episodes, so get 50 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.560 them in before then. Also, thank you to everyone who 51 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.960 rates and reviews the show. I honestly read every single 52 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.759 one and his evidence. Thank you to Hyungski, who wrote 53 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.599 Ali is the Internet data I never knew I needed, 54 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.319 and also that I've always wanted. Beware, you can't just 55 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:40.599 listen to one of these, so carve out like four 56 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.319 to nine years of your life to obsess over everyology. 57 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:46.120 So thank you Hyanski. I appreciate it, and every single 58 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:48.520 person who wrote a review this week I read it. 59 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.560 So Okay, onto the episode. What is universe made of? 60 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:56.520 How do stars die? Why are we colliding particles? Underground? 61 00:02:56.759 --> 00:03:01.639 Who first noticed dark matter? What is the best vintage insults? 62 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.879 Are there space ghosts strapping to rearrange your perceptions of existence? 63 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:10.520 Get ready to cut some banks? Boy, Howdy you're gonna 64 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:12.639 text a crush and maybe buy a box of GROLSCPT 65 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.520 cookies because it's about to get weird with theoretical particle physicist, 66 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:21.479 dark matter expert and Scoto hilologist doctor Flip to Nato. 67 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:43.879 So my name is Flip Tonato. My pronouns are he him. 68 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:50.919 Mm hm doctor doctor, yeah, doctor flip and recently tenured, 69 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.479 recently tenured. Yeah, when did that happen? 70 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:56.000 This happened officially July first. 71 00:03:56.560 --> 00:04:00.960 That's huge congratulation. Thank you. I don't fully understand what 72 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.759 it takes to get tenure because I'm not an academic, 73 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:08.520 but I know it's a really big deal. Did you celebrate, I'll. 74 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:16.720 Be really honest with you, we didn't. So the story 75 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:20.560 is getting to that path. That last year is a 76 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:25.480 roller coaster, and so I had basically felt every single 77 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:29.120 possible emotion you could feel about this twice or three 78 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:31.519 times by the time we actually got the letter and 79 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:35.360 I thought, okay, there was the exhaustion, the excitement, the fear, 80 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:38.399 everything it all had been felt. Me and my partner. 81 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.079 We'd all been on that journey several times. Then I 82 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:43.839 was visiting my parents. I still have my parents addresses, 83 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:47.839 my main address, and there is an envelope completely nondescript, 84 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:52.199 and it looked like every other envelope i'd gotten from UCR. 85 00:04:52.519 --> 00:04:55.360 I said, tear it open, just to make sure what 86 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:57.720 caused it now, And then it was a letter from 87 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:02.959 the chancellor saying congratulations. And so I still have the 88 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:04.920 paper somewhere, but there's a big tear on the side 89 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:06.240 because I'm sloppy about it. 90 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:09.360 Oh, what a great surprise. I hope there are some 91 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.720 like jalapeno poppers and like whatever is the best way 92 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:16.079 to celebrate tenure track I would go to a buffet probably, 93 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:16.879 I appreciate that. 94 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:18.839 Well, we'll see, we'll see, Okay. 95 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:21.160 So I don't come from an academic family, so I'm 96 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:23.879 a little murky on the concept of tenure or what 97 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:26.720 the protocol is for celebration. But it means that it's 98 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.600 like indefinite employment at that institution. You really have to 99 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.360 screw up for them to fire you. It's lifelong job security. 100 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.839 From what I gather, It's like having your crush proposed 101 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:41.279 to you, except with a letter that looks like junk mail, 102 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:43.480 and no one kisses you on the mouth. Also, I 103 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:46.839 didn't know that some scientists get to name their labs 104 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.800 after themselves. I thought our Trickology guest doctor Valerie Horsley 105 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:54.720 worked at the Horsey Lab by chance or because of 106 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:57.399 a family legacy, and she's like, no, you get to 107 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:02.160 name your lab after yourself. So asking smart people, unsmart questions. 108 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:05.639 It's why we're here, and now, okay, help me out 109 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:08.879 with theology here. Oh gosh, okay, I have wait, I 110 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:12.399 have some propositions, a couple of potential ologies. Okay, please 111 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:16.600 know I don't know what these words mean. Non buryonic highlology. 112 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:19.399 Highlology is the study of matter. Oh I like that. 113 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:20.600 I'm gonna save that. 114 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.560 Yeah, okay, so highlology is matter, and I was looking 115 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:26.519 up what dark matter might be. And then also I've 116 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:31.319 seen in the literature dark matter cosmology or dark cosmology, 117 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:34.040 because physics obviously does not have anology, I mean. 118 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:34.800 Unfortunately not. 119 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:38.439 Do you ever hear like, how do people tend to 120 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:39.480 describe this field? 121 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:43.600 Okay, okay, so the highlology that that got me. So 122 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:48.040 usually the people doing theoretical dark matter it might be 123 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.040 their main focus. But we do a lot of general 124 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:54.120 purpose particle physics. So there's a sense in which the 125 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:56.639 thing that we work on our quantum fields. If we 126 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.839 want to be more specific, the particular types of things 127 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:02.800 work on our invisible so they're not actually dark, they're invisible. 128 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:07.040 And one of our senior theoretical physicists at UCR, like 129 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:10.199 the person who really founded our group, Ernest Ma, had 130 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:11.680 a paper that had a funny title. 131 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:15.879 A few selects from doctor Ma's publication collection twenty twenty 132 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:19.279 one's universal scotogenic for me on masses in left right 133 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:23.680 gauge model or his follow up dark su two gauge 134 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:28.680 symmetry and scotogenic direct nutrinos scutogenic Indeed. 135 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.519 And he used scotto, which is the Greek word for dark. Yes, 136 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.839 so scotology, which sounds a little bit dirty. Scotology would 137 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.399 also be a good one, but I think dark highlology 138 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:40.480 just sounds super cool. 139 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.720 Scotto highlology really means dark matter. 140 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:44.879 I like that. 141 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:46.360 We may have just pioneered. 142 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:48.360 That is really nice. 143 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:53.480 I contributed something to the field, my only possible contribution. Now, okay, 144 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.160 walk me back a little bit. Theoretical fields I think 145 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:02.319 you just mentioned. So let's start at the base. Is it? 146 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:05.639 Most people on Earth have no idea what you do? 147 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:07.399 What the fuck it is? 148 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:07.839 Yeah? 149 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.160 Yeah, all right, So we care about the fundamental building 150 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:14.639 blocks of matter, so we know there are atoms. Atoms 151 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:17.279 already these are already a hard sell if you really 152 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:20.839 think about it. We've never seen atoms. Maybe we have 153 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:25.399 these weird electron microscope pictures, but what do those actually mean? 154 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.560 But we're pretty happy that adams exist. And then you 155 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:30.680 just go down the rabbit hole. But the atoms are 156 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:36.039 the main idea that there's some unit of stuff. And 157 00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:38.840 maybe Einstein taught us that it's not just stuff, but 158 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:41.679 there's energy. Maybe there's a unit of energy. So the 159 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:47.200 quantum in quantum mechanics has to do with quantizing energy levels, 160 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:51.039 like there are discrete levels. I can't give you one 161 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:53.799 point five sense, I can give you one penny or 162 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:57.679 two pennies. And energy turns out to behave like that 163 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:01.080 in certain systems. And that was the thing about quantum 164 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:05.360 and twenty around the nineteen twenties. If we fast forward decades, 165 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:10.799 we build this edifice of theoretical physics, which is fairly mathematical, 166 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:13.960 but all to answer the question of what are the 167 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:17.720 fundamental things that, if you understood them, could describe slightly 168 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:21.519 bigger things and those that describes bigger things. And eventually 169 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:23.559 one of those things is an Adam and Adam's makeup 170 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:25.120 all these other stuff that we know. 171 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:30.080 And did you set out to become a theoretical physicist, 172 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:34.480 a dark matter expert? How does one land in? Like? 173 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:37.960 What I feel like is the hardest field possible? 174 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:43.600 All right, here is my origin story. I wanted to 175 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:46.559 be an author. Really, I had no idea why, but 176 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:50.279 I was very passionate about writing, the idea that one 177 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.759 could have a voice, and so growing up I was 178 00:09:53.799 --> 00:09:56.919 a huge fan of LeVar Burtons because of Reading Rainbow. 179 00:09:57.919 --> 00:09:59.720 Love love reading a Rainbow. 180 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:02.759 But you don't have to take my word for it. 181 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:07.000 So I would watch Reading Rainbow and at some point 182 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.120 in the back of my mind I realized, this person 183 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.519 who does reading Rainbow is also on this TV show 184 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:16.519 Star Trek, And in high school I started watching Star 185 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:18.440 Trek a little bit. It was still on at the time. 186 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:21.600 I picked up the book The Physics of Star Trek 187 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:25.879 by Lawrence Krauss, and this was a really fun ride 188 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:28.799 because it was the first time I thought about a 189 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.759 scientific subject as something where there are open questions, and 190 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:37.720 these open questions are fun and creative and exciting and 191 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:39.799 any time that I lost track of it being exciting, 192 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:43.879 I just watch LeVar Burton as Jordan LaForge as a 193 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:44.679 chief engineer. 194 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.360 Well, oh my gosh. My sister and I used to 195 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:48.440 watch an extra. 196 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:50.559 Well it was the best. 197 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:53.879 Yeah, we can't change the gravitational constant of the universe, 198 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:56.039 but if we wrap a low level warkfield around that moon, 199 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:59.279 we could reduce its gravitational constant, make it lighter, so 200 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:00.000 we can push it. 201 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:03.600 So I think that's what got me into this idea 202 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:06.519 that hey, these black holes in the show, these are real. 203 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.039 We should understand these things. Or there are fundamental questions 204 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:15.000 that are not only abstract and things you'd find in textbooks, 205 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:19.600 but they're fun ideas. And it was the creative spark 206 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:21.840 that was really exciting that someone could write a science 207 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:25.600 fiction piece about these actual things. And that's what got 208 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:26.720 me going with physics. 209 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:28.159 Do you write still at all? 210 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:31.279 I was never a great writer, and you can ask 211 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.279 my collaborators that my paperwriting is slow and tortuous. But 212 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:39.519 I would like to eventually write something as a popular book. 213 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:41.480 Oh yeah, I feel like that is in your future. 214 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:45.360 And also, everyone who writes hates writing, Oh absolutely, everyone 215 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:48.039 hates it. And there's the old Dorothy Parker quote, I 216 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:51.240 hate writing, but I love having written, which is everyone 217 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.679 it's supposed to be torturous or else. I think you 218 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:58.879 don't care. But when it comes to matter and dark matter, 219 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:02.080 I mean it slow it way down for baby brains 220 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:05.320 like mine. But from what I understand, and the first 221 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.360 time I ever read this was like, Okay, all of 222 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:10.200 the matter that we can see and touch and feel 223 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:13.360 and everything makes up about fifteen percent. 224 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.360 Yeah, depending on how you're counting, but yeah, yeah, it's 225 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:16.480 a tiny fraction. 226 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.000 Like a third of that. So everything that you can 227 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.799 see and feel and touch and smell, that's five percent 228 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:29.960 of the universe's mass and energy. There's another ninety five 229 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:34.720 percent of pure mystery. So then what the fuck is 230 00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:36.279 everything else? That is? 231 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:36.720 What is? 232 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:39.919 Yeah, that is the This is the mind blowing thing. 233 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:43.600 We've known about dark matter indirectly for over one hundred years, 234 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:45.679 Like there's been evidence for this for over one hundred years, 235 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.320 and I think it hasn't been until fairly recently that 236 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.840 this has come to the forefront of we really ought 237 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:54.559 to figure out what this stuff is because, as you said, 238 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:59.840 we spend all of our lives learning science, art, history, 239 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:02.799 everything you learned from a textbook is basically about that 240 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:08.200 really tiny slice of visible normal matter and the history 241 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:11.039 of that normal matter in this universe and in this world, 242 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:14.639 in our culture. But it turns out for every see 243 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:17.360 what's the fraction. I think if you look at the 244 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:20.639 amount of energy, so energy is a good measure for stuff. 245 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:25.279 Twenty five percent of the universe is made of dark matter, 246 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:27.919 and only five percent is made of the stuff that 247 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:31.039 we're used to. And so there's five times more dark 248 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:34.879 matter than ordinary stuff. And in fact it's so much more. 249 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:37.960 That we look at our galaxy. We think our galaxy 250 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.960 is huge. Our galaxy is almost everything, everything we possibly 251 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.600 care about. Our galaxy is only here because it is 252 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:47.519 swimming in an ocean of dark matter that provides the 253 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:50.200 gravitational pull to keep the galaxy there, like the galaxy 254 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:54.240 formed because there was dark matter. So where we are 255 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:58.240 right now with scutto highlology is that we're doing. Yes, 256 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:02.879 this is the fish scientist discovering for the first time 257 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:05.360 that there's this thing water that we're swimming through. We 258 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.480 should figure out what this water is. Wow. 259 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.799 And now the other, let's say, is the other seventy 260 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:13.080 percent dark energy good yeah. 261 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.279 So that is a great I was both hoping and 262 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:16.960 hope and not hoping that you would bring that up. 263 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:21.080 So twenty five percent dark matter, five percent ordinary matter. 264 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:23.759 That doesn't add up to one hundred percent, and so 265 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:27.080 the rest is indeed dark energy. And I'm excited that 266 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.000 I have no idea what dark matter is and that 267 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:31.679 there are great things to do in that field. I 268 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:33.840 have no idea what it is dark energy. I have 269 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:36.559 no fucking idea, and I'm terrified. And that's there's a 270 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:40.440 reason why I don't work on it. It's one of. 271 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:43.960 Those shows, right, of course, very much, especially this topic. 272 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.759 There's gonna be a lot of boggling, trust me. So 273 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.159 what I mean, Okay, so about one hundred years ago 274 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:55.720 was that when we realized I say we the Royal 275 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.960 we hear like that something is not adding up that. Yeah, 276 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:01.399 when did we realize that? 277 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:03.559 I think this was about one hundred years ago the 278 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:08.279 first astronomical observations were and this is what was really 279 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:13.279 really trippy. The origins of Scottohilology were really in astronomy, 280 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.840 and people would look at galaxies and look at how 281 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:19.960 fast stars were moving in those galaxies and just using 282 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.480 ordinary non fancy Newtonian physics, the type of physics that 283 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.799 students grown over in high school. They figured out that 284 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:31.960 these stars around, moving around these galaxies were going a 285 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.639 little bit too fast. It's as if there was more 286 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:39.279 gravity than they had accounted for just by counting stars. 287 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:41.799 And I'm going to do a great disservice to my 288 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:46.919 astronomer colleagues. But for the most part, the astronomy field said, huh, 289 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:53.200 that's curious. For maybe fifty years, sixty years, because there 290 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:56.360 are lots of curiosities in astronomy. Right over the next 291 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:58.879 one hundred years, we had more and more mounting evidence 292 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.039 that this additional gravity, which in the nineteen twenties who 293 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:05.879 Carries if Red just didn't happen to count all the 294 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:08.960 stars correctly. But now there's more and more evidence, coming 295 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:13.039 from more and more sophisticated measurements, that not only is 296 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:16.799 there more stuff, but that stuff cannot be the stuff 297 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:17.519 that we're made of. 298 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:21.799 So there is stuff all around us, out massing us 299 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:25.879 and out energying us, maybe by a factor of twenty, 300 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.120 but we can't see it and we don't understand it. 301 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.159 So this whole time, we thought that we were a 302 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:35.879 cookies and cream milkshake. We're just the oreo bits and 303 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:40.519 we're surrounded by an invisible milkshake that can seep through us. 304 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.080 We don't know what it is or what it does. 305 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:47.519 So dark matter it doesn't interact with light or electromagnetic forces, 306 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:49.720 which is why we can't see or feel it. So 307 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.720 why do we know it's there. Fritz Zuwiki first coined 308 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:55.799 the term dark matter in nineteen thirty three. More on 309 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:59.559 him later, But it wasn't until this astronomer named Vera 310 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:05.240 rube crunched some numbers and hypothesized that dark matter exerts gravity, 311 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:08.960 and without that gravity, galaxies would just fly apart and 312 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:12.119 scatter if it all just depended on the normal matter 313 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:15.000 or buryonic matter, which is the atomic stuff that we 314 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:18.400 know of, like protons and neutrons and electrons. So when 315 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:22.039 did she figure that out? Oh, just in nineteen seventy eight. 316 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.640 We just found this out a split second ago in 317 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:29.319 the universal timeline. Get this, So, doctor Vera Rubin, she 318 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.559 did her calculations at this observatory that didn't even have 319 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:36.880 women's restrooms. There were no ladies rooms at the observatory. 320 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.440 She had to cut up a silhouette of address and 321 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:41.759 paste it on one of the men's rooms, and then 322 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.039 when she was done crafting, then she pioneered some giant 323 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:47.440 theories about the existence of the universe. And she died 324 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:50.079 in twenty sixteen. She was never awarded the Nobel Prize, 325 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.960 and they unfortunately do not hand those out posthumously, which 326 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.200 is a bummer. But you can name your dog Vera 327 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.000 or your cat Reuben and remember Vera rubin that way. 328 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.400 But anyway dark matter it is, it's something else. 329 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:04.279 It cannot be the stuff that we're used to from chemistry. 330 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:10.720 And then the fundamental particle physicists, the elementary particle physicis 331 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.880 realized we've been spending the past five decades trying to 332 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:17.319 categorize the elementary particles of nature. We're trying to have 333 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:21.559 the most fundamental periodic table. And you're telling me that 334 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:23.839 there's something that we're missing and that we definitely have 335 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.799 to put on here. Wow, and this became a big thing, 336 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:27.680 if you'll permit me. 337 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:30.799 In a side, Yes, I was hoping you to say that. 338 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.240 So I'm going to get the history a little bit jumbled, 339 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:36.279 but this is the moral history. This is the way 340 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:39.960 that we're going to remember it. In the eighties and nineties, 341 00:18:40.839 --> 00:18:45.559 there was one big hot question in particle physics, and 342 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:48.359 that question had to do with the Higgs boson. So 343 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.319 the Higgs boson that in twenty thirteen won the Nobel Prize. 344 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:53.960 It's discovery, big deal, big fucking deal. 345 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.039 And now that's sometimes wrongly called the god particle. 346 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:01.960 Yes, okay, yeah, right, that is the quote unquote god particle. 347 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:05.880 And if you ask physicist in my generation, its discovery 348 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.680 was more like the saking particle, where we had to 349 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:12.799 really do some soul searching because in the eighties and 350 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:16.559 nineties we had realized there's probably a Higgs. If there's 351 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:19.240 not a Higgs, things get way more interesting. But if 352 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:23.720 there's a Higgs, something isn't quite right in the theory 353 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.200 because for all the reasons that we needed to have 354 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.640 the Higgs, if the Higgs had the mass and the 355 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:33.000 properties that we needed to have, somehow it just didn't 356 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:37.920 seem right. It was far lighter in mass than it 357 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.119 really ought to have been, so we now know it 358 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:42.240 weighs about one hundred and twenty five times the mass 359 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:45.799 of a proton, which is pretty honking for a fundamental particle. 360 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:49.680 And our prediction naively if I gave that calculation to 361 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:52.480 a first year grad student, they'd say, it's probably way 362 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:55.599 heavier than that. It's like balancing a pencil on its tip. 363 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:59.200 The quantum corrections to its mass would make the Higgs 364 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.000 heavier than it actually And just. 365 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.720 Some very brief background on this. So Higgs particles make 366 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:06.920 up the Higgs field, which is this big cloud of 367 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:12.640 bosons or particles. So matter started out zipping around like photons, 368 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:16.119 just unencumbered by mass, but interaction with the Higgs field 369 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:19.519 is what makes matter interact with gravity and have that 370 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:22.799 mass be gravitationally attracted to each other. But Higgs bosons 371 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:26.720 very hard to find. You have to get a large 372 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:31.279 hadron collider, say maybe twenty seven kilometers under Geneva, and 373 00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:34.039 then you've got to raise protons at each other, you 374 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:37.000 got to explode them, and then you got to measure 375 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:40.759 what's left, aka a decay signature. And if you're looking 376 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.200 through all those pieces and you have pieces and parts 377 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:45.839 for what could have been a Higgs boson that existed 378 00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:49.759 for a fraction of a millisecond, then that's almost almost proof. 379 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:52.559 But for a long time, this possibility of the Higgs 380 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:57.319 particle had vexed science for years. One leading scientist wanted 381 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:01.039 to call a goddamn particle, but his book publisher was like, 382 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:06.039 let's go softer, and naively made the face palm modification 383 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.480 to just call it the god particle, which has been 384 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:13.079 making physicists cringe for decades now. But yes, essentially, things 385 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:14.000 just didn't add. 386 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:18.119 Up, and so this was a huge puzzle. It's analogous 387 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.279 to having an ice cube sitting in an oven and 388 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:23.039 you turn the oven on and the ice cube still there. Wow. 389 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:26.799 So we called this the hierarchy problem, and for people 390 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:28.680 like me, we wade it with a capital H. When 391 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.119 we were at our academic papers. It was a big deal. 392 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:34.599 It seemed to be the reason why our theory of 393 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:36.480 particle physics just could not be complete. 394 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:41.079 So prior to twenty thirteen, they knew something new. 395 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:43.599 It wasn't quite right, and so we had these great 396 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:48.880 exotic theories. They had funny names supersymmetry, extra dimensions, compositeness. 397 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:52.480 You know, maybe the electron and its cousins are not 398 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:55.480 fundamental but are are actually made of smaller things. 399 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:56.119 Oh wow. 400 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.480 So this was the heyday in the nineties of doing 401 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:02.480