1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,919 Speaker 1: You know, there's a very specific kind of arrogance that 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,919 comes with living in the twenty first century. It's a comfortable, 3 00:00:07,559 --> 00:00:10,960 cozy kind of arrogance. We look at our smartphones, we 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,119 look at the GPS satellites orbiting the planet, we look 5 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,679 at the photos from the Mars rover, and we we 6 00:00:18,039 --> 00:00:20,920 lull ourselves into this sense of security. We think, Okay, 7 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:21,679 we've got the map. 8 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:24,079 Speaker 2: It's the feeling that the hard work is done. We 9 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,359 think we understand the territory of reality. We have the 10 00:00:27,399 --> 00:00:31,679 standard model for particles, we have general relativity for gravity, 11 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:33,920 and you know, we have the Big Bang for history. 12 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,039 Speaker 1: It feels sweet. 13 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,759 Speaker 2: It feels complete, like we're just filling in the details 14 00:00:37,759 --> 00:00:38,960 at the edges exactly. 15 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: It's like we're just coloring in the lines of a 16 00:00:40,719 --> 00:00:44,399 drawing that Newton and Einstein already finished for us. But yeah, 17 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:48,039 and here's where things get messy. What if I told 18 00:00:48,039 --> 00:00:51,240 you that if you actually walk into a theoretical physics 19 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,280 department today, or if you look at the raw data 20 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:59,880 screaming down from our most advanced telescopes, the mood isn't comfortable. 21 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:06,239 Speaker 2: No, comfortable is definitely not the word. It's closer to panic. Panic, panic, confusion, 22 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:10,040 and a very specific type of exhilarating terror because the 23 00:01:10,079 --> 00:01:12,840 map we've drawn it doesn't match the territory anymore. 24 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:14,599 Speaker 1: And we're not talking about a small error. 25 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,439 Speaker 2: No, no, we aren't talking about a blurry photo or 26 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,079 a rounding error. Here. We are talking about data that 27 00:01:20,159 --> 00:01:23,680 is fundamentally incompatible with our understanding of the universe. 28 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to thrilling threads. Today we are pulling on a 29 00:01:27,799 --> 00:01:30,879 thread that might just unravel the entire sweater. We are 30 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:33,760 looking at a compilation of papers and debates that some 31 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:35,719 are calling the broken Universe. 32 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:38,239 Speaker 2: That's a dramatic name, but it fits. 33 00:01:38,439 --> 00:01:41,799 Speaker 1: We're going to look at eight specific anomalies, eight places 34 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:43,959 where the laws of physics as we know them seem 35 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:45,159 to just break. 36 00:01:45,519 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 2: And just to set the stage, everything we are discussing 37 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,280 today comes from active, heated debates among top physicists and astronomers. 38 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,799 This isn't science fiction. This is the current crisis in science. 39 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,519 Speaker 1: We have a list of eight eight cracks in the foundation, 40 00:01:59,079 --> 00:02:01,439 and the mission for this discussion is to explore the 41 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:03,239 horror and the wonder of that. 42 00:02:03,519 --> 00:02:06,519 Speaker 2: It really is a mix of both, because on one hand, 43 00:02:06,719 --> 00:02:09,919 it's exciting, it means there is new physics to discover. 44 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,000 A breakthrough is coming. But on the other hand, some 45 00:02:13,039 --> 00:02:16,960 of these anomalies suggest things like simulation theory or multiverse collisions, 46 00:02:17,479 --> 00:02:22,000 or that our universe is a terrifyingly lonely or perhaps 47 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:23,719 terrifyingly crowded place. 48 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,199 Speaker 1: Well, I've got my seat belt fastened. Let's not waste 49 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:28,599 any time. We are starting with what is arguably the 50 00:02:28,599 --> 00:02:32,400 most famous civil war in modern astronomy. It's anominally number 51 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:37,000 eight on our list, the measurement crisis, or as the journals. 52 00:02:36,599 --> 00:02:38,199 Speaker 2: Politely call it, the Hubble tension. 53 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: The Hubble tension, if this is the big one, this 54 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:42,680 is the one that keeps cosmologists up at night staring 55 00:02:42,719 --> 00:02:45,280 at the ceiling. I mean, if we can't solve this, 56 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,520 we don't know how old the universe is, we don't 57 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:49,319 know what it's made of, and we don't know how 58 00:02:49,319 --> 00:02:49,759 it ends. 59 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,080 Speaker 2: It's that fundamental, Okay, So let's unpack this. The Hubble 60 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,159 tension revolves around something called the Hubble constant. This is 61 00:02:56,199 --> 00:02:59,759 the speedometer of the cosmos, right, the speed of expansion. Correct. 62 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,919 In the early twentieth century, Edwin Hubble discovered that the 63 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,159 universe isn't static. It's expanding. That changed everything because it 64 00:03:07,199 --> 00:03:09,879 meant the cosmos had a beginning and will have an ending. 65 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,439 Speaker 1: It wasn't just this eternal unchanging thing. 66 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,039 Speaker 2: Not at all. And the Hubble constant is the rate 67 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:17,360 of that expansion. If you know the speed, you can 68 00:03:17,439 --> 00:03:21,240 hit rewind on the videotape and figure out exactly when 69 00:03:21,319 --> 00:03:24,159 the Big Bang happened. It is the foundational number for 70 00:03:24,439 --> 00:03:25,639 all of cosmology. 71 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: So it seems like a pretty important number to get right. 72 00:03:29,479 --> 00:03:31,599 If your speedometer's broken, you don't know how long the 73 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:32,280 road trip took. 74 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,599 Speaker 2: Vital, absolutely vital. But here's the problem. We broke it. 75 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:37,879 Speaker 1: What do you mean we broke it? 76 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 2: Well, maybe not us personally, but we have developed two 77 00:03:41,639 --> 00:03:44,919 incredibly precise ways to measure this number. Both are the 78 00:03:44,919 --> 00:03:49,240 gold standards of astrophysics, Both use cutting edge technology, and 79 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:51,319 they give us two completely different answers. 80 00:03:51,439 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: Okay, walk me through the methods. I want to understand 81 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:56,520 how we can be so smart and yet so confused. 82 00:03:56,599 --> 00:03:56,879 Speaker 2: Yeah. 83 00:03:56,919 --> 00:03:58,319 Speaker 1: Method A, what's the first one? 84 00:03:58,439 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 2: Method A looks at the baby picture of the universe. 85 00:04:02,039 --> 00:04:04,360 We use the Plank satellite to look at the cosmic 86 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:09,120 microwave background or the CMB. This is radiation left over 87 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,039 from just three hundred and eighty thousand years after the 88 00:04:12,039 --> 00:04:12,560 Big Bang. 89 00:04:12,759 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: So this is looking at the universe when it was 90 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,480 just a soup of particles, before stars, before galaxies, anything 91 00:04:18,519 --> 00:04:18,839 like that. 92 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,519 Speaker 2: Precisely, it was a hot, dense plasma. Now the physics 93 00:04:23,519 --> 00:04:26,240 of that soup are actually very well understood. It's almost 94 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:28,959 just fluid dynamics. We can look at the sound waves 95 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,360 literally pressure waves rippling through that early plasma sound in 96 00:04:32,399 --> 00:04:36,399 space in a sense. Yes, And by measuring the size 97 00:04:36,439 --> 00:04:39,680 of those ripples and applying our standard model of cosmology, 98 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,279 which is our best theory of how matter and energy interact, 99 00:04:42,759 --> 00:04:45,800 we can predict how fast the universe should be expanding today. 100 00:04:45,959 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: Okay, I like that. So it's a projection. It's like 101 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:50,959 taking a baby to the doctor measuring their height and 102 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,480 bone density, and the doctor says, based on this growth chart, 103 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:56,240 when this kid is thirty years old, he will be 104 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:57,800 exactly six feet tall. 105 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,319 Speaker 2: That is the perfect analogy looking at the infant universe 106 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,639 and mathematically projecting its growth, and the prediction is incredibly precise. 107 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:08,639 And the number is sixty seven point four kilometers per 108 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:09,959 second per megaparsec. 109 00:05:10,079 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: Okay, sixty seven point four. Stick a pin in that number. 110 00:05:13,079 --> 00:05:16,439 That's the prediction based on the baby picture. What's Method B? 111 00:05:16,959 --> 00:05:17,720 The other team? 112 00:05:17,879 --> 00:05:21,040 Speaker 2: Method B looks at the adult universe. This is the 113 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,879 cosmic distance ladder. We look at the universe as it 114 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,800 is today. We use the Hubble Space Telescope and now 115 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:30,399 the James Webspace Telescope the JWST to look at specific 116 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:32,560 stars called standard candles. 117 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: Standard candles, I've always loved that term. It sounds like 118 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,720 something from a fantasy novel. But in physics, these are 119 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,319 siphid aid variables, right, These blinking. 120 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:44,399 Speaker 2: Stars yes, Cephadaid variable stars are special because they pulsate, 121 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,240 They get brighter and dimmer in a very predictable rhythm, 122 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,639 and a brilliant astronomer named Henrietta swan Livett discovered a 123 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:54,120 law over one hundred years ago. The speed of the 124 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,079 pulsation tells us exactly how bright the star truly is. 125 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:58,560 It's intrinsic luminosity. 126 00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:00,879 Speaker 1: So it's a lighthouse where the time of the flash 127 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:01,920 tells you the wattage of. 128 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,519 Speaker 2: The bulb exactly. And once you know how bright the 129 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:06,839 bulb truly is, you can compare it to how bright 130 00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:09,839 it looks from Earth. That difference tells you the exact distance. 131 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:11,240 It's simple geometry. 132 00:06:11,319 --> 00:06:12,360 Speaker 1: Really, it's elegant. 133 00:06:12,519 --> 00:06:15,319 Speaker 2: It is so we measure the distance to galaxies that 134 00:06:15,399 --> 00:06:17,800 have these stars. Then we see how fast they are 135 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:19,800 moving away from us using red shift, and we get 136 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:20,199 a number. 137 00:06:20,319 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: So this isn't a prediction. This is a direct measurement. 138 00:06:23,079 --> 00:06:25,439 We are holding the radar gun at the passing cars. 139 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,199 Speaker 2: Yes, and teams led by Nobel laureate Adam Reese have 140 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:35,439 spent years refining this and they get seventy three kilometers 141 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,040 per second per megaparsec. 142 00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: Okay, sixty seven point four versus seventy three. 143 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 2: Now, I know what you're thinking, and I know what 144 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:44,639 the listeners are thinking. That sounds pretty close. You're off 145 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,560 by a few digits. Who cares. It's not a huge 146 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:48,839 difference in day to day life. 147 00:06:48,879 --> 00:06:51,959 Speaker 1: Ideally, Yeah, it sounds like a margin of error. Maybe 148 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,199 a dirty lens, a miscalculation somewhere. 149 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 2: That's what everyone thought at first. Oh, maybe we calibrated 150 00:06:56,959 --> 00:06:59,720 the satellite wrong, Maybe cosmic dust is blocking the stars. 151 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,279 But if these teams have checked and rechecked their work 152 00:07:02,319 --> 00:07:05,720 for a decade, they've refined their methods, used new telescopes. 153 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,360 The error margins are now tiny, less than one percent. 154 00:07:09,639 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: So these two numbers, their error bars don't overlap. 155 00:07:13,279 --> 00:07:15,399 Speaker 2: They don't even come close. The chance of these two 156 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,000 numbers not overlapping, just by a statistical fluke is less 157 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:19,879 than one in a million. 158 00:07:20,279 --> 00:07:23,079 Speaker 1: Wow, okay, one in a million. So that's not a mistake. 159 00:07:23,519 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 2: No, that is a discovery. 160 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,759 Speaker 1: It means we aren't measuring it wrong. The universe is 161 00:07:27,759 --> 00:07:30,480 actually behaving differently than our best model predicts. 162 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,279 Speaker 2: Exactly. Going back to your analogy, we measured the baby, 163 00:07:34,399 --> 00:07:37,600 predicted he'd be six feet tall. We went and measured 164 00:07:37,639 --> 00:07:40,319 the thirty year old adult, and he's six foot. 165 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: Five, which implies that something happened in between a weird 166 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:44,240 growth spurt. 167 00:07:44,399 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 2: Exactly. It implies that between the early universe, the baby picture, 168 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:52,759 and today the adult universe, something happened. A mysterious force, 169 00:07:52,959 --> 00:07:56,000 a new type of particle, or a change in gravity 170 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,560 itself kicked in and accelerated the cosmos in a way 171 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:02,720 our model doesn't account for. The standard model is missing 172 00:08:02,759 --> 00:08:03,920 a massive piece of the. 173 00:08:03,839 --> 00:08:08,199 Speaker 1: Puzzle that is deeply unsettling. It's like building a house 174 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,000 on sand, but the sand is moving underneath you. So 175 00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:14,439 what are the theories what could cause this this cosmic 176 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:15,160 growth spurt. 177 00:08:15,279 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 2: Well, there are a few, and they range from weird 178 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,680 to existentially terrifying. 179 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: Let's start with weird. 180 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 2: One of the leading ideas is something called early dark energy. 181 00:08:24,199 --> 00:08:26,759 Speaker 1: Early dark energy, I thought dark energy was a current 182 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:27,839 thing it is. 183 00:08:28,279 --> 00:08:31,519 Speaker 2: This would be something different. Imagine a temporary form of 184 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,639 anti gravity that flared up shortly after the Big Bang. 185 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:38,159 It cooked the universe for a while, accelerated everything, and 186 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:40,559 then just vanished without a. 187 00:08:40,519 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: Trace, a ghost force. It just turned on and off. 188 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 2: Essentially a cosmological constant that was active for a few 189 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,360 hundred thousand years and then switched off. It solves the math, 190 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,000 It bridges the gap between sixty seven and seventy three. 191 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:57,120 But it feels very contravet. Why would a fundamental force 192 00:08:57,159 --> 00:09:00,879 of nature just appear and then disappear. It feels like 193 00:09:00,879 --> 00:09:03,320 a fudge factor, like we're just writing in numbers to 194 00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:04,279 make the equation work. 195 00:09:04,399 --> 00:09:06,440 Speaker 1: That does, okay, What else is on the table? 196 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 2: Another theory is that we are living in. 197 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 1: A local void, A local void that sounds lonely it is. 198 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:14,879 Speaker 2: The idea is that our galaxy, the Milky Way, just 199 00:09:14,919 --> 00:09:17,720 happens to be in a relatively empty bubble in the universe, 200 00:09:17,799 --> 00:09:19,399 like a hole in Swiss cheese. 201 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,279 Speaker 1: So there's just less stuff around. 202 00:09:21,039 --> 00:09:24,399 Speaker 2: Us, exactly. And because it's emptier than the surrounding space, 203 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,399 the gravity from the denser regions outside the bubble pulls 204 00:09:27,399 --> 00:09:29,639 on us and everything in our neighborhood, making it look 205 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:32,519 like we are expanding faster than the cosmic average. 206 00:09:32,639 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: So we might just be living in the boonies of 207 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:38,679 the universe and our perspective is warped. We think everyone's speeding, 208 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:40,799 but really we're the ones being pulled. 209 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,399 Speaker 2: Maybe. But the most disturbing implication, and this is the 210 00:09:44,399 --> 00:09:47,039 one that really shakes the foundations, is that the laws 211 00:09:47,039 --> 00:09:49,159 of physics themselves might be evolving. 212 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,600 Speaker 1: Evolving. You mean, like gravity isn't constant, the speed of light. 213 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:56,279 Speaker 2: Isn't constant, right we assume, Gee, the gravitational constant is 214 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,759 the same today as it was thirteen billion years ago. 215 00:09:59,159 --> 00:10:02,639 We assume, see, the speed of light is fixed. But 216 00:10:02,759 --> 00:10:05,919 what if they aren't. What if these constants of nature 217 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:08,759 drift over cosmic timescales. 218 00:10:08,799 --> 00:10:12,919 Speaker 1: That is terrifying. That changes everything. It means history is fluid. 219 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:15,320 If the rules of the game change while you're playing 220 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:17,960 you can't predict the score. You can't trust any of 221 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:18,559 your models. 222 00:10:18,879 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 2: Building our house of knowledge on shifting sand is the 223 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,639 exact phrase used by some cosmologists. If we can't reconcile 224 00:10:25,679 --> 00:10:27,799 these numbers, we don't just lose the hubble constant, we 225 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:30,399 lose our grip on the consistency of reality itself. 226 00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:34,559 Speaker 1: Well, if losing the consistency of reality wasn't enough, let's 227 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:37,279 move to anomaly number seven. Oh, this one involves our 228 00:10:37,399 --> 00:10:40,879 shiny new toy, the JamesWeb Space Telescope, and what they 229 00:10:40,919 --> 00:10:43,080 are calling the Impossible Galaxies. 230 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 2: Yes, the Universe Breakers. 231 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:47,279 Speaker 1: I love that name, but I hate what it implies. 232 00:10:47,919 --> 00:10:52,159 So JWST launches on Christmas Day twenty twenty one. The 233 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,320 goal was to peer back into the cosmic dawn right 234 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:56,879 to see the very first galaxies forming. 235 00:10:56,759 --> 00:10:59,879 Speaker 2: Right the era just a few hundred billion years after 236 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:04,039 Big Bang, and the theoretical models were very very clear 237 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:07,120 on what we should see. What was the prediction In 238 00:11:07,159 --> 00:11:10,360 the early universe, matter was chaotic and hot. The first 239 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:13,639 galaxy should have been small, messy, irregular blobs of gas, 240 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:14,759 little wisps. 241 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,039 Speaker 1: Taller galaxies, just little clumps slowly pulling themselves together. 242 00:11:18,279 --> 00:11:21,679 Speaker 2: Exactly, slowly clumping together over billions of years to form 243 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:24,240 the majestic spirals we see today. You don't get a 244 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,519 skyscraper instantly, you start with a mud hut. 245 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:30,080 Speaker 1: That was the expectation in the reality. What did Jwst 246 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:31,159 actually see? 247 00:11:31,279 --> 00:11:36,039 Speaker 2: Almost immediately, Jawst beamed back images that sent a wave 248 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:40,960 of panic through the astronomical community. It found massive galaxies 249 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:44,000 too big, too bright, and too well formed to exist 250 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:44,440 that early. 251 00:11:44,519 --> 00:11:46,240 Speaker 1: Give us an example, I want to know what we're 252 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:46,679 looking at. 253 00:11:46,799 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 2: Take a galaxy they nicknamed ZFA one nine three ninety seven. 254 00:11:51,279 --> 00:11:53,840 We're seeing it as it existed just five hundred to 255 00:11:53,879 --> 00:11:56,039 seven hundred million years after the Big Bang. 256 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,120 Speaker 1: Okay, so very early. The universe is an infant at this. 257 00:11:59,159 --> 00:12:03,159 Speaker 2: Point, and in yet ZFA one is massive. It already 258 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:06,120 has a stellar mass comparable to our own Milky Way galaxy. 259 00:12:06,159 --> 00:12:08,320 Speaker 1: Wait, hold on, comparable to the Milky Way. But the 260 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,320 Milky Way took thirteen billion years of mergers and eating 261 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,279 other smaller galaxies to get this big. How can a 262 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,919 galaxy be that mature when the universe was only five 263 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:18,039 hundred million years old? 264 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:20,919 Speaker 2: Precisely, that is the paradox. It's like looking into a 265 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,399 nursery expecting to see infants in cribs and finding fully 266 00:12:24,399 --> 00:12:27,639 grown adults with beards sitting there reading the newspaper. It's 267 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:29,039 a physical impossibility. 268 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: How is that physically possible? I mean, gas falls together, 269 00:12:31,639 --> 00:12:34,360 it makes stars. Why couldn't it just happen really, really fast? 270 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,120 Speaker 2: Because star formation is violent, that's the catch. It's a 271 00:12:37,159 --> 00:12:40,559 self regulating process. When stars form, they don't just sit 272 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,840 there quietly. They turn on. They ignite right, and they 273 00:12:43,879 --> 00:12:48,600 blast out ultraviolet radiation, powerful solar winds, and eventually they 274 00:12:48,639 --> 00:12:53,679 explode as supernovas. That energy pushes the remaining gas away. 275 00:12:53,759 --> 00:12:57,559 It's a negative feedback loop. Stars regulate their own growth 276 00:12:57,600 --> 00:12:59,279 by blowing away their food source. 277 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,279 Speaker 1: See you can't binge eat. The more you eat, the 278 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:03,960 more you push the plate away exactly. 279 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 2: Physics says you can't turn all the gas and a 280 00:13:07,039 --> 00:13:11,879 galaxy into stars instantly. But for these impossible galaxies to exist, 281 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,360 they would have had to convert their available gas into 282 00:13:14,399 --> 00:13:17,120 stars at a rate of nearly one hundred percent efficiency. 283 00:13:17,159 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 1: And I take it that's not normal. That's not how 284 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:20,080 it's supposed to work. 285 00:13:20,159 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 2: It's physically impossible under current models defy the laws of 286 00:13:23,519 --> 00:13:26,759 thermodynamics and gravity as we apply them to gas clodes. 287 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,360 Something is wrong with our understanding of how galaxies form. 288 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,039 Speaker 1: So how do we explain the impossible? Did we just 289 00:13:33,039 --> 00:13:35,039 get the distance wrong? Could they be closer? 290 00:13:35,279 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 2: That was the first hope. Everyone hoped. Maybe they are 291 00:13:38,039 --> 00:13:41,159 closer and smaller, and we just think they're big and far. 292 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:44,240 But the spectrostopic conformations are coming. 293 00:13:44,039 --> 00:13:46,519 Speaker 1: In now, and that's where you analyze the light itself. 294 00:13:46,639 --> 00:13:49,919 Speaker 2: Yes, we analyze the red shift of the light, how 295 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,840 much the light has been stretched by the expansion of space. 296 00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:56,480 The red shift confirms they are indeed that far back 297 00:13:56,519 --> 00:13:59,080 in time, the data is solid. 298 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: So if the data is right, what's the scary theory? 299 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,399 How do you build a skyscraper in five minutes? What's 300 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:06,279 the cheek code? 301 00:14:06,519 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 2: Primordial black holes? 302 00:14:07,919 --> 00:14:10,399 Speaker 1: Oh, I've heard of these. These aren't the black holes 303 00:14:10,399 --> 00:14:11,799 that come from dead stars, are they? 304 00:14:12,039 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 2: No, not at all. These are black holes from the 305 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,559 Big Bang itself. The theory is that in the first 306 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,679 fraction of a second, the universe was so incredibly dense 307 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,720 that some regions just collapsed directly into black holes. 308 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,879 Speaker 1: But before there were even atoms that were black holes. 309 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,919 Speaker 2: Yes, if the early universe was flooded with these massive 310 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:33,120 primordial black holes. They could have acted as gravitational anchors 311 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:38,200 like seeds. Exactly like seeds, they would pull matter together 312 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:42,320 at impossible speeds, overcoming those feedback loops from the stars. 313 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,759 They would force the gas to collapse into galaxies way 314 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:47,879 way faster than gravity alone could do. 315 00:14:48,519 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: So the universe was born filled with monsters. 316 00:14:51,879 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 2: That's one way to put it. It solves the math 317 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:58,000 for these early galaxies, but it introduces a nightmare scenario 318 00:14:58,039 --> 00:15:01,600 where the universe didn't start simple and complex, it started 319 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:03,279 dangerous and dense. 320 00:15:03,559 --> 00:15:05,279 Speaker 1: What's the other option, or perhaps. 321 00:15:05,039 --> 00:15:08,559 Speaker 2: Even worse for our models, the timeline is wrong. Some 322 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,360 theorists are now seriously dusting off the idea that the 323 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,840 universe is older than thirteen point eight billion years, or. 324 00:15:14,759 --> 00:15:17,440 Speaker 1: That the Big Bang wasn't the absolute. 325 00:15:16,919 --> 00:15:20,399 Speaker 2: Beginning exactly, that we are in a cyclical universe and 326 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,240 these galaxies are leftovers or seeds from a previous eon 327 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,120 that survived the last Big crunch. 328 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: It really feels like every time we open a new door, 329 00:15:28,399 --> 00:15:30,480 we find something that tells us we don't know where we. 330 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:31,600 Speaker 2: Are or when we are. 331 00:15:31,799 --> 00:15:34,039 Speaker 1: Speaking of where we are, let's bring it closer to home. 332 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,840 We usually think of our Solar system as fully mapped right, 333 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:38,480 pretty much known territory. 334 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 2: We do Mercury to Neptune, maybe Pluto, if you're feeling nostalgic, 335 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:43,279 we think we know the neighborhood. 336 00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:46,200 Speaker 1: But anominally number six on our list says there is 337 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,320 a ghost in the Solar System. This is the ongoing 338 00:15:49,399 --> 00:15:51,000 hunt for planet nine. 339 00:15:51,039 --> 00:15:54,440 Speaker 2: This is a fascinating detective story happening right now in 340 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:58,919 real time. Way out beyond the orbit of Neptune, in 341 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,679 the freezing darkness of the Kuiper Belt, there are thousands 342 00:16:02,919 --> 00:16:05,919 icy rocks. They're called trans Neptunian. 343 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:07,679 Speaker 1: Objects like Sedna. Right, that was a big. 344 00:16:07,559 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 2: One sedna an object called twenty twelve VP one thirteen, 345 00:16:10,879 --> 00:16:15,159 and a handful of others. The issue is they're behaving strangely. 346 00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:18,360 If these rocks were just drifting randomly out there, their 347 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:20,840 orbits should be scattered all over the place, pointing in all. 348 00:16:20,759 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: Directions, like dust motes in the air, just random. 349 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:26,120 Speaker 2: Right, But they aren't. A group of them are clustered 350 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,559 together in space, and their orbits are all elongated and 351 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,159 tilted in the exact same weird direction. It's like they're 352 00:16:31,159 --> 00:16:33,080 all pointing to the same spot, and what. 353 00:16:33,039 --> 00:16:34,919 Speaker 1: Are the odds of that happening just by chance? 354 00:16:35,039 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 2: Mike Brown and constantin Badagen at Celtech calculated it about 355 00:16:39,279 --> 00:16:40,840 point zero zero seven percent. 356 00:16:41,159 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not random. In physics, zero points zero 357 00:16:44,759 --> 00:16:47,919 zero seven percent basically means this is happening for a reason. 358 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:49,320 It's not a coincidence. 359 00:16:49,559 --> 00:16:52,679 Speaker 2: It is statistically impossible for it to be a coincidence. 360 00:16:52,759 --> 00:16:56,639 Something is out there, something massive is hurting these rocks 361 00:16:56,679 --> 00:16:58,159 like sheep with its gravity. 362 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:01,879 Speaker 1: So the leading theory is a hidden planet, a ninth planet. 363 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,759 Speaker 2: That's the Planet nine hypothesis. To herd. Rocks that heavy 364 00:17:05,799 --> 00:17:08,440 across that much distance, you need a lot of gravity. 365 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,119 The calculations suggests a world with a mass five to 366 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,240 ten times that of Earth, a super Earth or a 367 00:17:15,279 --> 00:17:17,400 mini Neptune hiding out there in the dark. 368 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,599 Speaker 1: If it's that big, five times the Earth, why haven't 369 00:17:20,599 --> 00:17:23,680 we seen it. We have telescopes that can see galaxies 370 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,079 billions of light years away. Why can't we see a 371 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:27,440 planet in our own backyard? 372 00:17:27,519 --> 00:17:30,240 Speaker 2: Because of the orbit. It's a huge, huge orbit. We 373 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,960 think Planet nine, if it exists, takes about twenty thousand 374 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:33,359 years to go. 375 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:35,200 Speaker 1: Around the Sun twenty thousand years. 376 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,440 Speaker 2: Yes, and its orbit is incredibly elliptical, like a stretched 377 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:42,000 out circle. Right now, it's likely at aphelion, the absolute 378 00:17:42,039 --> 00:17:44,200 farthest point in its orbit, it would be hundreds of 379 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:45,839 times further out from the Sun than Earth is. 380 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:48,200 Speaker 1: The Sun would just be another bright star in its 381 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:49,599 sky exactly. 382 00:17:49,799 --> 00:17:52,799 Speaker 2: It would be frozen, dark and reflecting almost no light 383 00:17:52,839 --> 00:17:55,519 back at us. Searching for it is like searching for 384 00:17:55,559 --> 00:17:58,279 a lump of coal in a dark cellar while looking 385 00:17:58,319 --> 00:18:01,000 through a drinking straw. Incredibly difficult. 386 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,599 Speaker 1: But there's a darker theory here too, isn't there. You 387 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:05,759 mentioned primordial black holes earlier. 388 00:18:05,519 --> 00:18:08,920 Speaker 2: I did, and this is the terrifying one. We've been 389 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:11,400 looking for planet nine for a decade now. We haven't 390 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,000 found a heat signature, we haven't found a reflected glint 391 00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:17,839 of light. So two physicists, Yakoub Schultz and James Unwin 392 00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:21,599 asked a question, what acts like a planet has five 393 00:18:21,759 --> 00:18:24,920 Earth masses but emits absolutely no light. A black hole, 394 00:18:25,039 --> 00:18:27,160 A primordial black hole, a black. 395 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,519 Speaker 1: Hole in our solar system orbiting our. 396 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 2: Sun, A tiny one the size of a grapefruit or 397 00:18:33,279 --> 00:18:34,000 a bowling ball. 398 00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:37,039 Speaker 1: Wait, a bowling ball with a mass of five earths. 399 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:39,160 My brain can't even process that density. 400 00:18:39,279 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 2: That is the nature of a black hole. If you 401 00:18:41,279 --> 00:18:44,359 squeeze the entire Earth down into the size of a marble, 402 00:18:44,519 --> 00:18:48,079 it would become a black hole. So yes, a grapefruit 403 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:50,799 sized object with a gravitational pull of a super earth. 404 00:18:51,039 --> 00:18:54,319 Speaker 1: That is the stuff of nightmares. A greapefruit sized invisible 405 00:18:54,319 --> 00:18:56,359 monster lurking in our cosmic backyard. 406 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:00,400 Speaker 2: It is. It would be completely invisible to telescopes because 407 00:19:00,519 --> 00:19:02,880 it absorbs light, it doesn't reflect it. It would just 408 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:07,240 be a sinkhole of gravity silently orbiting our sun, hurting 409 00:19:07,319 --> 00:19:08,519 those icy rocks. 410 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,400 Speaker 1: How do we even find something like that If you 411 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:12,200 can't see it. 412 00:19:12,279 --> 00:19:14,400 Speaker 2: We can't look for light. We have to look for 413 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:17,880 its shadow, for its distortion of space time. Telescopes are 414 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,319 now looking for gravitational microlensing. Basically, we are watching for 415 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,680 background stars to flicker in a very specific way as 416 00:19:25,759 --> 00:19:28,440 this tiny black hole passes in front of them. 417 00:19:28,599 --> 00:19:30,079 Speaker 1: We are hunting for a flicker in the. 418 00:19:30,079 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 2: Dark until we find it or the planet we are 419 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,440 sharing our solar system with a massive phantom. We don't 420 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:37,079 know which it is. 421 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,200 Speaker 1: From a phantom in our backyard to a bruise on 422 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:41,839 the nge of reality. Let's talk about anomaly number five, 423 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:44,440 the CMB cold spot. 424 00:19:44,599 --> 00:19:46,519 Speaker 2: Right, so we're going back to that baby picture of 425 00:19:46,559 --> 00:19:49,039 the universe, the cosmic microwave background radiation. 426 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:52,440 Speaker 1: And as you said, usually this map is incredibly uniform, right, 427 00:19:52,559 --> 00:19:55,119 the same temperature everywhere with tiny fluctuations. 428 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,559 Speaker 2: It should be, Yes, the Big Bang happened everywhere at once. 429 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,240 The temperature variation should be tiny and random, like static 430 00:20:02,279 --> 00:20:05,000 on an old TV screen. But in the southern hemisphere 431 00:20:05,039 --> 00:20:07,880 of this map there is a hole, a massive region 432 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:12,000 that is significantly colder, about seventy microkelvins colder than the 433 00:20:12,039 --> 00:20:16,680 average temperature. And it's huge. It's enormous. The probability of 434 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,359 a random fluctuation creating a spot this big in this 435 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,079 cold is less than two percent. 436 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:24,400 Speaker 1: Two percent is low, but not impossible. Could it just 437 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:24,880 be a fluke? 438 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,440 Speaker 2: It could be, but it's stubborn and it's so large 439 00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:30,559 that it makes physicists very uncomfortable. So they've tried to 440 00:20:30,559 --> 00:20:34,400 explain it. First, they checked for instrument error, ruled out wmap, 441 00:20:34,559 --> 00:20:37,119 saw it, Plank saw it. It's real. Then they looked 442 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:40,319 into the supervoid theory. The idea is that maybe it's 443 00:20:40,359 --> 00:20:43,400 a region of space with far fewer galaxies than normal. 444 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,880 Speaker 1: Why would fewer galaxies make it cold? How does that work? 445 00:20:46,079 --> 00:20:49,240 Speaker 2: It's a really cool effect called the integrated sax Wolf effect. 446 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,079 Imagine a photon, a particle of light from the CMB 447 00:20:53,279 --> 00:20:56,519 traveling towards US. If it passes through a big empty void, 448 00:20:56,599 --> 00:20:58,759 it's like it's falling into a valley of space time 449 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,920 it gains energy falling in. Then it has to climb 450 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,839 out the other side. But while the photon is in 451 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:08,559 the valley, the universe is expanding, the valley stretches out 452 00:21:08,559 --> 00:21:11,160 and becomes shallower, so the light doesn't have to climb 453 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,440 as steep a hill to get out. It should leave 454 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:15,119 with more energy, making it a hot spot. 455 00:21:15,319 --> 00:21:17,319 Speaker 1: Wait, I thought you said it would make it cold. Ah. 456 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,200 Speaker 2: Right, it's the opposite. In a dark energy dominated universe, 457 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,160 dark energy pushes things apart, so it actually makes the 458 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,720 climb out steeper, so the light loses energy, and losing 459 00:21:27,839 --> 00:21:31,000 energy for a photon means its wavelength gets longer, which 460 00:21:31,039 --> 00:21:31,960 we see as colder. 461 00:21:32,079 --> 00:21:34,640 Speaker 1: So giant empty space acts like a freezer for light 462 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:35,400 passing through. 463 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 2: It exactly, But recent surveys have mapped that region of 464 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,200 space in three D, and while there is a void there, 465 00:21:41,319 --> 00:21:44,160 it's not empty enough to account for the chill. The 466 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:46,640 math doesn't add up. The void accounts for maybe ten 467 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,079 percent of the temperature drop. 468 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,920 Speaker 1: We see, So ninety percent of the cold is still unexplained. 469 00:21:51,559 --> 00:21:53,880 If it's not a mistake and it's not empty space, 470 00:21:54,279 --> 00:21:55,759 what could possibly have cost it. 471 00:21:55,839 --> 00:21:59,319 Speaker 2: This opens the door to the wildest theory in all 472 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,799 of cosmon the multiverse collision. 473 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:05,640 Speaker 1: Okay, now we're gatting into pure science fiction territory, or 474 00:22:05,759 --> 00:22:06,400 so it seems. 475 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,039 Speaker 2: It sounds like it, but it comes from a legitimate 476 00:22:09,079 --> 00:22:14,279 theoretical physicist, Laura Mercini Houghton. She proposed that our universe 477 00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:18,799 is not a solitary bubble. Imagine an infinite foam of bubbles, 478 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:20,759 and each one is an entire. 479 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:22,200 Speaker 1: Universe, the multiverse. 480 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 2: Yes, she argues, the cold spot is a. 481 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 1: Bruise, a bruse, What do you mean? A bruise, a. 482 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,799 Speaker 2: Scar, a physical remnant from where another universe, another bubble, 483 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,400 collided with ours during the chaotic expansion of the early cosmos. 484 00:22:35,519 --> 00:22:38,440 Speaker 1: Wait, so our universe crashed into another reality. 485 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,920 Speaker 2: That's the theory. Imagine two soap bubbles touching in the air, 486 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,160 the walls press against each other. That pressure would have 487 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,720 pushed matter and energy away from the point of contact, 488 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,079 leaving a permanent mark, a thinned out and colder region 489 00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:53,480 on the energy distribution of our CMB. 490 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:55,440 Speaker 1: And that mark is the cold spot. 491 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,000 Speaker 2: Yes, if this is correct, and that is a huge 492 00:22:58,039 --> 00:23:02,039 If the cold spot is the first empirical observational evidence 493 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,119 that reality is larger than our observable universe, that is 494 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:06,160 just mind bending. 495 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,720 Speaker 1: It implies there are other bubbles, other laws of physics 496 00:23:08,759 --> 00:23:10,400 may be pressing up against our own. 497 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:14,160 Speaker 2: It does. Skeptics hate it obviously. They call it speculative 498 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,119 fiction because it's so hard to test. But the cold 499 00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:21,519 spot remains stubborn. It's a giant, freezing anomaly on our 500 00:23:21,559 --> 00:23:25,240 map of creation, staring back at us, hinting that we 501 00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:28,559 might just be one bubble in a much darker, much 502 00:23:28,599 --> 00:23:29,680 more crowded ocean. 503 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,759 Speaker 1: That image gives me chills, Speaking of things reaching out 504 00:23:33,759 --> 00:23:36,599 from the dark, Let's move to anomaly number four. This 505 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,000 one sounds like something straight out of a contact movie. 506 00:23:39,319 --> 00:23:40,799 The heartbeat from the deep. 507 00:23:40,759 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 2: Fast radio bursts or FRBs. 508 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,839 Speaker 1: So what exactly is an FRB. I know they're powerful 509 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:46,640 but what are they. 510 00:23:46,799 --> 00:23:50,279 Speaker 2: It's a millisecond long blast of radio energy from deep space. 511 00:23:50,559 --> 00:23:52,839 But don't let the short duration fool you. In that 512 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,720 fraction of a second, a single FRB can release as 513 00:23:55,799 --> 00:23:58,640 much energy as our sun does in eighty years. 514 00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,640 Speaker 1: Eighty years of sun power in a milli second. That's 515 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:02,279 a violent, violent. 516 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,440 Speaker 2: Event, incomprehensibly powerful. For a long time, we thought they 517 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,039 had to be Cataclysm's one off destructive events, you know, 518 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,480 two neutron stars smashing together, or a black hole swallowing 519 00:24:11,519 --> 00:24:12,000 a star. 520 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,559 Speaker 1: Because once things smashed, they're gone. You can't explode the 521 00:24:14,599 --> 00:24:17,000 same star twice. It's a final act exactly. 522 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,240 Speaker 2: But then came FRB one to one zero twelve. 523 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: It didn't stop. 524 00:24:21,279 --> 00:24:24,079 Speaker 2: It repeated, and not just randomly. It's located in a 525 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,000 dwarf galaxy three billion light years away, and in twenty 526 00:24:28,039 --> 00:24:31,240 twenty scientists noticed a pattern. It has a one hundred 527 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,279 and fifty seven day cycle. 528 00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:34,960 Speaker 1: A cycle like a clock your kid. 529 00:24:35,079 --> 00:24:38,319 Speaker 2: Yes, it fires, bursts actively for a period of about 530 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,839 ninety days, and then it goes completely silent for sixty 531 00:24:41,839 --> 00:24:44,200 seven days. Then it starts again right on schedule. 532 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:45,920 Speaker 1: That just kills the collision theory dead in the. 533 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,279 Speaker 2: Water precisely, you can't have a collision every one hundred 534 00:24:48,279 --> 00:24:51,440 and fifty seven days. So the leading natural theory is 535 00:24:51,599 --> 00:24:54,599 a magnetar, a type of neutron star with a magnetic 536 00:24:54,599 --> 00:24:57,079 field a trillion times stronger than Earth's. 537 00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,039 Speaker 1: Okay, so what would a magnetar be doing. 538 00:24:59,279 --> 00:25:03,079 Speaker 2: The idea is maybe starquakes on its surface release these flares. 539 00:25:03,559 --> 00:25:06,920 The crust of the star cracks under the immense magnetic stress. 540 00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:08,640 Speaker 1: Stark quakes, I like that word. 541 00:25:08,759 --> 00:25:11,680 Speaker 2: And because the magnetic field is so ridiculously intense, a 542 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,279 crack in the crust could release a blast of radiation. 543 00:25:14,839 --> 00:25:17,119 Speaker 1: Sounds plausible, but there's always a butt. 544 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,400 Speaker 2: But the regularity is baffling. Why one hundred and fifty 545 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,359 seven day on off switch? Is it wobbling like a top? 546 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,359 Is it orbiting another object that blocks our view? Even 547 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,559 the magnetar theory struggles to explain the focused intensity of 548 00:25:29,599 --> 00:25:31,599 the beam and the strict schedule it keeps. 549 00:25:31,759 --> 00:25:36,119 Speaker 1: And here comes the techno signature theory. Right, the alien hypothesis. 550 00:25:35,559 --> 00:25:38,839 Speaker 2: Enter avi Lobe from Harvard and others. They crunch the 551 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,880 numbers on an artificial origin. They asked if an advanced 552 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:47,240 civilization a type two civilization on the Kargashchev scale wanted 553 00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:51,440 to propel a massive spacecraft across interstellar distances. How would 554 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:51,880 they do it? 555 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,799 Speaker 1: A light sail pushed by a powerful beam. 556 00:25:54,759 --> 00:25:58,279 Speaker 2: Exactly a giant reflective sheet pushed by a focused beam 557 00:25:58,279 --> 00:26:01,000 of energy, And the calculation and show that a planet 558 00:26:01,039 --> 00:26:04,599 sized radio transmitter powering a light sale would leak energy 559 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,279 that from our perspective, looks exactly like an FRB okay. 560 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,640 Speaker 1: In the cycle one hundred and fifty seven day period. 561 00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:13,119 Speaker 2: The beam would be sweeping across the sky as its 562 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,359 home planet rotates on its axis or orbit star. So 563 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,200 from our vantage point three billion light years away, we'd 564 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:20,920 only see the beam when it happens to point in 565 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,799 our direction, creating that periodic on off cycle we observe. 566 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,799 Speaker 1: So we have to ask the question, are we hearing 567 00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:32,160 a dead star burping or are we hearing the engine 568 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,799 leakage of a Type two civilization starship. 569 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,000 Speaker 2: The fact that we cannot rule out the latter is 570 00:26:37,039 --> 00:26:40,160 what's so haunting. We are detecting a heartbeat across three 571 00:26:40,319 --> 00:26:42,880 billion years of darkness, and we don't know if it's 572 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:44,039 natural or artificial. 573 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,680 Speaker 1: It's fascinating that the artificial explanation fits the data just 574 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:50,720 as well, if not better, in some ways than the 575 00:26:50,799 --> 00:26:54,599 natural one. And speaking of existence, let's get really existential 576 00:26:54,599 --> 00:26:57,359 with anominally number three. This one isn't about what's out there, 577 00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,359 it's about why we're here at all. 578 00:27:00,079 --> 00:27:03,440 Speaker 2: Anti matter asymmetry, this is what I call the existential glitch. 579 00:27:03,519 --> 00:27:05,920 Speaker 1: So the standard model of physics says the Big Bang 580 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,720 should create matter and antimatter right in equal amounts. 581 00:27:09,319 --> 00:27:13,440 Speaker 2: Perfect equal parts. Physics is beautiful and symmetrical. For every proton, 582 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:16,839 there should be an anti proton for every electron a positron. 583 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,559 They are perfect mirror images with opposite charges, and when 584 00:27:20,599 --> 00:27:24,240 they touch annihilation they instantly turn back into pure energy 585 00:27:24,279 --> 00:27:25,880 gamma rays a puff of light. 586 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,799 Speaker 1: So logically, if the Big Bang create equal amounts of both, 587 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,759 they should have all just canceled each other out instantly 588 00:27:32,839 --> 00:27:33,640 in the first second. 589 00:27:33,799 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 2: Correct, the infant universe should have been a brief, brilliant 590 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,960 soup of instant annihilation. The result should have been a boring, 591 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,920 empty universe filled with nothing but light, no stars, no galaxies, 592 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,359 and definitely know us. 593 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,440 Speaker 1: But looks around here we are. I'm pinching my arm, 594 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,640 I'm made of matter. The whole world is matter one. 595 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,160 Speaker 2: For some reason, there was a tiny imbalance for every 596 00:27:58,279 --> 00:28:01,880 billion particles of antimatter. There were a billion and one 597 00:28:02,039 --> 00:28:05,599 particles of matter when the Great Annihilation happened. That tiny 598 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:07,359 fraction of leftover matter survive. 599 00:28:07,599 --> 00:28:10,400 Speaker 1: So we are the rounding error. The universe is the 600 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:11,400 stuff that was left over. 601 00:28:11,519 --> 00:28:14,400 Speaker 2: We are the glitch. The universe essentially tried to delete 602 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,759 itself at birth, and we are the leftovers that survive 603 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,680 the purge. Everything you see, everything you are, is that 604 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,319 one in a billion rounding error. 605 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:25,079 Speaker 1: Why why did matter win? What caused that imbalance? 606 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,240 Speaker 2: We don't know. There is no known law of physics 607 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,119 that favors matter over antimatter. We've been smashing particles at 608 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,599 the Large Hadron Collider looking for a violation of this symmetry. 609 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:39,400 It's called CP violation. But we haven't found nearly enough 610 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:41,480 to explain our own universe's existence. 611 00:28:41,759 --> 00:28:44,559 Speaker 1: So are there any theories on where all the antimatter went? Oh? 612 00:28:44,599 --> 00:28:48,880 Speaker 2: There are wild ones. Some physicists suggest hidden anti galaxies. 613 00:28:49,359 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 1: You mean, like whole regions of space made entirely of antimatter. 614 00:28:53,119 --> 00:28:57,319 Speaker 2: Yes, vast regions, maybe even entire clusters of galaxies far 615 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,519 beyond our view, made of anti matter self. 616 00:29:00,559 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: Do not land the spaceship there. That would be a bad. 617 00:29:03,039 --> 00:29:06,400 Speaker 2: Day, definitely not. If a probe from our galaxy touched 618 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,680 an anti afteroid from one of theirs, it would trigger 619 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:10,880 an explosion larger than any supernova. 620 00:29:11,039 --> 00:29:11,759 Speaker 1: What else could it be? 621 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,119 Speaker 2: A lot of hope is pinned on neutrinos, those ghostly 622 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,160 little particles that pass through us by the trillions every second. 623 00:29:18,799 --> 00:29:21,319 Some theory suggest they might be their own anti particles, 624 00:29:21,359 --> 00:29:22,960 and they could have played some kind of trick in 625 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,759 the early universe converting antimatter into matter. But until we 626 00:29:26,799 --> 00:29:30,839 solve this, our very existence is a fundamental anomaly that. 627 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,880 Speaker 1: Is unbelievably humbling. We are literally the point zero zero 628 00:29:35,079 --> 00:29:39,279 zero zero zero one percent that didn't get deleted exactly. 629 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:43,079 Moving on to anomaly number two. We talked about aliens 630 00:29:43,119 --> 00:29:47,000 potentially powering FRBs, but this anomaly actually passed right through 631 00:29:47,039 --> 00:29:50,200 our solar system. The mysterious visitor. 632 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,599 Speaker 2: Umoma October twenty seventeen, a date that will go down 633 00:29:54,599 --> 00:29:59,559 in history the first interstellar object humanity ever detected, the 634 00:29:59,599 --> 00:30:02,039 first my own visitor from another star system. 635 00:30:02,119 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: I remember it so clearly. It was all over the news. 636 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:05,680 It was shaped like a cigar, right, yeah, or something 637 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:06,359 really weird. 638 00:30:06,319 --> 00:30:08,759 Speaker 2: Or pancake. It was very, very weird. The data suggested 639 00:30:08,839 --> 00:30:10,839 it had a ratio of at least ten point one 640 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,559 ten times longer than it was wide. We've never seen 641 00:30:13,559 --> 00:30:15,960 a natural asteroid or comet that looks like that. But 642 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,359 the shape wasn't even the weirdest part. It was the movement. 643 00:30:18,519 --> 00:30:20,039 Speaker 1: It didn't move like a normal rock, did it. 644 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,680 Speaker 2: No, as Umuah whipped around the Sun and started heading 645 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,839 back out into deep space. It accelerated, it sped up. 646 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,279 Speaker 1: Now commas do that, right, The heat up, shoot out 647 00:30:29,279 --> 00:30:31,480 gas and dust and it acts like a little rocket thruster. 648 00:30:31,799 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 2: That's called outgassing. And it's exactly what everyone expected to see. 649 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,359 But here's the thing. Every major telescope on Earth was 650 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,279 pointed at this thing. We looked for the tail of gas, 651 00:30:42,359 --> 00:30:45,920 we looked for the coma of dust. There was nothing. Zero. 652 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,759 It was a dry rock. Yet it accelerated away from 653 00:30:48,799 --> 00:30:53,880 the Sun, defying gravity. It experienced what's called non gravitational 654 00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,720 acceleration without any visible means of propulsion. 655 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,559 Speaker 1: This ignited a firestorm in the astronomical community. What are 656 00:31:00,599 --> 00:31:02,880 the natural explanations people came up with. 657 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 2: They are strained to say the least. Some said it 658 00:31:06,079 --> 00:31:09,640 was a hydrogen iceberg, a chunk of frozen hydrogen from 659 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,359 a giant molecular cloud that evaporates invisibly. 660 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,319 Speaker 1: But would that survive a trip between stars? 661 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,319 Speaker 2: Probably not. Hydrogen ice is incredibly volatile. It shouldn't have 662 00:31:18,359 --> 00:31:21,559 survived the journey. Others suggested a nitrogen iceberg, a chip 663 00:31:21,599 --> 00:31:24,759 off an exopluto, or even a cosmic dust bunny, a 664 00:31:24,839 --> 00:31:26,599 super light, flucky clump of dust. 665 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,319 Speaker 1: But then there's abul lobe. Again. He had a different idea. 666 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 2: Yes, he put his reputation on the line. He argued 667 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,200 that the simplest, most direct explanation for an object that 668 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,440 accelerates without any exhaust is solar radiation pressure. 669 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,279 Speaker 1: Sunlight is actually pushing it like wind on a sail. 670 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,880 Speaker 2: Yes, but for sunlight, which is incredibly weak, to push 671 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,400 a rock that big fast enough to account for the 672 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,640 observed movement, the object would have to be incredibly thin 673 00:31:51,079 --> 00:31:54,759 and have a huge surface area less than a millimeter. 674 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,079 Speaker 1: Thick, like a sheet like a sail. 675 00:31:56,319 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 2: Nature doesn't make huge, ultra thin sheets of material that 676 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,960 can survive interstellar travel, but engineers do so. 677 00:32:04,079 --> 00:32:07,519 Speaker 1: He thinks it was a light sale, an alien probe. 678 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 2: A light sale, defunct alien technology, a piece of space junk, 679 00:32:11,759 --> 00:32:14,440 or an active probe. He simply points out that it's 680 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,200 tumbling motion, its extreme shape, its spectral properties, and its 681 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,960 anomalist acceleration all fit the profile of a manufactured object 682 00:32:22,079 --> 00:32:23,759 much better than any natural. 683 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:25,759 Speaker 1: Explanation, and the scientific community to love that. 684 00:32:25,839 --> 00:32:30,359 Speaker 2: I'm sure they reacted with extreme hostility. The academic world 685 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:32,799 wants it to be a weird rock, but the data 686 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,880 remains anomalous. Umuas is gone, now lost to the dark forever. 687 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:38,960 We missed our chance to get a closer look and 688 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:39,559 know for sure. 689 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,039 Speaker 1: It really makes you wonder, doesn't it. Was it a 690 00:32:42,079 --> 00:32:44,319 strange stone? Or was it the first time we looked 691 00:32:44,359 --> 00:32:46,279 at a piece of garbage thrown out by a neighbor 692 00:32:46,319 --> 00:32:47,319 we didn't even know we had. 693 00:32:47,559 --> 00:32:50,599 Speaker 2: It's a haunting question, and we may never know the answer. 694 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,559 Speaker 1: Right, we've arrived anomaly number one, the big one, the 695 00:32:55,599 --> 00:32:57,880 one you said is a monument to our ignorance, the 696 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,720 worst prediction in history, the vacuum catastrophe. 697 00:33:01,799 --> 00:33:04,079 Speaker 2: This is it. This is the anomaly that suggests we 698 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:08,240 know well, basically nothing about the fundamental nature of reality. 699 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:11,799 Speaker 1: So quantum field theory it says that empty space isn't 700 00:33:11,839 --> 00:33:14,200 actually empty, right, It's fizzing with energy. 701 00:33:14,359 --> 00:33:18,160 Speaker 2: Right. It's a bubbling quantum brew of virtual particles popping 702 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:22,119 in and out of existence constantly. These fluctuations contain energy. 703 00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:25,640 And because Einstein taught us that mass and energy are equivalent, sisa, 704 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:30,039 this vacuum energy should exert a gravitational pull. It should 705 00:33:30,079 --> 00:33:30,559 have weight. 706 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:34,200 Speaker 1: Okay, so empty space has weight. It should be pushing 707 00:33:34,319 --> 00:33:35,359 or pulling on the universe. 708 00:33:35,559 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 2: Theoretically, yes, And in the late nineties, when astronomers discovered 709 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:43,880 the universe's expansion is accelerating the discovery of dark energy, 710 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:48,000 physicists thought, aha, we've found it. This vacuum energy is 711 00:33:48,039 --> 00:33:49,920 the dark energy pushing the universe apart. 712 00:33:50,039 --> 00:33:52,599 Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense. So they went and calculated how 713 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:54,880 much energy should be there based on quantum theory. 714 00:33:55,039 --> 00:33:58,880 Speaker 2: They did. They use their best, most tested quantum equations. 715 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,920 Then they looked at the actual expansion of the universe 716 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,640 to measure the observed amount of dark energy. And they 717 00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:05,880 compared the two numbers. 718 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:07,519 Speaker 1: And how bad was the mismatch. 719 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,239 Speaker 2: The theoretical prediction was larger than the observed reality by 720 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,400 a factor of ten to the power of one hundred 721 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:14,039 and twenty. 722 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,599 Speaker 1: Ten with one hundred and twenty zeros after it. I 723 00:34:16,639 --> 00:34:19,239 can't even visualize that number. That's not a number to joke. 724 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:21,760 Speaker 2: Put it this way, there are only about ten to 725 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:25,039 the power of eighty atoms in the entire observable universe. 726 00:34:25,559 --> 00:34:28,480 The error in our prediction is forty orders of magnitude 727 00:34:28,559 --> 00:34:31,920 larger than the number of atoms in existence. It is, 728 00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:36,039 without exaggeration, the most wrong a scientific prediction has ever been. 729 00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:38,559 Speaker 1: That's not an error, that's I don't even know what 730 00:34:38,559 --> 00:34:40,480 that is. It's a complete failure of the theory. 731 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:45,400 Speaker 2: It's the vacuum catastrophe. Because if the theoretical calculation were correct, 732 00:34:45,599 --> 00:34:48,719 the gravitational repulsion of the vacuum would be so strong 733 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,880 that it would have ripped the universe apart in a 734 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,280 microsecond after the Big Bang. No atoms could have formed, 735 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,719 no stars, no space, no time, just an instantaneous rip 736 00:34:58,760 --> 00:34:59,519 into oblivion. 737 00:35:00,039 --> 00:35:03,760 Speaker 1: We're here. The expansion is real, but it's gentle. It's slow. 738 00:35:04,159 --> 00:35:07,840 Speaker 2: Yes, for some reason, the actual vacuum energy is incredibly weak. 739 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,360 It's just barely strong enough to gently push the galaxies apart. 740 00:35:11,639 --> 00:35:12,840 Over billions of years. 741 00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:16,599 Speaker 1: So why is the prediction so catastrophically wrong? Where did 742 00:35:16,639 --> 00:35:17,280 we mess up? 743 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:19,800 Speaker 2: That is the biggest question in physics. Some argue for 744 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,679 a cancelation mechanism. Maybe there's some other completely unknown force 745 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,480 or particle that perfectly balances out the vacuum energy to 746 00:35:26,519 --> 00:35:29,360 one hundred and twenty decimal places, leaving just that tiny, 747 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:30,440 tiny siliver behind. 748 00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:33,519 Speaker 1: That sounds suspiciously fine tuned, like balancing a needle on 749 00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:35,360 its tip for the entire age of the universe. 750 00:35:35,599 --> 00:35:38,639 Speaker 2: It looks artificial. It looks like a setup, which leads 751 00:35:38,639 --> 00:35:42,440 to the anthropic principle. Maybe there are billions upon billions 752 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:46,519 of universes in a multiverse, all with different vacuum energy values, 753 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,079 and most of them did blow up instantly. We just 754 00:35:49,119 --> 00:35:51,119 happen to live in this one simply because it's the 755 00:35:51,119 --> 00:35:53,639 only kind of universe stable enough to support life. 756 00:35:53,639 --> 00:35:56,840 Speaker 1: To ask the question, that's survivor bias on a cosmic scale, 757 00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,440 we won the cosmic lottery exactly. 758 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,159 Speaker 2: Or the scariest and most talked about option simulation theory. 759 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:05,320 Speaker 1: Oh boy, here we go. 760 00:36:05,519 --> 00:36:08,360 Speaker 2: Maybe our understanding of the vacuum is an illusion because 761 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,119 we live inside a computer. Maybe the parameters of physics 762 00:36:12,159 --> 00:36:16,480 are set arbitrarily low by the programmers to save processing 763 00:36:16,519 --> 00:36:19,519 power in the simulation. Why calculate one hundred and twenty 764 00:36:19,559 --> 00:36:21,239 decimal places if you don't have to. 765 00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:23,719 Speaker 1: It really feels like a giant sign hanging in the 766 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:25,119 Cosmo saying you know nothing. 767 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,280 Speaker 2: It is a monument to our ignorance. Until we solve 768 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:31,519 this discrepancy. Everything we think we know about the universe, 769 00:36:31,559 --> 00:36:34,679 from gravity to quantum mechanics, is built on a foundation 770 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:36,199 that doesn't make any sense at all. 771 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,880 Speaker 1: So where does that leave us. We've got a hubble 772 00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,960 tension that says our timeline is broken. We have galaxies 773 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,559 that are too big, too soon. We've got a potential 774 00:36:44,599 --> 00:36:48,159 primordial black hole in our own solar system, a bruise 775 00:36:48,199 --> 00:36:52,000 from a possible multiverse collision, and a vacuum energy error 776 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:53,440 that defines all logic. 777 00:36:53,559 --> 00:36:55,679 Speaker 2: It leaves us in a very exciting and a very 778 00:36:55,679 --> 00:36:58,920 precarious place. The foundations are shaking. 779 00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,519 Speaker 1: It feels like the laws of physics are just waiting 780 00:37:01,559 --> 00:37:03,920 to break, like we're about to find out everything we 781 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:04,559 know is wrong. 782 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,320 Speaker 2: I think the difference is perspective. You can say science 783 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,480 is broken, or you can say science is about to 784 00:37:10,519 --> 00:37:13,719 have a breakthrough. Every single time in history we've had 785 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:18,159 anomalies like this, like when Mercury's orbit didn't make sense 786 00:37:18,199 --> 00:37:21,199 to Newtonian physics. It didn't mean physics was dead. It 787 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,639 led to a revolution. It led to Einstein's general relativity. 788 00:37:25,039 --> 00:37:27,559 Speaker 1: So we are on the edge of the next Einstein. 789 00:37:27,119 --> 00:37:30,559 Speaker 2: Moment, I believe. So the data is screaming at us 790 00:37:30,559 --> 00:37:33,280 from all directions. The universe is telling us we're missing 791 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,639 something big. We just need to learn how to listen. 792 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 1: Well, I'm certainly listening now, and I want to know 793 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,639 what you, the listener, thinks about all this. 794 00:37:41,199 --> 00:37:43,039 Speaker 2: Yes, we really want to hear from you. This is 795 00:37:43,039 --> 00:37:43,639 a conversation. 796 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,559 Speaker 1: Which anomaly keeps you up at night? Do you think 797 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,039 um Wa Mullah was a probe? Or is the vacuum 798 00:37:50,079 --> 00:37:53,000 catastrophe proof that we are living in a simulation. What 799 00:37:53,119 --> 00:37:54,239 is your stand Leave. 800 00:37:54,159 --> 00:37:56,320 Speaker 2: A comment let us know your theory. We read all 801 00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:58,760 of them. Thanks for listening to thrilling threads. 802 00:37:59,079 --> 00:37:59,840 Speaker 1: Keep looking up