WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:02.399 Drivers know what trouble sounds like. 2 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:10.240 No, no, okay forward, well no no, please. 3 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:14.560 No, That's why they get covered from Ireland's soundest car 4 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:16.920 insurance provider, Supervalue Insurance. 5 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.519 Thanks for calling us, Bin, and don't pat yourself up 6 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:22.359 about it. Sure I'm driving ten years and parallel parking 7 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:24.440 is still Battles't me get a. 8 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.399 Code from Supervalue Car Insurance to get ten percent off 9 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:31.160 online and we'll even throw in forty euroin vouchers. Teasncsupply 10 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:33.920 vouchers include two twenty euro or forty eurospent. This car 11 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:36.640 insurance is underwritten by AX Insurance DEACK, Super Value Financial 12 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.000 Services Stack Trading and Supervalue Insurance is regulated by the 13 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:39.920 Central Bank of Ireland. 14 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:44.479 Hey, welcome to Ologies. I'm your Alie Warren the host. 15 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:47.200 Now each week I sit down with an ologist, I 16 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:50.119 ask why do they love what they do? What is 17 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.280 your deal? What should we know about it? And this 18 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:58.159 week we cover the whole fucking universe which has existed 19 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:01.399 and it's expanding in your floating in it, and you're 20 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:04.200 made out of particles and matter and forces we don't 21 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:08.719 even understand, and maybe there are multiverses and is this reality? 22 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:11.040 And what are you doing here and does anything matter? 23 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:13.040 And of course it does. But should you be afraid 24 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.159 of wearing bright lipstick or dancing in public? Probably not. No, 25 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.519 in the scope of things, and the scope of things 26 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:24.799 is really it's giant. It's called cosmology. Now, if you 27 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:27.200 think that you listen to this episode already because you 28 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:31.200 learn some stuff about beard care and face wash, think again, suckers. 29 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:36.200 That was cosmetology. This week is cosmology, the study of 30 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:40.000 the cosmos. And so when I say this episode is 31 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:46.640 like everything, it's actually everything. It's the whole universe. It's 32 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:49.799 a lot, it's a lot, it's so much. It's a 33 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.159 two parter, it's a two fur So this week we'll 34 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:57.239 get the nuts and bolts of what astrophysics is, and 35 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.879 after about an hour you will walk away cocktail party 36 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.120 literate on goddamn astrophysics. Kind of. I don't know. I'm 37 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:08.080 learning here with you. Of all the episodes I've done, 38 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:10.000 this was probably the one I need the least about. 39 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:14.360 So let's learn together, shall we? Part two of this 40 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:18.520 next week are your questions submitted via Patreon and the 41 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:22.919 Ologies Podcast Facebook group. Y'all had good ones. Next week 42 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:26.879 will address them. Now, the etymology of cosmology. Cosmos with 43 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:29.919 a K is the kicky little Greek word for world 44 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.159 or order. So cosmology is a study of planets and such, sure, 45 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:39.360 but also why and what and how where? What's huh? 46 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:43.240 It's the study of what. This week's cosmologist is someone 47 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.000 I've had a fawning Twitter fascination with for a while, 48 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:49.919 and I met through a group of science friends I love, 49 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:52.479 known to some as the nerd Brigade or kind of 50 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:54.680 like a gang but with a website. But I was 51 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:58.879 always kind of intimidated by her because she is, in 52 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:03.319 her own words, an academic nomad, and she continent hops 53 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:07.599 while studying particle physics and black holes and gravitational waves, 54 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:09.879 and she hangs out with Stephen Hawking. So when I 55 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.360 met her through friends, I usually just sat at brunch 56 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:14.759 like a barnacle and tried to look away when she 57 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:17.000 caught me staring at her, So I asked her to 58 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:19.840 be on the podcast. She said yes, and I immediately 59 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.680 started perspiring. So she came to my apartment. We sat down, 60 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:27.400 and my usual hour interview stretched to almost two, hence 61 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:32.039 the two parter. Hours before she politely reminded me that 62 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:33.919 we were supposed to be meeting people for a movie 63 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:37.039 and we should stop. I'm so so glad we did 64 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:39.759 this podcast because I got to know her even better 65 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:42.400 as a friend, which, y'all, I'm going to be cheesy 66 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.479 and say it's a true honor. So in this episode, 67 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:49.199 you'll learn about the things that make you you and 68 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:52.680 the stars that exploded to make the things that make 69 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:55.439 you you, and the scale of our existence in space, 70 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:57.639 and what it feels like to be heckled by Stephen 71 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:01.680 Hawking and if this is real life, and if astrophysicists 72 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.560 are just like making bullshit up that the rest of 73 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.759 us just accept because we're like, man, I don't even 74 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.360 know how to read these equations. So okay. So you'll 75 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.719 get at the very least a loose grasp on just 76 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.879 the whole of existence and maybe steel yourself to be 77 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:19.000 the biggest you you ought to be, and more importantly, 78 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:23.279 get to know better one of the world's finest voices 79 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.839 in cosmology. You know her as astro Katie on Twitter 80 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:51.720 aka astrophysicist Katie mac. So take me back to defining 81 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:54.879 some stuff because as a layman, as a lay woman 82 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:59.959 over here, a lay human, yes, I don't know that 83 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:05.920 difference between a physicist, an astrophysicist, a particle physicist, an experimentalist, 84 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:10.439 a cosmologist, and an astronomer. I don't know what those are, 85 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:13.399 and I'm either going to have to Wikipedia this or 86 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.000 I can have you give me a rundown. 87 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.639 So these things are, they're a little bit like fluid, 88 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:26.519 these definitions. So astronomer is basically somebody who studies space 89 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:31.360 in some way. And usually when people say astronomer versus astrophysicists, 90 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:35.399 usually astronomer is like more on the observational side or 91 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:39.680 sort of describing stuff in space. Astrophysicist is more about 92 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:42.600 like trying to understand how the physics of the thing 93 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.040 in space works. So you can be an astrophysicist trying 94 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:48.480 to understand how galaxies form, for example, and so you're 95 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:53.879 applying physics to this stuff in space. If you're a 96 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:59.319 particle physicist, you're working on like how particle interactions work, 97 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:03.240 so like you know atoms, fasters and things. Large Hadron 98 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:09.680 collider exposon usually I mean the like classic particle experiment, 99 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:11.600 does you take two particles and you smash them together 100 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:13.839 and you see what comes out. Huh, that's what the 101 00:06:13.959 --> 00:06:15.600 Large Hadron Collider is doing now. 102 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:18.879 The LHC. That's what you call the Large Hadron Collider 103 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.439 when y'all are tight, So you've maybe heard of it, 104 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:23.399 you kind of know, like it's a thing in Europe, 105 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:26.079 maybe has something to do with atoms. I looked into it. 106 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:30.480 The Large Hadron Collider is located near the France Switzerland border, 107 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:34.279 and it's a circular tunnel. It's over five hundred feet 108 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:38.199 deep in some parts, and it's seventeen miles around. It 109 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:42.480 is the largest machine in the world. So this thing 110 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:46.399 consists of over twelve hundred magnets and they're cooled to 111 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:50.600 a temperature colder than outer space, and then the magnets 112 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:55.279 accelerate protons to almost the speed of light, and then 113 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:59.959 the protons are bashed together. It's very punk rock, very expense. 114 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:04.319 The LHC was mostly completed in two thousand and eight. 115 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.519 Over ten thousand scientists and engineers worked on it. Now 116 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.279 in photos it looks kind of like a giant, well 117 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:15.560 lit subway tunnel, but with less p and rats. If 118 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.360 you're like, I can't remember what a proton is because 119 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:22.040 I'm not required to anymore. I'm not in school, don't worry. 120 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.160 Neither did I I had to google, like, how does 121 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:27.519 an atom work? I forgot, so I'll brush you up. 122 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:32.920 So matter is stuff, and molecules are some atoms stuck together. 123 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:35.839 Atoms are made of a nucleus, which is a little 124 00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:41.120 cluster of neutrons and protons. Protons have a positive charge, 125 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:47.160 pro electrons have an equal negative charge, and electrons are 126 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:52.839 bebopping zooming around whirling dervish style outside of the nucleus. 127 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:55.439 So the neutrons and protons, which are the ones that 128 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:59.040 are just cuddling in the nucleus, those are made of 129 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:03.480 smaller powder called quarks. And the quarks come in a 130 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:08.800 couple different varieties. So what gives these particles their mass? 131 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.839 What are they? Where do they come from? We've got 132 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:14.560 all these little tiny things that make up matter. Okay, 133 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:18.279 So I heard it explained that there's a field called 134 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:21.519 the Higgs field. It's named after one alive and well 135 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:26.279 Scotsman physicist named Peter Higgs. And how a particle interacts 136 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:28.839 with the Higgs field gives it its mass, kind of 137 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:34.120 like drag and water. So Higgs bosons are particles. They're 138 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:36.440 an excitation of the Higgs field. It's kind of like 139 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.080 a drop of water. Splashing from an ocean. So the 140 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.159 Large Hadron Collider smashed protons together to see if they 141 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:46.120 could prove that the Higgs boson exists, and guess what, 142 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:50.120 bitches it does. You're not bitches. Some people call this 143 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:53.720 the god particle because it's so fundamental to all matter 144 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.960 in the universe. Does Doctor Higgs like this name? No, 145 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.399 he's an atheist. He thinks it sucks. And the guy 146 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.399 who coined did the God particle actually wanted to call 147 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:04.840 it the goddamn particle, but his publisher made him change 148 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.039 it in a book. So the Large Hadron Collider. One 149 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:12.480 of the things it does smashes these protons together into 150 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:16.600 smaller things to figure out why matter has mass. There 151 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.519 you go. Also, the Large Hadron Collider accidentally has its 152 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:24.039 name spelled wrong on its own website as Large hard 153 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:29.679 On Collider once would be mortifying. But what if they 154 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:33.080 did it more than once, like twice or five times? 155 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:36.440 That's impossible, is it? Because a search on their site 156 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:41.399 revealed they'd spelled it large hard On Collider one hundred 157 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:47.200 and sixty five times. Thank God particle for that. That's 158 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:51.039 just precious. So whenever you're like, I don't understand this stuff. 159 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.320 Maybe I'm not smart enough. Just think someone typed in 160 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:59.480 large hard on collider over one hundred and fifty times 161 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:02.360 and they built the thing. So how else do people 162 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:04.840 figure this shit out? About very important things that we 163 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:05.320 can't see. 164 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.279 But there are other ways to do particle physics measuring 165 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:12.360 how particles interact with each other, throwing particles at other things, 166 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.399 accelerating stuff, and seeing what happens, all of that kind 167 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.080 of stuff. On the experimental side and on the theory side, 168 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.519 it's a lot about trying to understand like the fundamental 169 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:26.440 forces of nature, so like how how atoms hold together, 170 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:31.320 how you know particles can change into other particles in 171 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.720 certain conditions, how gravity fits into all that, which it 172 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:40.039 doesn't at the moment theoretically, Okay, okay, it's very hard 173 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:42.639 to get gravity and particle physics to work together. This 174 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:45.679 is kind of yeah, it's it's sort of This may 175 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:48.679 be another topic, but like, this is the reason string 176 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:49.639 theory was invented. 177 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:52.600 Real quick, What is string theory? Well, in a very 178 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:56.840 quark sized, tiny nutshell, the premise of strength theory is 179 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.080 that basic objects are not point like, but they're string like. 180 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:04.399 So a quark might be made of a loop that 181 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:08.879 kind of vibrates and moves around. Every kind of particle 182 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:12.639 is like a different wiggly string. So why does anyone care? 183 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.320 Why are people so horny for string theory? Well, number one, 184 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:17.399 it's from the eighties, and maybe this is like the 185 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:21.120 scrunchy of particle physics. I don't know. More importantly, string 186 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:24.200 theory is a theory that works with both Einstein's general 187 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:30.039 relativity and that mister Einstein pose that what we perceive 188 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.279 as the force of gravity is the curvature of space 189 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:38.200 and time. More on that in a minute, and quantum mechanics, 190 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:41.840 which is the physics of the tiniest building blocks that exist. 191 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:45.399 So remember those quirks that made up protons and neutrons? 192 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:49.039 What are those made of? Maybe these stringlike loops of matter. 193 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:53.080 Every time I hear string theory mentioned, I think of 194 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:56.519 string cheese. I cannot And I was writing and researching 195 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:00.879 this episode, and I found myself on a website like 196 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:04.679 two thirty in the morning learning that string cheese, as 197 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:07.600 we know what, was invented in Wisconsin in nineteen seventy six, 198 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:10.480 and the way they get it to string is to 199 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:13.080 heat it to one hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit, and 200 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.879 that aligns all the milk proteins. Also, the first iterations 201 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:19.960 of string cheese were bigger and chunkier and served to 202 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:23.600 drunks in bars. Should we get back to physics, Okay, I'm. 203 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:26.840 Sorry, And this is like the big question in physics 204 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:30.960 is that, like, so, there there are a few sort 205 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:36.759 of fundamental forces of nature. Right, there's electromagnetism, and that's 206 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:42.360 like light and you know, like static cling and all 207 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:45.840 of those kinds of things, right, and magnetism. And then 208 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:48.240 there's the weak nuclear force, which has to do with 209 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:52.320 like how particles decay in radioactivity that kind of thing, 210 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:55.399 and how particles can change into other particles under certain conditions. 211 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.919 There's the strong nuclear force, and that holds particles together 212 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:02.919 in the centers of at Okay, and those all kind 213 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.840 of make sense together theoretically, like you can write down 214 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:11.039 equations that make those all fit in some way more 215 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:11.519 or less. 216 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:15.159 When Katie says you can write down equations that make 217 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.559 those all fit, I appreciate her being inclusive with the 218 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.720 second person, But I cannot write down equations to make 219 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.120 those all fit in some way. I cannot do that. 220 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.360 But then there's gravity, and gravity just doesn't follow any 221 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:33.480 of the same rules. It's like it's very hard to 222 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.480 put together a theory that includes those the fundamental forces 223 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:39.919 of particle physics and gravity. 224 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:42.679 So so it's gravity like the bad boy in a 225 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:45.759 teen drama. It's just like it's just not following any rules. 226 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:49.480 It's weird. It's like like gravity is all about space time, 227 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.720 you know, so gravity like, So the theory of gravity 228 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:57.360 that we have is Einstein's theory of relativity, so general relativity. 229 00:13:57.399 --> 00:13:58.559 This is the theory of gravity. 230 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:03.799 Where okay, yeah, heres Einstein. Here's how the universe of 231 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.720 which you are a part works. 232 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:09.440 The basic picture is that you can think of space 233 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.840 as this malleable thing, and if you have something that 234 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.080 has mass, it creates like a dent in space. It 235 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:19.720 sort of bends space around it, okay, and so other 236 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.399 things moving past will respond to that and like fall 237 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:26.120 into that dent. And that's like how gravitational attraction works. 238 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:28.440 You can think of it in this geometric way, okay, 239 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:30.919 and it works really well like geometrically to think of 240 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:34.080 it like that. But then there are fundamental principles that 241 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:36.559 happen in that like the speed of light, as a 242 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:40.000 limiting factor and all sorts of things like that, so 243 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.600 only certain paths things can follow and everything. But then 244 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:46.159 the particle physics stuff, like all the equations of particle 245 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:50.519 physics are done without thinking about gravity because on those scales, 246 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:53.840 like gravity isn't important. It's a really really weak force, okay. 247 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:59.279 But also like there are the way that the particle 248 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.679 physics is is formulated in the standard model of particle physics, 249 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:06.159 which is what we use to talk about all these interactions. 250 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:10.480 It doesn't have the same like, it doesn't follow the 251 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:13.519 same rules as gravity, Like there are ways in which 252 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:17.799 the whole like speed of light thing is violated in 253 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:21.240 one way that you can formulate how particles move around, 254 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:24.240 which is kind of like there's kind of like there's 255 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:26.679 this way of formulating it where a particle going from 256 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:29.919 point A to point B passes through every possible path 257 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:31.960 on the way between point A and point B, and 258 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:36.639 it's only by by using that idea that you get 259 00:15:36.679 --> 00:15:39.480 the right answer for how that particle is moving in 260 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:42.480 the particle physics point of view, And that doesn't work 261 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:45.279 with relativity. So there are a couple of things like that, 262 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:49.799 where like quantum mechanics and relativity just do not like 263 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:54.720 each other really, And it gets especially problematic when you 264 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:57.759 get to black hole because a black hole is this 265 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.799 very like intense gravitational system mm hmm. It's basically a 266 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.240 dent in space time that's so deep that like everything 267 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:10.000 falls into it if it gets close enough. But at 268 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:12.159 the edge of a black hole, the event horizon, you 269 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.919 have this weird quantum mechanical thing happening where you can 270 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:19.919 have like particles evaporating off of it, and that sets 271 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:23.120 like a sort of scale of the black hole, and 272 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:28.039 that means there's quantum mechanics happening in a strong gravitational system, 273 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:32.159 and then just everything breaks. It just goes totally haywire, 274 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.840 because if you look at it from a gravitational point 275 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:38.120 of view, like a relativity point of view, you should 276 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.679 see nothing at all interesting happening when you when you 277 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:43.159 fall into the black hole, like aside from like you're 278 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:46.559 you're killed by the gravity, right, Like you don't see 279 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:49.879 like nothing weird happens when you pass the horizon. But 280 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:53.919 from a particle physics point of view, like there there 281 00:16:54.039 --> 00:16:56.720 might be like this like firewall, like there might be 282 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:00.879 like a sort of like boundary of intense radiation there 283 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:02.919 because of the way you have to think about how 284 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:09.160 the particle physics works. This is a complicated story, but. 285 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:13.440 Basically the astrophysics typically is yeah, I'm not explaining it 286 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:19.759 very well, but but basically, like like, basically, when you 287 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:21.480 get to that point when you have a black hole 288 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:25.000 has an evaporation happening where particles are coming off the 289 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.880 edge of the event horizon, one way of looking at 290 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.960 it says that that that means that whatever you. 291 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:34.319 Fought through into the black hole, you can't ever find 292 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.119 out what it was. That information is destroid. But quantum mechanics, 293 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:41.200 like the particle point of view, says you can't do that, 294 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.759 and so there has to be some kind of loophole 295 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.200 and then gravity doesn't like that and you just you 296 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.920 just end up with chaos. And so there's this there's 297 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:53.359 this big problem called the black hole information paradox, which 298 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:55.920 has been around forever, and every once in a while 299 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:57.839 somebody's like, oh, I solved it, and then it's really 300 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.759 complicated and people don't really understand how that works. 301 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:02.240 Has anyone actually solved that? 302 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:07.279 I mean, I so technically I'm just not qualified to 303 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.839 know that for sure, because it requires understanding quantum gravity 304 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:13.920 in a way that I do not. But there have 305 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:17.839 been some solutions suggested, but in general there's still a 306 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:20.920 lot of discussion, so I don't know. 307 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:24.720 Okay, wait, so what does a cosmologist do. 308 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:30.240 A cosmologist just means you study the universe as a whole, right, 309 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.000 so you study maybe the beginning of the universe, the 310 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:37.119 end of the universe, how it changes over time. But 311 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:40.880 you can be a physicist cosmologist or an astronomer cosmologist, 312 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.960 and those are different, and it's culturally different. Like, but 313 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.519 the so if you're a physicist, if you hang out 314 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:53.000 with particle physics people and you say you're a cosmologist, 315 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:55.759 then then the implication is that you work on like 316 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:59.240 the beginning of the universe and the forces of nature 317 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.359 and maybe the end of the universe something like that. 318 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:05.480 If you hang out with astrophysicists and you say you're 319 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:08.319 a cosmologist, then you just study things that are really 320 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:13.400 far away, or you study you know, some something you 321 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:15.839 know more fundamental. But like, you can be a cosmologist 322 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.559 in astrophysics and you're a cosmologist because you study very 323 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:22.480 very distant galaxies. The reason that counts as cosmology is 324 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:25.319 because that means you're studying the very distant past of 325 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:26.000 the universe. 326 00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:29.960 So there are different flavors of cosmology, but they're all 327 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:32.880 kind of linked, at least in my opinion, by like, oh, 328 00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:36.119 where are we? What are we? What are we made of? AKA, 329 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:40.319 it's a branch of astronomy that involves the origin and 330 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:43.799 evolution of the universe. That's a less panicky way to 331 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:44.119 put it. 332 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.119 And so so then you're studying like how the universe 333 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:51.519 has changed over time. So there are kind of different 334 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:54.720 ways of doing it. And I've done all of those 335 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:58.240 different kinds of cosmology, I guess because I've spent my 336 00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:00.440 time kind of bouncing back and forth between the particle 337 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.680 physics and the astrophysics communities. So I've worked on you know, 338 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.000 the Big Bang and like theories of the early universe, 339 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:11.920 and I've worked on distant galaxies and how galaxies form. 340 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:14.920 And I've worked on black holes and weird stuff like 341 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:19.279 cosmic strings and just all sorts of things. 342 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:20.359 What is a cosmic string? 343 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:24.119 A cosmic string is kind of like a sort of 344 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.880 line or wiggly line of energy that stretches across the cosmos. 345 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.039 Might not exist, probably doesn't exist, but there could be 346 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:36.039 this like whole network of strings. Of like it's kind 347 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:37.680 of like if you think of like a black hole, 348 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.799 but you like stretch it out across the whole universe. 349 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:43.839 You get it's kind of like that, what does it do? 350 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:44.799 What? 351 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:44.920 It? 352 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:47.880 So really interesting things. So if you have two cosmic 353 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:51.599 strings and they cross each other they collide, they can 354 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:54.079 like reconnect in a different way. So you can have 355 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:56.359 two cosmic strings that are about to collide and then 356 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.519 they like change so that now you have two sort 357 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:01.920 of loops of cosmic strings. They're going into deficite directions, 358 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:04.279 like so they sort of passed through each other by 359 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.000 branching off in this weird way. 360 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:09.440 So cosmic strings may or may not exist. Now, if 361 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:14.440 they do exist, some theorists have used them to maybe 362 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:18.440 sketch out some stuff about time travel. Please figure that out, 363 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:20.160 please fix some stuff, thank you. 364 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:22.640 And you can make a loop of cosmic string, and 365 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:25.759 then that loop of cosmic string will like wiggle around 366 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:33.319 and make gravitational radiation and disappear into nothingness. And if 367 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:36.640 you have a cosmic string, like if you have a 368 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:40.079 cosmic string between you and some distant galaxy, then you 369 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:42.680 might see two pictures of that galaxy because it like 370 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.839 splits the space kind of. It's really cool. 371 00:21:46.279 --> 00:21:48.559 Now, how much do you think about all of this 372 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:50.519 in your day to day life? And like when you're 373 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:53.400 deciding if you should upgrade your rental car and like 374 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:56.559 if you should cut bangs and what happens to your 375 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.279 molecules after you die? Like how much do you let 376 00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:02.000 this kind of get to your own existence? Ah? 377 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:05.359 Yeah, somebody asked me that the other day, Like how 378 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:09.799 much do I like get sort of just overwhelmed by 379 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:14.319 these ideas or whatever? It's not very often, Like most 380 00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:17.960 of the time this is like this is fun stuff 381 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.440 to work on, but like most of this time it 382 00:22:20.759 --> 00:22:24.279 feels more like some kind of combination of science fiction 383 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.680 and a fun puzzle, you know. So like I'm trying 384 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:31.079 to solve a problem. I'm trying to calculate something and 385 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.880 trying to come up with a new idea for how 386 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:35.640 to do something, and so it's like a puzzle. It's 387 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:38.039 like some kind of neat thing to work out, And 388 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:41.039 I don't think of it as connecting to my own 389 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.039 life or existence because it's way far away or way 390 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.519 in the past, or you know, probably doesn't exist. Or whatever. Right, 391 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:51.039 But then every once in a while, like I'll be 392 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:52.839 I'll be thinking about this stuff and I'll be like, 393 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.559 oh my God, like there's this stuff is out there. 394 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:02.559 Like I'll be thinking about black holes or gravitational waves 395 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:06.240 or like the inflation period in the early universe or 396 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:07.920 something like that, and I'll be like I'll have to 397 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:09.880 like hold on to something and be like, oh God, 398 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:16.680 because these are huge, like mind bendingly intense forces and 399 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:22.119 massive things and like the kinds of energies and the 400 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:26.119 kinds of like force and just I don't know the 401 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:30.000