Is our universe the only universe?
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0:00 - 0:02A few months ago
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0:02 - 0:04the Nobel Prize in physics
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0:04 - 0:06was awarded to two teams of astronomers
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0:06 - 0:09for a discovery that has been hailed
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0:09 - 0:11as one of the most important
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0:11 - 0:13astronomical observations ever.
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0:13 - 0:15And today, after briefly describing what they found,
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0:15 - 0:18I'm going to tell you about a highly controversial framework
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0:18 - 0:21for explaining their discovery,
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0:21 - 0:23namely the possibility
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0:23 - 0:25that way beyond the Earth,
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0:25 - 0:28the Milky Way and other distant galaxies,
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0:28 - 0:30we may find that our universe
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0:30 - 0:32is not the only universe,
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0:32 - 0:34but is instead
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0:34 - 0:36part of a vast complex of universes
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0:36 - 0:38that we call the multiverse.
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0:38 - 0:41Now the idea of a multiverse is a strange one.
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0:41 - 0:43I mean, most of us were raised to believe
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0:43 - 0:46that the word "universe" means everything.
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0:46 - 0:49And I say most of us with forethought,
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0:49 - 0:52as my four-year-old daughter has heard me speak of these ideas since she was born.
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0:52 - 0:54And last year I was holding her
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0:54 - 0:56and I said, "Sophia,
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0:56 - 0:59I love you more than anything in the universe."
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0:59 - 1:01And she turned to me and said, "Daddy,
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1:01 - 1:03universe or multiverse?"
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1:03 - 1:06(Laughter)
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1:06 - 1:09But barring such an anomalous upbringing,
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1:09 - 1:11it is strange to imagine
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1:11 - 1:13other realms separate from ours,
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1:13 - 1:15most with fundamentally different features,
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1:15 - 1:18that would rightly be called universes of their own.
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1:18 - 1:20And yet,
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1:20 - 1:22speculative though the idea surely is,
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1:22 - 1:24I aim to convince you
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1:24 - 1:26that there's reason for taking it seriously,
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1:26 - 1:28as it just might be right.
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1:28 - 1:31I'm going to tell the story of the multiverse in three parts.
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1:31 - 1:33In part one,
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1:33 - 1:35I'm going to describe those Nobel Prize-winning results
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1:35 - 1:37and to highlight a profound mystery
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1:37 - 1:39which those results revealed.
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1:39 - 1:41In part two,
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1:41 - 1:43I'll offer a solution to that mystery.
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1:43 - 1:45It's based on an approach called string theory,
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1:45 - 1:47and that's where the idea of the multiverse
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1:47 - 1:49will come into the story.
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1:49 - 1:51Finally, in part three,
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1:51 - 1:53I'm going to describe a cosmological theory
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1:53 - 1:55called inflation,
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1:55 - 1:58which will pull all the pieces of the story together.
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1:58 - 2:02Okay, part one starts back in 1929
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2:02 - 2:04when the great astronomer Edwin Hubble
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2:04 - 2:07realized that the distant galaxies
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2:07 - 2:09were all rushing away from us,
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2:09 - 2:11establishing that space itself is stretching,
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2:11 - 2:13it's expanding.
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2:13 - 2:16Now this was revolutionary.
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2:16 - 2:19The prevailing wisdom was that on the largest of scales
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2:19 - 2:21the universe was static.
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2:21 - 2:23But even so,
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2:23 - 2:26there was one thing that everyone was certain of:
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2:26 - 2:29The expansion must be slowing down.
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2:29 - 2:32That, much as the gravitational pull of the Earth
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2:32 - 2:35slows the ascent of an apple tossed upward,
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2:35 - 2:37the gravitational pull
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2:37 - 2:39of each galaxy on every other
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2:39 - 2:41must be slowing
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2:41 - 2:43the expansion of space.
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2:43 - 2:46Now let's fast-forward to the 1990s
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2:46 - 2:48when those two teams of astronomers
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2:48 - 2:50I mentioned at the outset
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2:50 - 2:52were inspired by this reasoning
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2:52 - 2:54to measure the rate
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2:54 - 2:56at which the expansion has been slowing.
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2:56 - 2:58And they did this
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2:58 - 3:00by painstaking observations
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3:00 - 3:02of numerous distant galaxies,
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3:02 - 3:04allowing them to chart
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3:04 - 3:07how the expansion rate has changed over time.
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3:07 - 3:10Here's the surprise:
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3:10 - 3:13They found that the expansion is not slowing down.
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3:13 - 3:15Instead they found that it's speeding up,
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3:15 - 3:17going faster and faster.
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3:17 - 3:19That's like tossing an apple upward
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3:19 - 3:21and it goes up faster and faster.
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3:21 - 3:23Now if you saw an apple do that,
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3:23 - 3:25you'd want to know why.
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3:25 - 3:27What's pushing on it?
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3:27 - 3:29Similarly, the astronomers' results
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3:29 - 3:32are surely well-deserving of the Nobel Prize,
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3:32 - 3:36but they raised an analogous question.
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3:36 - 3:38What force is driving all galaxies
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3:38 - 3:41to rush away from every other
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3:41 - 3:44at an ever-quickening speed?
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3:44 - 3:46Well the most promising answer
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3:46 - 3:49comes from an old idea of Einstein's.
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3:49 - 3:51You see, we are all used to gravity
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3:51 - 3:54being a force that does one thing,
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3:54 - 3:56pulls objects together.
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3:56 - 3:58But in Einstein's theory of gravity,
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3:58 - 4:00his general theory of relativity,
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4:00 - 4:03gravity can also push things apart.
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4:03 - 4:06How? Well according to Einstein's math,
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4:06 - 4:08if space is uniformly filled
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4:08 - 4:10with an invisible energy,
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4:10 - 4:13sort of like a uniform, invisible mist,
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4:13 - 4:16then the gravity generated by that mist
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4:16 - 4:18would be repulsive,
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4:18 - 4:20repulsive gravity,
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4:20 - 4:23which is just what we need to explain the observations.
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4:23 - 4:25Because the repulsive gravity
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4:25 - 4:27of an invisible energy in space --
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4:27 - 4:29we now call it dark energy,
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4:29 - 4:32but I've made it smokey white here so you can see it --
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4:32 - 4:34its repulsive gravity
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4:34 - 4:36would cause each galaxy to push against every other,
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4:36 - 4:38driving expansion to speed up,
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4:38 - 4:40not slow down.
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4:40 - 4:42And this explanation
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4:42 - 4:44represents great progress.
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4:44 - 4:47But I promised you a mystery
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4:47 - 4:49here in part one.
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4:49 - 4:51Here it is.
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4:51 - 4:53When the astronomers worked out
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4:53 - 4:56how much of this dark energy
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4:56 - 4:58must be infusing space
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4:58 - 5:00to account for the cosmic speed up,
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5:00 - 5:02look at what they found.
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5:09 - 5:11This number is small.
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5:11 - 5:13Expressed in the relevant unit,
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5:13 - 5:15it is spectacularly small.
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5:15 - 5:18And the mystery is to explain this peculiar number.
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5:18 - 5:20We want this number
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5:20 - 5:22to emerge from the laws of physics,
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5:22 - 5:25but so far no one has found a way to do that.
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5:25 - 5:28Now you might wonder,
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5:28 - 5:30should you care?
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5:30 - 5:32Maybe explaining this number
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5:32 - 5:34is just a technical issue,
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5:34 - 5:37a technical detail of interest to experts,
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5:37 - 5:39but of no relevance to anybody else.
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5:39 - 5:42Well it surely is a technical detail,
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5:42 - 5:44but some details really matter.
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5:44 - 5:46Some details provide
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5:46 - 5:48windows into uncharted realms of reality,
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5:48 - 5:51and this peculiar number may be doing just that,
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5:51 - 5:54as the only approach that's so far made headway to explain it
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5:54 - 5:57invokes the possibility of other universes --
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5:57 - 6:00an idea that naturally emerges from string theory,
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6:00 - 6:03which takes me to part two: string theory.
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6:03 - 6:07So hold the mystery of the dark energy
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6:07 - 6:09in the back of your mind
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6:09 - 6:11as I now go on to tell you
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6:11 - 6:14three key things about string theory.
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6:14 - 6:16First off, what is it?
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6:16 - 6:19Well it's an approach to realize Einstein's dream
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6:19 - 6:22of a unified theory of physics,
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6:22 - 6:24a single overarching framework
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6:24 - 6:26that would be able to describe
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6:26 - 6:28all the forces at work in the universe.
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6:28 - 6:30And the central idea of string theory
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6:30 - 6:32is quite straightforward.
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6:32 - 6:34It says that if you examine
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6:34 - 6:36any piece of matter ever more finely,
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6:36 - 6:38at first you'll find molecules
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6:38 - 6:41and then you'll find atoms and subatomic particles.
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6:41 - 6:43But the theory says that if you could probe smaller,
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6:43 - 6:46much smaller than we can with existing technology,
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6:46 - 6:49you'd find something else inside these particles --
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6:49 - 6:52a little tiny vibrating filament of energy,
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6:52 - 6:55a little tiny vibrating string.
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6:55 - 6:57And just like the strings on a violin,
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6:57 - 6:59they can vibrate in different patterns
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6:59 - 7:01producing different musical notes.
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7:01 - 7:03These little fundamental strings,
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7:03 - 7:05when they vibrate in different patterns,
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7:05 - 7:07they produce different kinds of particles --
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7:07 - 7:09so electrons, quarks, neutrinos, photons,
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7:09 - 7:11all other particles
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7:11 - 7:13would be united into a single framework,
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7:13 - 7:16as they would all arise from vibrating strings.
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7:16 - 7:19It's a compelling picture,
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7:19 - 7:21a kind of cosmic symphony,
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7:21 - 7:23where all the richness
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7:23 - 7:25that we see in the world around us
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7:25 - 7:27emerges from the music
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7:27 - 7:30that these little, tiny strings can play.
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7:30 - 7:32But there's a cost
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7:32 - 7:34to this elegant unification,
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7:34 - 7:36because years of research
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7:36 - 7:39have shown that the math of string theory doesn't quite work.
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7:39 - 7:41It has internal inconsistencies,
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7:41 - 7:43unless we allow
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7:43 - 7:46for something wholly unfamiliar --
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7:46 - 7:49extra dimensions of space.
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7:49 - 7:52That is, we all know about the usual three dimensions of space.
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7:52 - 7:54And you can think about those
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7:54 - 7:57as height, width and depth.
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7:57 - 8:00But string theory says that, on fantastically small scales,
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8:00 - 8:02there are additional dimensions
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8:02 - 8:04crumpled to a tiny size so small
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8:04 - 8:06that we have not detected them.
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8:06 - 8:08But even though the dimensions are hidden,
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8:08 - 8:11they would have an impact on things that we can observe
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8:11 - 8:14because the shape of the extra dimensions
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8:14 - 8:17constrains how the strings can vibrate.
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8:17 - 8:19And in string theory,
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8:19 - 8:22vibration determines everything.
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8:22 - 8:24So particle masses, the strengths of forces,
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8:24 - 8:27and most importantly, the amount of dark energy
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8:27 - 8:29would be determined
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8:29 - 8:31by the shape of the extra dimensions.
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8:31 - 8:34So if we knew the shape of the extra dimensions,
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8:34 - 8:37we should be able to calculate these features,
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8:37 - 8:40calculate the amount of dark energy.
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8:40 - 8:42The challenge
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8:42 - 8:44is we don't know
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8:44 - 8:47the shape of the extra dimensions.
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8:47 - 8:49All we have
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8:49 - 8:51is a list of candidate shapes
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8:51 - 8:54allowed by the math.
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8:54 - 8:56Now when these ideas were first developed,
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8:56 - 8:58there were only about five different candidate shapes,
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8:58 - 9:00so you can imagine
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9:00 - 9:02analyzing them one-by-one
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9:02 - 9:04to determine if any yield
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9:04 - 9:06the physical features we observe.
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9:06 - 9:08But over time the list grew
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9:08 - 9:10as researchers found other candidate shapes.
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9:10 - 9:13From five, the number grew into the hundreds and then the thousands --
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9:13 - 9:16A large, but still manageable, collection to analyze,
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9:16 - 9:18since after all,
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9:18 - 9:21graduate students need something to do.
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9:21 - 9:23But then the list continued to grow
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9:23 - 9:26into the millions and the billions, until today.
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9:26 - 9:28The list of candidate shapes
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9:28 - 9:33has soared to about 10 to the 500.
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9:33 - 9:36So, what to do?
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9:36 - 9:39Well some researchers lost heart,
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9:39 - 9:42concluding that was so many candidate shapes for the extra dimensions,
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9:42 - 9:45each giving rise to different physical features,
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9:45 - 9:47string theory would never make
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9:47 - 9:49definitive, testable predictions.
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9:49 - 9:53But others turned this issue on its head,
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9:53 - 9:55taking us to the possibility of a multiverse.
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9:55 - 9:57Here's the idea.
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9:57 - 10:00Maybe each of these shapes is on an equal footing with every other.
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10:00 - 10:02Each is as real as every other,
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10:02 - 10:04in the sense
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10:04 - 10:06that there are many universes,
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10:06 - 10:09each with a different shape, for the extra dimensions.
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10:09 - 10:11And this radical proposal
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10:11 - 10:14has a profound impact on this mystery:
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10:14 - 10:17the amount of dark energy revealed by the Nobel Prize-winning results.
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10:17 - 10:19Because you see,
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10:19 - 10:22if there are other universes,
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10:22 - 10:24and if those universes
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10:24 - 10:28each have, say, a different shape for the extra dimensions,
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10:28 - 10:30then the physical features of each universe will be different,
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10:30 - 10:32and in particular,
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10:32 - 10:34the amount of dark energy in each universe
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10:34 - 10:36will be different.
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10:36 - 10:38Which means that the mystery
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10:38 - 10:40of explaining the amount of dark energy we've now measured
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10:40 - 10:43would take on a wholly different character.
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10:43 - 10:45In this context,
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10:45 - 10:48the laws of physics can't explain one number for the dark energy
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10:48 - 10:51because there isn't just one number,
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10:51 - 10:53there are many numbers.
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10:53 - 10:55Which means
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10:55 - 10:58we have been asking the wrong question.
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10:58 - 11:00It's that the right question to ask is,
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11:00 - 11:03why do we humans find ourselves in a universe
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11:03 - 11:06with a particular amount of dark energy we've measured
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11:06 - 11:09instead of any of the other possibilities
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11:09 - 11:11that are out there?
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11:11 - 11:14And that's a question on which we can make headway.
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11:14 - 11:16Because those universes
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11:16 - 11:18that have much more dark energy than ours,
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11:18 - 11:21whenever matter tries to clump into galaxies,
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11:21 - 11:24the repulsive push of the dark energy is so strong
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11:24 - 11:26that it blows the clump apart
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11:26 - 11:28and galaxies don't form.
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11:28 - 11:31And in those universes that have much less dark energy,
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11:31 - 11:33well they collapse back on themselves so quickly
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11:33 - 11:36that, again, galaxies don't form.
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11:36 - 11:39And without galaxies, there are no stars, no planets
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11:39 - 11:41and no chance
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11:41 - 11:43for our form of life
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11:43 - 11:45to exist in those other universes.
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11:45 - 11:47So we find ourselves in a universe
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11:47 - 11:50with the particular amount of dark energy we've measured
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11:50 - 11:53simply because our universe has conditions
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11:53 - 11:57hospitable to our form of life.
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11:57 - 11:59And that would be that.
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11:59 - 12:01Mystery solved,
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12:01 - 12:03multiverse found.
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12:03 - 12:08Now some find this explanation unsatisfying.
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12:08 - 12:10We're used to physics
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12:10 - 12:13giving us definitive explanations for the features we observe.
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12:13 - 12:15But the point is,
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12:15 - 12:18if the feature you're observing
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12:18 - 12:20can and does take on
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12:20 - 12:22a wide variety of different values
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12:22 - 12:25across the wider landscape of reality,
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12:25 - 12:27then thinking one explanation
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12:27 - 12:29for a particular value
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12:29 - 12:32is simply misguided.
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12:32 - 12:34An early example
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12:34 - 12:37comes from the great astronomer Johannes Kepler
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12:37 - 12:39who was obsessed with understanding
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12:39 - 12:41a different number --
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12:41 - 12:45why the Sun is 93 million miles away from the Earth.
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12:45 - 12:48And he worked for decades trying to explain this number,
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12:48 - 12:51but he never succeeded, and we know why.
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12:51 - 12:53Kepler was asking
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12:53 - 12:55the wrong question.
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12:55 - 12:58We now know that there are many planets
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12:58 - 13:01at a wide variety of different distances from their host stars.
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13:01 - 13:04So hoping that the laws of physics
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13:04 - 13:07will explain one particular number, 93 million miles,
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13:07 - 13:10well that is simply wrongheaded.
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13:10 - 13:12Instead the right question to ask is,
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13:12 - 13:15why do we humans find ourselves on a planet
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13:15 - 13:17at this particular distance,
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13:17 - 13:20instead of any of the other possibilities?
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13:20 - 13:23And again, that's a question we can answer.
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13:23 - 13:26Those planets which are much closer to a star like the Sun
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13:26 - 13:28would be so hot
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13:28 - 13:30that our form of life wouldn't exist.
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13:30 - 13:33And those planets that are much farther away from the star,
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13:33 - 13:35well they're so cold
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13:35 - 13:37that, again, our form of life would not take hold.
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13:37 - 13:39So we find ourselves
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13:39 - 13:41on a planet at this particular distance
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13:41 - 13:43simply because it yields conditions
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13:43 - 13:46vital to our form of life.
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13:46 - 13:49And when it comes to planets and their distances,
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13:49 - 13:53this clearly is the right kind of reasoning.
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13:53 - 13:55The point is,
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13:55 - 13:58when it comes to universes and the dark energy that they contain,
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13:58 - 14:02it may also be the right kind of reasoning.
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14:02 - 14:05One key difference, of course,
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14:05 - 14:07is we know that there are other planets out there,
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14:07 - 14:10but so far I've only speculated on the possibility
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14:10 - 14:12that there might be other universes.
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14:12 - 14:14So to pull it all together,
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14:14 - 14:16we need a mechanism
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14:16 - 14:19that can actually generate other universes.
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14:19 - 14:22And that takes me to my final part, part three.
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14:22 - 14:25Because such a mechanism has been found
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14:25 - 14:28by cosmologists trying to understand the Big Bang.
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14:28 - 14:30You see, when we speak of the Big Bang,
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14:30 - 14:32we often have an image
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14:32 - 14:34of a kind of cosmic explosion
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14:34 - 14:36that created our universe
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14:36 - 14:39and set space rushing outward.
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14:39 - 14:41But there's a little secret.
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14:41 - 14:44The Big Bang leaves out something pretty important,
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14:44 - 14:46the Bang.
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14:46 - 14:49It tells us how the universe evolved after the Bang,
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14:49 - 14:51but gives us no insight
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14:51 - 14:55into what would have powered the Bang itself.
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14:55 - 14:57And this gap was finally filled
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14:57 - 14:59by an enhanced version of the Big Bang theory.
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14:59 - 15:02It's called inflationary cosmology,
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15:02 - 15:06which identified a particular kind of fuel
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15:06 - 15:08that would naturally generate
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15:08 - 15:10an outward rush of space.
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15:10 - 15:13The fuel is based on something called a quantum field,
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15:13 - 15:16but the only detail that matters for us
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15:16 - 15:19is that this fuel proves to be so efficient
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15:19 - 15:21that it's virtually impossible
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15:21 - 15:23to use it all up,
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15:23 - 15:25which means in the inflationary theory,
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15:25 - 15:28the Big Bang giving rise to our universe
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15:28 - 15:31is likely not a one-time event.
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15:31 - 15:34Instead the fuel not only generated our Big Bang,
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15:34 - 15:40but it would also generate countless other Big Bangs,
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15:40 - 15:43each giving rise to its own separate universe
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15:43 - 15:45with our universe becoming but one bubble
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15:45 - 15:48in a grand cosmic bubble bath of universes.
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15:48 - 15:50And now, when we meld this with string theory,
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15:50 - 15:52here's the picture we're led to.
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15:52 - 15:54Each of these universes has extra dimensions.
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15:54 - 15:57The extra dimensions take on a wide variety of different shapes.
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15:57 - 16:00The different shapes yield different physical features.
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16:00 - 16:03And we find ourselves in one universe instead of another
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16:03 - 16:06simply because it's only in our universe
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16:06 - 16:09that the physical features, like the amount of dark energy,
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16:09 - 16:13are right for our form of life to take hold.
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16:13 - 16:16And this is the compelling but highly controversial picture
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16:16 - 16:18of the wider cosmos
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16:18 - 16:20that cutting-edge observation and theory
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16:20 - 16:24have now led us to seriously consider.
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16:24 - 16:28One big remaining question, of course, is,
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16:28 - 16:31could we ever confirm
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16:31 - 16:34the existence of other universes?
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16:34 - 16:36Well let me describe
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16:36 - 16:39one way that might one day happen.
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16:39 - 16:41The inflationary theory
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16:41 - 16:43already has strong observational support.
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16:43 - 16:45Because the theory predicts
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16:45 - 16:47that the Big Bang would have been so intense
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16:47 - 16:50that as space rapidly expanded,
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16:50 - 16:52tiny quantum jitters from the micro world
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16:52 - 16:55would have been stretched out to the macro world,
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16:55 - 16:58yielding a distinctive fingerprint,
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16:58 - 17:00a pattern of slightly hotter spots and slightly colder spots,
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17:00 - 17:02across space,
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17:02 - 17:05which powerful telescopes have now observed.
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17:05 - 17:08Going further, if there are other universes,
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17:08 - 17:10the theory predicts that every so often
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17:10 - 17:12those universes can collide.
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17:12 - 17:14And if our universe got hit by another,
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17:14 - 17:16that collision
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17:16 - 17:18would generate an additional subtle pattern
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17:18 - 17:20of temperature variations across space
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17:20 - 17:22that we might one day
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17:22 - 17:24be able to detect.
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17:24 - 17:27And so exotic as this picture is,
-
17:27 - 17:29it may one day be grounded
-
17:29 - 17:31in observations,
-
17:31 - 17:34establishing the existence of other universes.
-
17:34 - 17:36I'll conclude
-
17:36 - 17:39with a striking implication
-
17:39 - 17:41of all these ideas
-
17:41 - 17:43for the very far future.
-
17:43 - 17:45You see, we learned
-
17:45 - 17:47that our universe is not static,
-
17:47 - 17:49that space is expanding,
-
17:49 - 17:51that that expansion is speeding up
-
17:51 - 17:53and that there might be other universes
-
17:53 - 17:55all by carefully examining
-
17:55 - 17:57faint pinpoints of starlight
-
17:57 - 18:00coming to us from distant galaxies.
-
18:00 - 18:03But because the expansion is speeding up,
-
18:03 - 18:05in the very far future,
-
18:05 - 18:08those galaxies will rush away so far and so fast
-
18:08 - 18:11that we won't be able to see them --
-
18:11 - 18:13not because of technological limitations,
-
18:13 - 18:15but because of the laws of physics.
-
18:15 - 18:17The light those galaxies emit,
-
18:17 - 18:20even traveling at the fastest speed, the speed of light,
-
18:20 - 18:22will not be able to overcome
-
18:22 - 18:25the ever-widening gulf between us.
-
18:25 - 18:27So astronomers in the far future
-
18:27 - 18:29looking out into deep space
-
18:29 - 18:32will see nothing but an endless stretch
-
18:32 - 18:36of static, inky, black stillness.
-
18:36 - 18:38And they will conclude
-
18:38 - 18:40that the universe is static and unchanging
-
18:40 - 18:43and populated by a single central oasis of matter
-
18:43 - 18:45that they inhabit --
-
18:45 - 18:47a picture of the cosmos
-
18:47 - 18:50that we definitively know to be wrong.
-
18:50 - 18:53Now maybe those future astronomers will have records
-
18:53 - 18:55handed down from an earlier era,
-
18:55 - 18:57like ours,
-
18:57 - 18:59attesting to an expanding cosmos
-
18:59 - 19:01teeming with galaxies.
-
19:01 - 19:03But would those future astronomers
-
19:03 - 19:06believe such ancient knowledge?
-
19:06 - 19:08Or would they believe
-
19:08 - 19:11in the black, static empty universe
-
19:11 - 19:15that their own state-of-the-art observations reveal?
-
19:15 - 19:17I suspect the latter.
-
19:17 - 19:19Which means that we are living
-
19:19 - 19:22through a remarkably privileged era
-
19:22 - 19:24when certain deep truths about the cosmos
-
19:24 - 19:26are still within reach
-
19:26 - 19:28of the human spirit of exploration.
-
19:28 - 19:33It appears that it may not always be that way.
-
19:33 - 19:35Because today's astronomers,
-
19:35 - 19:38by turning powerful telescopes to the sky,
-
19:38 - 19:41have captured a handful of starkly informative photons --
-
19:41 - 19:44a kind of cosmic telegram
-
19:44 - 19:46billions of years in transit.
-
19:46 - 19:50and the message echoing across the ages is clear.
-
19:50 - 19:53Sometimes nature guards her secrets
-
19:53 - 19:55with the unbreakable grip
-
19:55 - 19:57of physical law.
-
19:57 - 20:01Sometimes the true nature of reality beckons
-
20:01 - 20:04from just beyond the horizon.
-
20:04 - 20:06Thank you very much.
-
20:06 - 20:10(Applause)
-
20:10 - 20:12Chris Anderson: Brian, thank you.
-
20:12 - 20:14The range of ideas you've just spoken about
-
20:14 - 20:17are dizzying, exhilarating, incredible.
-
20:17 - 20:19How do you think
-
20:19 - 20:21of where cosmology is now,
-
20:21 - 20:23in a sort of historical side?
-
20:23 - 20:26Are we in the middle of something unusual historically in your opinion?
-
20:26 - 20:28BG: Well it's hard to say.
-
20:28 - 20:31When we learn that astronomers of the far future
-
20:31 - 20:34may not have enough information to figure things out,
-
20:34 - 20:37the natural question is, maybe we're already in that position
-
20:37 - 20:40and certain deep, critical features of the universe
-
20:40 - 20:43already have escaped our ability to understand
-
20:43 - 20:45because of how cosmology evolves.
-
20:45 - 20:47So from that perspective,
-
20:47 - 20:49maybe we will always be asking questions
-
20:49 - 20:51and never be able to fully answer them.
-
20:51 - 20:53On the other hand, we now can understand
-
20:53 - 20:55how old the universe is.
-
20:55 - 20:57We can understand
-
20:57 - 21:00how to understand the data from the microwave background radiation
-
21:00 - 21:03that was set down 13.72 billion years ago --
-
21:03 - 21:05and yet, we can do calculations today to predict how it will look
-
21:05 - 21:07and it matches.
-
21:07 - 21:09Holy cow! That's just amazing.
-
21:09 - 21:12So on the one hand, it's just incredible where we've gotten,
-
21:12 - 21:16but who knows what sort of blocks we may find in the future.
-
21:16 - 21:19CA: You're going to be around for the next few days.
-
21:19 - 21:21Maybe some of these conversations can continue.
-
21:21 - 21:23Thank you. Thank you, Brian. (BG: My pleasure.)
-
21:23 - 21:26(Applause)
- Title:
- Is our universe the only universe?
- Speaker:
- Brian Greene
- Description:
-
Is there more than one universe? In this visually rich, action-packed talk, Brian Greene shows how the unanswered questions of physics (starting with a big one: What caused the Big Bang?) have led to the theory that our own universe is just one of many in the "multiverse."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 21:47
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Ilana foss edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Ilana foss edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Flávia Pires edited English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Jenny Zurawell approved English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? | ||
Jenny Zurawell accepted English subtitles for Is our universe the only universe? |