1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 A few months ago 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,000 the Nobel Prize in physics 3 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,000 was awarded to two teams of astronomers 4 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,000 for a discovery that has been hailed 5 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,000 as one of the most important 6 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,000 astronomical observations ever. 7 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,000 And today, after briefly describing what they found, 8 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000 I'm going to tell you about a highly controversial framework 9 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,000 for explaining their discovery, 10 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 namely the possibility 11 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,000 that way beyond the Earth, 12 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,000 the Milky Way and other distant galaxies, 13 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000 we may find that our universe 14 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 is not the only universe, 15 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,000 but is instead 16 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000 part of a vast complex of universes 17 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:38,000 that we call the multiverse. 18 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000 Now the idea of a multiverse is a strange one. 19 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000 I mean, most of us were raised to believe 20 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 that the word "universe" means everything. 21 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000 And I say most of us with forethought, 22 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,000 as my four-year-old daughter has heard me speak of these ideas since she was born. 23 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 And last year I was holding her 24 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 and I said, "Sophia, 25 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,000 I love you more than anything in the universe." 26 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000 And she turned to me and said, "Daddy, 27 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000 universe or multiverse?" 28 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,000 (Laughter) 29 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,000 But barring such an anomalous upbringing, 30 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000 it is strange to imagine 31 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,000 other realms separate from ours, 32 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,000 most with fundamentally different features, 33 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000 that would rightly be called universes of their own. 34 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 And yet, 35 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,000 speculative though the idea surely is, 36 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,000 I aim to convince you 37 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000 that there's reason for taking it seriously, 38 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,000 as it just might be right. 39 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,000 I'm going to tell the story of the multiverse in three parts. 40 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,000 In part one, 41 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 I'm going to describe those Nobel Prize-winning results 42 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 and to highlight a profound mystery 43 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,000 which those results revealed. 44 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000 In part two, 45 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,000 I'll offer a solution to that mystery. 46 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,000 It's based on an approach called string theory, 47 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:47,000 and that's where the idea of the multiverse 48 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,000 will come into the story. 49 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Finally, in part three, 50 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,000 I'm going to describe a cosmological theory 51 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000 called inflation, 52 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,000 which will pull all the pieces of the story together. 53 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:02,000 Okay, part one starts back in 1929 54 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 when the great astronomer Edwin Hubble 55 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 realized that the distant galaxies 56 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000 were all rushing away from us, 57 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 establishing that space itself is stretching, 58 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000 it's expanding. 59 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 Now this was revolutionary. 60 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000 The prevailing wisdom was that on the largest of scales 61 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,000 the universe was static. 62 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,000 But even so, 63 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000 there was one thing that everyone was certain of: 64 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,000 The expansion must be slowing down. 65 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,000 That, much as the gravitational pull of the Earth 66 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000 slows the ascent of an apple tossed upward, 67 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000 the gravitational pull 68 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,000 of each galaxy on every other 69 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,000 must be slowing 70 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000 the expansion of space. 71 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Now let's fast-forward to the 1990s 72 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,000 when those two teams of astronomers 73 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 I mentioned at the outset 74 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,000 were inspired by this reasoning 75 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000 to measure the rate 76 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,000 at which the expansion has been slowing. 77 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 And they did this 78 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000 by painstaking observations 79 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,000 of numerous distant galaxies, 80 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,000 allowing them to chart 81 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 how the expansion rate has changed over time. 82 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Here's the surprise: 83 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,000 They found that the expansion is not slowing down. 84 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Instead they found that it's speeding up, 85 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,000 going faster and faster. 86 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000 That's like tossing an apple upward 87 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 and it goes up faster and faster. 88 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Now if you saw an apple do that, 89 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000 you'd want to know why. 90 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000 What's pushing on it? 91 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Similarly, the astronomers' results 92 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 are surely well-deserving of the Nobel Prize, 93 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 but they raised an analogous question. 94 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 What force is driving all galaxies 95 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,000 to rush away from every other 96 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,000 at an ever-quickening speed? 97 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,000 Well the most promising answer 98 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,000 comes from an old idea of Einstein's. 99 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 You see, we are all used to gravity 100 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 being a force that does one thing, 101 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000 pulls objects together. 102 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 But in Einstein's theory of gravity, 103 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 his general theory of relativity, 104 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 gravity can also push things apart. 105 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 How? Well according to Einstein's math, 106 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 if space is uniformly filled 107 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,000 with an invisible energy, 108 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 sort of like a uniform, invisible mist, 109 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000 then the gravity generated by that mist 110 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 would be repulsive, 111 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 repulsive gravity, 112 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000 which is just what we need to explain the observations. 113 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 Because the repulsive gravity 114 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,000 of an invisible energy in space -- 115 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,000 we now call it dark energy, 116 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,000 but I've made it smokey white here so you can see it -- 117 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000 its repulsive gravity 118 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000 would cause each galaxy to push against every other, 119 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,000 driving expansion to speed up, 120 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,000 not slow down. 121 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,000 And this explanation 122 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,000 represents great progress. 123 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,000 But I promised you a mystery 124 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 here in part one. 125 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Here it is. 126 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,000 When the astronomers worked out 127 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,000 how much of this dark energy 128 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,000 must be infusing space 129 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,000 to account for the cosmic speed up, 130 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000 look at what they found. 131 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,000 This number is small. 132 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 Expressed in the relevant unit, 133 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000 it is spectacularly small. 134 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,000 And the mystery is to explain this peculiar number. 135 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,000 We want this number 136 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,000 to emerge from the laws of physics, 137 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,000 but so far no one has found a way to do that. 138 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Now you might wonder, 139 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000 should you care? 140 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Maybe explaining this number 141 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,000 is just a technical issue, 142 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000 a technical detail of interest to experts, 143 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000 but of no relevance to anybody else. 144 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000 Well it surely is a technical detail, 145 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,000 but some details really matter. 146 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000 Some details provide 147 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000 windows into uncharted realms of reality, 148 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,000 and this peculiar number may be doing just that, 149 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,000 as the only approach that's so far made headway to explain it 150 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,000 invokes the possibility of other universes -- 151 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,000 an idea that naturally emerges from string theory, 152 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,000 which takes me to part two: string theory. 153 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:07,000 So hold the mystery of the dark energy 154 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,000 in the back of your mind 155 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,000 as I now go on to tell you 156 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,000 three key things about string theory. 157 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,000 First off, what is it? 158 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Well it's an approach to realize Einstein's dream 159 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000 of a unified theory of physics, 160 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,000 a single overarching framework 161 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:26,000 that would be able to describe 162 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,000 all the forces at work in the universe. 163 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000 And the central idea of string theory 164 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000 is quite straightforward. 165 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,000 It says that if you examine 166 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,000 any piece of matter ever more finely, 167 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,000 at first you'll find molecules 168 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000 and then you'll find atoms and subatomic particles. 169 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000 But the theory says that if you could probe smaller, 170 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,000 much smaller than we can with existing technology, 171 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 you'd find something else inside these particles -- 172 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,000 a little tiny vibrating filament of energy, 173 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000 a little tiny vibrating string. 174 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,000 And just like the strings on a violin, 175 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,000 they can vibrate in different patterns 176 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,000 producing different musical notes. 177 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,000 These little fundamental strings, 178 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000 when they vibrate in different patterns, 179 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,000 they produce different kinds of particles -- 180 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000 so electrons, quarks, neutrinos, photons, 181 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,000 all other particles 182 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:13,000 would be united into a single framework, 183 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,000 as they would all arise from vibrating strings. 184 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,000 It's a compelling picture, 185 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,000 a kind of cosmic symphony, 186 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,000 where all the richness 187 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,000 that we see in the world around us 188 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,000 emerges from the music 189 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,000 that these little, tiny strings can play. 190 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:32,000 But there's a cost 191 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,000 to this elegant unification, 192 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,000 because years of research 193 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,000 have shown that the math of string theory doesn't quite work. 194 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,000 It has internal inconsistencies, 195 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,000 unless we allow 196 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,000 for something wholly unfamiliar -- 197 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000 extra dimensions of space. 198 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,000 That is, we all know about the usual three dimensions of space. 199 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And you can think about those 200 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,000 as height, width and depth. 201 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,000 But string theory says that, on fantastically small scales, 202 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,000 there are additional dimensions 203 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,000 crumpled to a tiny size so small 204 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,000 that we have not detected them. 205 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 But even though the dimensions are hidden, 206 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,000 they would have an impact on things that we can observe 207 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000 because the shape of the extra dimensions 208 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000 constrains how the strings can vibrate. 209 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,000 And in string theory, 210 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000 vibration determines everything. 211 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,000 So particle masses, the strengths of forces, 212 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,000 and most importantly, the amount of dark energy 213 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,000 would be determined 214 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,000 by the shape of the extra dimensions. 215 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,000 So if we knew the shape of the extra dimensions, 216 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:37,000 we should be able to calculate these features, 217 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,000 calculate the amount of dark energy. 218 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,000 The challenge 219 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,000 is we don't know 220 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,000 the shape of the extra dimensions. 221 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,000 All we have 222 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,000 is a list of candidate shapes 223 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,000 allowed by the math. 224 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,000 Now when these ideas were first developed, 225 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,000 there were only about five different candidate shapes, 226 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000 so you can imagine 227 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,000 analyzing them one-by-one 228 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,000 to determine if any yield 229 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,000 the physical features we observe. 230 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000 But over time the list grew 231 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000 as researchers found other candidate shapes. 232 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,000 From five, the number grew into the hundreds and then the thousands -- 233 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,000 A large, but still manageable, collection to analyze, 234 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,000 since after all, 235 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,000 graduate students need something to do. 236 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:23,000 But then the list continued to grow 237 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000 into the millions and the billions, until today. 238 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,000 The list of candidate shapes 239 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,000 has soared to about 10 to the 500. 240 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,000 So, what to do? 241 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,000 Well some researchers lost heart, 242 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,000 concluding that was so many candidate shapes for the extra dimensions, 243 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,000 each giving rise to different physical features, 244 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,000 string theory would never make 245 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,000 definitive, testable predictions. 246 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,000 But others turned this issue on its head, 247 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:55,000 taking us to the possibility of a multiverse. 248 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,000 Here's the idea. 249 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,000 Maybe each of these shapes is on an equal footing with every other. 250 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,000 Each is as real as every other, 251 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,000 in the sense 252 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,000 that there are many universes, 253 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,000 each with a different shape, for the extra dimensions. 254 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,000 And this radical proposal 255 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,000 has a profound impact on this mystery: 256 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:17,000 the amount of dark energy revealed by the Nobel Prize-winning results. 257 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,000 Because you see, 258 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,000 if there are other universes, 259 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,000 and if those universes 260 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:28,000 each have, say, a different shape for the extra dimensions, 261 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,000 then the physical features of each universe will be different, 262 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:32,000 and in particular, 263 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:34,000 the amount of dark energy in each universe 264 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,000 will be different. 265 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,000 Which means that the mystery 266 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,000 of explaining the amount of dark energy we've now measured 267 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,000 would take on a wholly different character. 268 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,000 In this context, 269 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000 the laws of physics can't explain one number for the dark energy 270 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,000 because there isn't just one number, 271 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,000 there are many numbers. 272 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,000 Which means 273 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:58,000 we have been asking the wrong question. 274 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000 It's that the right question to ask is, 275 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,000 why do we humans find ourselves in a universe 276 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:06,000 with a particular amount of dark energy we've measured 277 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,000 instead of any of the other possibilities 278 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,000 that are out there? 279 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000 And that's a question on which we can make headway. 280 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,000 Because those universes 281 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,000 that have much more dark energy than ours, 282 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,000 whenever matter tries to clump into galaxies, 283 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,000 the repulsive push of the dark energy is so strong 284 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,000 that it blows the clump apart 285 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,000 and galaxies don't form. 286 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,000 And in those universes that have much less dark energy, 287 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:33,000 well they collapse back on themselves so quickly 288 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000 that, again, galaxies don't form. 289 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000 And without galaxies, there are no stars, no planets 290 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,000 and no chance 291 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,000 for our form of life 292 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,000 to exist in those other universes. 293 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,000 So we find ourselves in a universe 294 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,000 with the particular amount of dark energy we've measured 295 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,000 simply because our universe has conditions 296 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:57,000 hospitable to our form of life. 297 00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000 And that would be that. 298 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000 Mystery solved, 299 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,000 multiverse found. 300 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Now some find this explanation unsatisfying. 301 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,000 We're used to physics 302 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,000 giving us definitive explanations for the features we observe. 303 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,000 But the point is, 304 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,000 if the feature you're observing 305 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,000 can and does take on 306 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,000 a wide variety of different values 307 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,000 across the wider landscape of reality, 308 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,000 then thinking one explanation 309 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:29,000 for a particular value 310 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,000 is simply misguided. 311 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:34,000 An early example 312 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:37,000 comes from the great astronomer Johannes Kepler 313 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:39,000 who was obsessed with understanding 314 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 a different number -- 315 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,000 why the Sun is 93 million miles away from the Earth. 316 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,000 And he worked for decades trying to explain this number, 317 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,000 but he never succeeded, and we know why. 318 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,000 Kepler was asking 319 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,000 the wrong question. 320 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,000 We now know that there are many planets 321 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,000 at a wide variety of different distances from their host stars. 322 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,000 So hoping that the laws of physics 323 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,000 will explain one particular number, 93 million miles, 324 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,000 well that is simply wrongheaded. 325 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,000 Instead the right question to ask is, 326 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,000 why do we humans find ourselves on a planet 327 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,000 at this particular distance, 328 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,000 instead of any of the other possibilities? 329 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,000 And again, that's a question we can answer. 330 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,000 Those planets which are much closer to a star like the Sun 331 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,000 would be so hot 332 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,000 that our form of life wouldn't exist. 333 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,000 And those planets that are much farther away from the star, 334 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,000 well they're so cold 335 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,000 that, again, our form of life would not take hold. 336 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,000 So we find ourselves 337 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:41,000 on a planet at this particular distance 338 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,000 simply because it yields conditions 339 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,000 vital to our form of life. 340 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,000 And when it comes to planets and their distances, 341 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:53,000 this clearly is the right kind of reasoning. 342 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,000 The point is, 343 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:58,000 when it comes to universes and the dark energy that they contain, 344 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,000 it may also be the right kind of reasoning. 345 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,000 One key difference, of course, 346 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,000 is we know that there are other planets out there, 347 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000 but so far I've only speculated on the possibility 348 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,000 that there might be other universes. 349 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,000 So to pull it all together, 350 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,000 we need a mechanism 351 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,000 that can actually generate other universes. 352 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,000 And that takes me to my final part, part three. 353 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,000 Because such a mechanism has been found 354 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000 by cosmologists trying to understand the Big Bang. 355 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:30,000 You see, when we speak of the Big Bang, 356 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:32,000 we often have an image 357 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:34,000 of a kind of cosmic explosion 358 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,000 that created our universe 359 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,000 and set space rushing outward. 360 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,000 But there's a little secret. 361 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,000 The Big Bang leaves out something pretty important, 362 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,000 the Bang. 363 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,000 It tells us how the universe evolved after the Bang, 364 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,000 but gives us no insight 365 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,000 into what would have powered the Bang itself. 366 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,000 And this gap was finally filled 367 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,000 by an enhanced version of the Big Bang theory. 368 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,000 It's called inflationary cosmology, 369 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:06,000 which identified a particular kind of fuel 370 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,000 that would naturally generate 371 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000 an outward rush of space. 372 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,000 The fuel is based on something called a quantum field, 373 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,000 but the only detail that matters for us 374 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,000 is that this fuel proves to be so efficient 375 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,000 that it's virtually impossible 376 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,000 to use it all up, 377 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,000 which means in the inflationary theory, 378 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,000 the Big Bang giving rise to our universe 379 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000 is likely not a one-time event. 380 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:34,000 Instead the fuel not only generated our Big Bang, 381 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:40,000 but it would also generate countless other Big Bangs, 382 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,000 each giving rise to its own separate universe 383 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,000 with our universe becoming but one bubble 384 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,000 in a grand cosmic bubble bath of universes. 385 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000 And now, when we meld this with string theory, 386 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,000 here's the picture we're led to. 387 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,000 Each of these universes has extra dimensions. 388 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,000 The extra dimensions take on a wide variety of different shapes. 389 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,000 The different shapes yield different physical features. 390 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,000 And we find ourselves in one universe instead of another 391 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,000 simply because it's only in our universe 392 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,000 that the physical features, like the amount of dark energy, 393 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,000 are right for our form of life to take hold. 394 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,000 And this is the compelling but highly controversial picture 395 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000 of the wider cosmos 396 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,000 that cutting-edge observation and theory 397 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,000 have now led us to seriously consider. 398 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,000 One big remaining question, of course, is, 399 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000 could we ever confirm 400 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,000 the existence of other universes? 401 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,000 Well let me describe 402 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,000 one way that might one day happen. 403 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,000 The inflationary theory 404 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,000 already has strong observational support. 405 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,000 Because the theory predicts 406 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,000 that the Big Bang would have been so intense 407 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000 that as space rapidly expanded, 408 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,000 tiny quantum jitters from the micro world 409 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000 would have been stretched out to the macro world, 410 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,000 yielding a distinctive fingerprint, 411 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,000 a pattern of slightly hotter spots and slightly colder spots, 412 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,000 across space, 413 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,000 which powerful telescopes have now observed. 414 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,000 Going further, if there are other universes, 415 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,000 the theory predicts that every so often 416 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,000 those universes can collide. 417 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 And if our universe got hit by another, 418 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,000 that collision 419 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,000 would generate an additional subtle pattern 420 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,000 of temperature variations across space 421 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,000 that we might one day 422 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,000 be able to detect. 423 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,000 And so exotic as this picture is, 424 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000 it may one day be grounded 425 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000 in observations, 426 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,000 establishing the existence of other universes. 427 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,000 I'll conclude 428 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,000 with a striking implication 429 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000 of all these ideas 430 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,000 for the very far future. 431 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,000 You see, we learned 432 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,000 that our universe is not static, 433 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000 that space is expanding, 434 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000 that that expansion is speeding up 435 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,000 and that there might be other universes 436 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,000 all by carefully examining 437 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,000 faint pinpoints of starlight 438 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,000 coming to us from distant galaxies. 439 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,000 But because the expansion is speeding up, 440 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,000 in the very far future, 441 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,000 those galaxies will rush away so far and so fast 442 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,000 that we won't be able to see them -- 443 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000 not because of technological limitations, 444 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,000 but because of the laws of physics. 445 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:17,000 The light those galaxies emit, 446 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000 even traveling at the fastest speed, the speed of light, 447 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,000 will not be able to overcome 448 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,000 the ever-widening gulf between us. 449 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,000 So astronomers in the far future 450 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,000 looking out into deep space 451 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,000 will see nothing but an endless stretch 452 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,000 of static, inky, black stillness. 453 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000 And they will conclude 454 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,000 that the universe is static and unchanging 455 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,000 and populated by a single central oasis of matter 456 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,000 that they inhabit -- 457 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,000 a picture of the cosmos 458 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,000 that we definitively know to be wrong. 459 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,000 Now maybe those future astronomers will have records 460 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,000 handed down from an earlier era, 461 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000 like ours, 462 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,000 attesting to an expanding cosmos 463 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000 teeming with galaxies. 464 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,000 But would those future astronomers 465 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,000 believe such ancient knowledge? 466 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000 Or would they believe 467 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,000 in the black, static empty universe 468 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,000 that their own state-of-the-art observations reveal? 469 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,000 I suspect the latter. 470 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,000 Which means that we are living 471 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,000 through a remarkably privileged era 472 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000 when certain deep truths about the cosmos 473 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,000 are still within reach 474 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,000 of the human spirit of exploration. 475 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:33,000 It appears that it may not always be that way. 476 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,000 Because today's astronomers, 477 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,000 by turning powerful telescopes to the sky, 478 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,000 have captured a handful of starkly informative photons -- 479 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,000 a kind of cosmic telegram 480 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,000 billions of years in transit. 481 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:50,000 and the message echoing across the ages is clear. 482 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,000 Sometimes nature guards her secrets 483 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,000 with the unbreakable grip 484 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,000 of physical law. 485 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:01,000 Sometimes the true nature of reality beckons 486 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,000 from just beyond the horizon. 487 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,000 Thank you very much. 488 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,000 (Applause) 489 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:12,000 Chris Anderson: Brian, thank you. 490 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,000 The range of ideas you've just spoken about 491 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,000 are dizzying, exhilarating, incredible. 492 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,000 How do you think 493 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,000 of where cosmology is now, 494 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,000 in a sort of historical side? 495 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,000 Are we in the middle of something unusual historically in your opinion? 496 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,000 BG: Well it's hard to say. 497 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000 When we learn that astronomers of the far future 498 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,000 may not have enough information to figure things out, 499 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000 the natural question is, maybe we're already in that position 500 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,000 and certain deep, critical features of the universe 501 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,000 already have escaped our ability to understand 502 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,000 because of how cosmology evolves. 503 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,000 So from that perspective, 504 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,000 maybe we will always be asking questions 505 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,000 and never be able to fully answer them. 506 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,000 On the other hand, we now can understand 507 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,000 how old the universe is. 508 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000 We can understand 509 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,000 how to understand the data from the microwave background radiation 510 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000 that was set down 13.72 billion years ago -- 511 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,000 and yet, we can do calculations today to predict how it will look 512 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000 and it matches. 513 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000 Holy cow! That's just amazing. 514 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,000 So on the one hand, it's just incredible where we've gotten, 515 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 but who knows what sort of blocks we may find in the future. 516 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000 CA: You're going to be around for the next few days. 517 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,000 Maybe some of these conversations can continue. 518 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,000 Thank you. Thank you, Brian. (BG: My pleasure.) 519 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000 (Applause)