WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Music] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [The Floating University] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Michio Kaku] My name is Professor Michio Kaku. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Dr. Michio Kaku - Professor of theoretical Phyics, The City University of New York - Specialist in String Theory The Universe in a Nutshell - The Physics of Everything] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I specialize in something called String Theory. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm a physicist, and some people ask me the question: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "What has physics done for me lately? I mean, do I get better color television? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do I get better internet reception with physics?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the answer is: yes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You see, physics is at the very foundation of matter and energy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We physicists invented the laser beam, we invented the transistor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we helped to create the first computer, we helped to construct the internet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we wrote the World Wide Web. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In addition, we also helped to invent television, radio, radar, microwaves, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not to mention MRI scans, PET scans, X rays. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In other words, almost everything you see in your living room, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 almost everything you see in a modern hospital, at some point or other, can be traced to a physicist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, I got interested in physics when I was a child. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Michio Kaku - Age 8) When I was 8, a great scientist had just died. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I still remember my elementary school teacher coming into the room and announcing that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the greatest scientist of our era has just passed away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that day, every newspaper published a picture of his desk, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the desk of Albert Einstein. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the caption said -- I'll never forget-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "The unfinished manuscript of the greatest work of the greatest scientist of our time." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I said to myself: "Why couldn't he finish it? I mean, what's so hard? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a homework problem, right? Why didn't he ask his mother? Why can't he finish this problem?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, as a child of eight, I decided to find out what was this problem? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Years later, I began to realize that it was the theory of everything: the Unified Field Theory. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 An equation that would summarize all the physical forces in the universe. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 An equation like e = mc^2. That equation is half an inch long, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that equation unlocks a secret of the stars. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why do the stars shine? Why does the galaxy light up? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why do we have energy on the earth? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But then there was another thing that happened to me when I was around eight years old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I got hooked on the Saturday morning TV shows. In particular, Flash Gordon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I was hooked. I mean, every Saturday morning, watching programs about aliens from outer space: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Starships, ray guns, invisibility shields, cities in the sky--that was for me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But after a few years, I began to notice something. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 First of all, I began to notice that, well, I didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I didn't have muscles like Flash Gordon, but there was a scientist who made the series work. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In particular, a physicist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was the one who discovered the ray gun, the starships. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was the one who created the invisibility shield. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then I realized something else: If you want to understand the future, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have to understand physics. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Physics is at the foundation of all, the gadgetry, the wizardry, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all the marvels of the technological age, all of it can be traced 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the work of a physicist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [PHYSICS AND THE IMPOSSIBLE] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most of science fiction is, in fact, well within the laws of physics, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but possible within maybe a hundred years. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Then we have impossibilities that may take a thousand years or more. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That includes time travel, warp drive, higher dimensions, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 portals through space and time, stargates, worm holes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You know--if you were to meet your great grandparents of the year 1900, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they were dirt farmers back then. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They didn't live much beyond the age of 40, on average. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Long distance communication in the year 1900 was yelling at your neighbor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and yet, if they could see you now, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with iPads and iPods and satellites and GPS and laser beams, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how would they view you? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They may view you as a wizard or sorcerer. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 However, if we can now meet our grand kids of the year 2100, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how would we view them? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We would view them as gods like in Greek mythology. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Zeus could control objects around him by pure thought, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 materialize objects just by pure thinking, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and there are perks to being a Greek god. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Venus had a perfect body, a timeless body, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we are beginning now to unravel the genetics at the molecular level of the aging process. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then Apollo, he had a chariot that he could ride across the heavens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We will finally have that flying car that we have always wanted to have in our garage by the year 2100. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We will have the power of the gods. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, [Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from divinity." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [HISTORY OF PHYSICS] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, let's now begin our story. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The history of physics is the history of modern civilization. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Before Isaac Newton, before Galileo 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we were shrouded with the mysteries of superstition. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People believed in all sorts of different kinds of spirits and demons. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What made the planets move? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why do things interact with other things? It was a mystery. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, back in the middle ages, for example, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people read the works of Aristotle, and Aristotle asked a question 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Why do objects move toward the earth?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's because, he said, "Objects yearn--yearn to be united with the earth." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And why do objects slow down when you put them in motion? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Objects in motion slow down because they get tired." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These are the words of Aristotle, which held sway for almost 2,000 years until the beginning of modern physics 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [HISTORY OF PHYSICS] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [BEGINNING OF MODERN PHYSICS] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with Galileo and Isaac Newton. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When the ancients looked at the sky, the sky was full of mystery and wonder. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in the year 1066, the most important date on the British calendar, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there was a comet--a comet would sail over the battlefield of Hastings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It frightened the troops of King Harold, and a young man from Normandy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 swept into England and defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 creating the modern British monarchy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the question is, where did the comet come from? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What was this comet that mysteriously paved the way for the coming of the British monarchy? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, [inaudible], that same comet--the very same comet 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that initiated the British monarchy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sailed over London once again in 1682. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This time, everyone was asking the question, where do comets come from? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do they signal the death of the kings? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Why do we have messengers from the heavens in the sky? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, one man dared to penetrate the secrets of comets, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that was Isaac Newton. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Isaac Newton] [1643-1727] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, when Isaac Newton was only 23 years old, he stumbled upon the universal force of gravitation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 According to one story, he was walking on his estate in Wilsthorpe and he saw an apple fall. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then Isaac Newton saw the moon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then he asked the key question which helped to unlock the heavens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "If apples fall, does the moon also fall?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the answer was: Yes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that answer overturned thousands of years of mystery and speculation about the motions of the heavens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The moon is in free fall just like an apple. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The moon is constantly falling toward the earth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It doesn't hit the Earth because it spins around the Earth, and the Earth is round, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it's acting under a force--the force of gravity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Gravity: FOUR FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, Newton immediately tried to work out the mathematics. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And he realized that the mathematics of this 1600's was not sufficient to work out the motion 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of a falling moon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, what did Isaac Newton do? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When he was 23 years old, not only did he stumble upon the force of gravity, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but he also created Calculus. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, he created Calculus at the rate at which you learn it when you are a freshman in college. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And why did he create Calculus? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To calculate the motion of a falling moon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The mathematics of this age was incapable of calculating 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the trajectories of objects moving under an inverse square force field. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's what Isaac Newton did; he worked out the motion of the moon, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then he realized that if he understands the moon, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he also understands the motion of the planets in the solar system. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And Isaac Newton invented a new telescope. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was the reflecting telescope, and he was tracking the motion of this comet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, it turns out that everyone was talking about the comet, including a rather wealthy Englishman 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 by the name of Edmund Halley. [Edmund Halley: 1656-1742] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, Edmund Halley, being a wealthy merchant, decided to make a trip to Cambridge 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to talk to England's illustrious scientist, Sir Isaac Newton. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, Edmund Halley asked Newton, "What do you make of this comet?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "No one understands comets, they're a mystery." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "They've been fascinating people for centuries, millennia--what are your thoughts?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then, I paraphrase, but Isaac Newton said something like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said, "Oh, that's easy. That comet is moving at a perfect ellipse. It's moving in an inverse square force field." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I've been tracking it every day with my reflecting telescope, and the path of that comet 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 conforms to my mathematics exactly." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, of course, we don't know what Edmund Halley's reaction was, but I paraphrase. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He must have said something like this, "For God's sake, man, why don't you publish the greatest work 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in all of scientific history? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If correct, you have decoded the secret of the stars, the secret of the heavens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nobody understands where comets come from!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then Newton responded and said, "Oh, well, it costs too much. I mean, I'm not a wealthy man." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "It would cost too much to summarize this calculus that I've invented and to work out all the motion of the stars." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then Halley must have said this, "Mister Newton, I am a wealthy man."