What's eating the universe? - with Paul Davies

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  • Опубликовано: 18 май 2022
  • What are the unexplained riddles of the universe? Award-winning physicist Paul Davies talks you through the strange enigmas that have preoccupied cosmologists from ancient Greece to the present day.
    Paul's book, 'What's Eating the Universe?' is now available: geni.us/pauldavies
    Watch the Q&A with Paul here: • Q&A: What's eating the...
    Laying bare the audacious research that has led us to mind-bending solutions, Paul will tell you how we might begin to approach the greatest outstanding enigmas of all.
    Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and best-selling science author. He has published about 30 books and hundreds of research papers and review articles across a range of scientific fields. He is also well-known as a media personality and science populariser in several countries. His research interests have focused mainly on quantum gravity, early universe cosmology, the theory of quantum black holes and the nature of time. He has also made important contributions to the field of astrobiology, and was an early advocate of the theory that life on Earth may have originated on Mars. For several years he has also been running a major cancer research project, and developed a new theory of cancer based on tracing its deep evolutionary origins. Among his many awards are the 1995 Templeton Prize, the Faraday Prize from The Royal Society, the Kelvin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics, the Robinson Cosmology Prize and the Bicentenary Medal of Chile. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Queen's birthday honours list and the asteroid 6870 Pauldavies is named after him.
    This talk was filmed at the Royal Institution on 21 September 2021.
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Комментарии • 1,2 тыс.

  • @deborahrobinson8802
    @deborahrobinson8802 Год назад +33

    As always, Paul Davies is brilliant, communicative and charming in a highly informative lecture. Thank you.

    • @dand4485
      @dand4485 Год назад +3

      Really? Gotta love the point to hear anyone talk about anything say we don't know the answer, but let me tell you, right around 17-18 minutes.

  • @SteveBakerIsHere
    @SteveBakerIsHere Год назад +5

    f-sub-l from the Drake equation can at least be considered. Biologists seem to believe that the first self-replicating molecule was probably RNA. We can look at the shortest known sequence of RNA in the most primitive bacteria. We can estimate the density of amino acids in the oceans of early universe (and amino acids are rather common in the universe) - we can estimate the reaction rate at which amino acids randomly collide with each other and estimate the probability of a self-replicating RNA molecule just happening to appear by chance in a liter of water over a second. If we multiply our best estimate for the amount of water in the oceans of an earthlike planet by the best estimate for the number of such planets and multiply by the amount of time since the oceans formed on a typical planet appeared, we can get a VERY rough estimate of f-sub-l.
    I have tried doing that - using the best numbers I can find - and the result is that life is EXCEEDINGLY unlikely to have appeared anywhere in the universe by pure random collisions of amino acids. So unless we can find a MUCH simpler self-replicating molecule - or some means of stacking the odds in favor of a self-replicator, then f-sub-l is far, far too small - and we are alone in the universe.
    (In detail - the length of that minimal self-replicator as a specific string of N amino acids is critical because there are 26 amino acids - so probability of a random sequence of amino acid collisions making that exact chain is 26 to the power N...so the longer the chain has to be - the VASTLY less likely it is to have happened).
    The simplest sequence known to exist in nature is a bacterium called Carsonella Ruddii, with just 160,000 base pairs. But 26 to the power 160,000 is a crazy large number! Even if we imagine some reason why the four standard base pairs might dominate the oceans - 4 to the power 160,000 is still far too big - given the size of the visible universe.
    So to my mind - the most critical piece of knowledge we need to answer the "Are we alone?" question - is a matter for the BioChemistry people to answer: "What is the shortest sequence of amino acids that will self-replicate?"
    But if the entire universe is infinite - then no matter how long the odds, life is certain - and there is (for sure) alien life somewhere - and now the only question is what are the odds that it exists within the observable universe?

    • @bozo5632
      @bozo5632 Год назад

      Check out John Michael Godier's latest video.

    • @whirledpeas3477
      @whirledpeas3477 3 месяца назад

      Hi Steve, You might not remember me yet, we met in July 2038 at Moon meet

  • @ksmit
    @ksmit Год назад +15

    If I listen to this 10 times, I might have a 1/100th of the knowledge it takes to understand the topic. Hoping it subliminally soaks in(since I watch during my lunchtime nap).

    • @darkone9572
      @darkone9572 Год назад +2

      Getting high sure helps !!

    • @gazzam3172
      @gazzam3172 Год назад +1

      i found it quite straight forward and clear 😌

    • @oipbhakeld
      @oipbhakeld Год назад

      @@gazzam3172 you're not alone

    • @whirledpeas3477
      @whirledpeas3477 3 месяца назад

      Yes, be at peace. The world needs good people to serve the food ❤

  • @demibee1423
    @demibee1423 Год назад +10

    A great presentation where he freely admits we haven't figured it all out, but this is what we think so far.

    • @karlschmied6218
      @karlschmied6218 Год назад +2

      You will hardly hear a scientist say that "we have figured it all out". That's an impression you might get from bad school teachers.

    • @neologian1783
      @neologian1783 9 месяцев назад +2

      @@karlschmied6218 Quite right....all knowledge is held tentatively and subject to revision upon new discovery.

  • @anaryl
    @anaryl Год назад +4

    Such an excellent, understated delivery. I've watched this several times before bed, Paul certainly brings a dulcet tone to such a violent topic.

  • @bobaldo2339
    @bobaldo2339 Год назад +6

    Very well delivered lecture! Thanks for making it available.

  • @DrJanpha
    @DrJanpha Год назад +4

    I first listened to Paul Davies' talk about the universe some twenty years ago. As enchanting to listen to as ever, Sir...

  • @jameslyons3320
    @jameslyons3320 Год назад +2

    What a great day it is! To hear this lecture has made it so!

  • @anialiandr
    @anialiandr Год назад +15

    We used to use Paul Davis’ videos about quantum physics back in the 90s in our linguistics master courses to teach students laterality . Great teacher ❤

    • @nuqwestr
      @nuqwestr Год назад

      Dangerous to make such correlations, perhaps that's where "linguistics" went off the rails and produced so many deluded "woke" adherents.

    • @anialiandr
      @anialiandr Год назад

      @@nuqwestr Did I say I was linguistics ?

  • @BassGoBomb
    @BassGoBomb Год назад +35

    Just to join all those saying what a wonderful thing it is that we still have lectures like this and the Royal Institution itself. And, thank you Paul Davies

    • @henrythegreatamerican8136
      @henrythegreatamerican8136 Год назад +1

      What's eating the universe? Trump's ego!!!!

    • @dscs3213
      @dscs3213 Год назад

      ​@@henrythegreatamerican8136 TDR is eating your brain,its been 2 years get a grip! And Henry son there are no great Americans,well other than THE DONald Trump...🤣🤣 LETS GO BRANDON 🤡

    • @BassGoBomb
      @BassGoBomb Год назад +2

      @@henrythegreatamerican8136 Which, itself, is like a monstrous blackhole... lol

  • @davecarsley8773
    @davecarsley8773 2 года назад +1

    Awesome Q&A section!

  • @johncostigan6160
    @johncostigan6160 Год назад +1

    Somehow I am reassured by Paul Davies lecture that it's a useful step forward to at least know what I don't know.

  • @ericlawanderson
    @ericlawanderson Год назад +13

    Paul Davies' lectures are as wonderful as his books. My favorite thinker and explainer of big ideas in the Solar System.

    • @kingjosephrbidenjriii5820
      @kingjosephrbidenjriii5820 Год назад

      Earth isn't what they tell us

    • @meacadwell
      @meacadwell Год назад

      @Ben Chuft True. But, although they can be annoying to listen to, I bet if you recorded yourself giving a lecture, you'd have some slipped in as well.

  • @5625130
    @5625130 2 года назад +8

    G'day from Australia
    Very interesting lecture.
    Cheers

    • @tedscott1478
      @tedscott1478 Год назад

      And a good morning to you sir, my antipodean friend...👍

  • @marioxuereb5125
    @marioxuereb5125 Год назад +5

    Great lecture and explanation that everyone can understand ! Thanks !

    • @karlschmied6218
      @karlschmied6218 Год назад

      Depends on what you understand by "understand" and "everyone".

  • @bloodmoney88
    @bloodmoney88 Год назад +2

    our universe is like a cartoon I've seen of Homer Simpson, when he stood beside a green hedge, then he slowly backed into it, disappearing into the hedge.

  • @XRP747E
    @XRP747E 2 года назад +7

    Such a beautiful presentation. Elegant simplicity woven from a massively complex subject

  • @shenidan2023
    @shenidan2023 Год назад +3

    Amazingly thought provoking and delivered in a way for anyone to understand.

    • @macysondheim
      @macysondheim 8 месяцев назад

      I don’t believe in atheism

  • @rushiaskinnerwallace6175
    @rushiaskinnerwallace6175 Год назад +10

    Really enjoying this talk/lecture/presentation. 🙏🏼

  • @devanairemccallister4194
    @devanairemccallister4194 Год назад +1

    That was great to listen to!

  • @hlr3932
    @hlr3932 Год назад +3

    Such a great lecture, but I was shocked to see very few people in the audience. Why??

  • @simoncrooks7441
    @simoncrooks7441 Год назад +3

    Thanks, very interesting presentation, very well explaind. not sure if I could explain to someone else what Paul was saying

  • @peter5.056
    @peter5.056 2 года назад

    I am so effing happy that this is taking place at that desk again.

  • @lacostejr8
    @lacostejr8 Год назад +1

    Dr. Paul Davies and Sir Roger Penrose have almost the same PUBLIC SPEAKING VOICE 💯... I was listening to this lecture at 2 a.m., waiting to fall asleep, so I wasn't watching. I was just listening, and I kept thinking it was Sir Roger Penrose lecturing Cosmology!
    It is always a pleasure to listen to lectures in Physics, Mathematics, and Cosmology. I spend all my free time Pondering our origins, consciousness, and time... Cheers 🙏

    • @user-ud6ui7zt3r
      @user-ud6ui7zt3r 3 месяца назад

      When I listen to lectures given by physicist Sean Carroll, I constantly think that I am hearing the voice of the fairly famous actor, Alan Alda.

  • @YoutubeHandlesSuckBalls
    @YoutubeHandlesSuckBalls Год назад +26

    The arrow of time is only for macro objects. If you get small enough, you can ignore it under certain situations.
    This would, of course, explain the 'slow' start of time, because the universe had to get to a size where the arrow of time dominated over quantum effects before time really got going.

    • @kaarlimakela3413
      @kaarlimakela3413 Год назад +4

      I don't know about that, but I got nothin', so 👍

    • @paulmichaelfreedman8334
      @paulmichaelfreedman8334 Год назад +2

      Another possibility is that our specific fluctuation that triggered the BB is also the result of another process. Hypothetically, Like a black hole evaporating. The moment that hole in spacetime closes, another Universe is born in its own reality from the energy(matter) it has collected over its lifetime. Just one of many possible mechanisms, but it's likely it is cyclic.

    • @manmanman2000
      @manmanman2000 Год назад

      Only in a classical model though, or not? If I think about QM and the collapse of the wave function, this is a microscopic event but it is not reversable.

    • @nadiafarahat9201
      @nadiafarahat9201 Год назад

      @@paulmichaelfreedman8334 now there's a thought love it

    • @nadiafarahat9201
      @nadiafarahat9201 Год назад

      @@kaarlimakela3413

  • @brucewilliams6292
    @brucewilliams6292 2 года назад +29

    The very best explanation of modern cosmology that I have ever heard. Professor Davis wins the award for clearest explanation and analogy of science. Bravo RI.

  • @WildBillCox13
    @WildBillCox13 Год назад +2

    I was there, too, in those halcyon days. As I recall, Telstar was our (the USA's) technology demonstrator; our assurety that we could out-Sputnik Sputnik. The following Echo series (Echo 1, 2, et al) represented our ongoing, more practical, attempt to bounce signals across the pond dependably.

  • @timsmith5339
    @timsmith5339 5 месяцев назад

    This started me thinking about the 'natural' and 'supernatural'. By one definition, 'supernatural' is simply the 'natural' that we don't yet understand. When you start talking about other universes though, 'supernatural' could then be things we can never know, test, understand or even imagine.

  • @nyyotam4057
    @nyyotam4057 Год назад +38

    Liu Cixin has answered the Fermi Paradox pretty profoundly in his "three body problem" series. Highly recommended reading. In essence, the universe is somewhat like central park at night: Your best chance of survival is finding a cop but you cannot try to call out for a cop. You would want to find a friend, but the last thing you'd do is actually signaling your location and your second last thing you'd do is answering someone else who is signaling his location. Every one is a potential hazard. So you keep hidden where you are until day break or until a cop appears nearby. The difference between the universe and central park? A. There is no cop. and B. The night never ends.

    • @creator4413
      @creator4413 Год назад +7

      I don’t think Central Park is that dangerous

    • @Veronika7777
      @Veronika7777 Год назад +2

      Excellent summation w/out any spoilers, well done. Three body problem is an amazing series and I second your recommendation.

    • @Kim_Jong-un1356
      @Kim_Jong-un1356 Год назад

      But we've been emitting a huge mass of signals already, and will continue to do so for probably a very long time. I don't really understand how any civilization could remain "hidden" s such. Even if we somehow magically manage to stop emitting signals into space, it would be too late anyway, weäve been doing it for a long time.

    • @nyyotam4057
      @nyyotam4057 Год назад +4

      @@Kim_Jong-un1356 Signals fade away with the distance squared. Currently even our strongest signals would fade away in about 10ly.

    • @FrostCraftedMC
      @FrostCraftedMC Год назад

      i think the grabby aliens theory pretty well solves the fermi paradox. we really could be the first, and the facts point towards it

  • @brucechamberlin9666
    @brucechamberlin9666 2 года назад +62

    This is so fascinating he explains things so simply almost anyone can get their head around it. Wonderful lecture and lecturer.

    • @petevenuti7355
      @petevenuti7355 2 года назад +5

      definitely one of the better authors.

    • @billoddy5637
      @billoddy5637 2 года назад +5

      And a wonderful moustache as well.

    • @lifesgood9528
      @lifesgood9528 2 года назад +1

      @@billoddy5637 Imagine a long beard too!

    • @HypnoDrip
      @HypnoDrip 2 года назад +1

      @@lifesgood9528 Indian monk ??

    • @lifesgood9528
      @lifesgood9528 2 года назад +1

      @@HypnoDrip im thinking more thr Gandalph type but he can be Indian too even Aussie 👌🤣😁🎶

  • @patsk8872
    @patsk8872 Год назад +1

    Always had a real problem with the presumption of Hubble's law. I'm not saying the answer for redshift can't be doppler shift. But it is also entirely conceivable that the observation of redshift vs. distance could be caused by the medium (which is spacetime) slowly sapping the energy of the light, and that this is only noticeable over large enough distances.

  • @7Earthsky
    @7Earthsky Год назад +2

    Prof Paul Davies rocks.

  • @PrometheusZandski
    @PrometheusZandski 2 года назад +80

    Paul Davies is a great cosmologist and an excellent teacher of science. My problem with this lecture and many more put out by RI is that they go through the same 99% of material that should be known by undergraduate students. I clicked on this lecture hoping there would be more than 2-3 minutes explanation of "what is eating the universe". This lecture didn't even show that anything is eating the universe, only showed a slide with some bullet points of things that may do that.
    This formula for cosmology content may be raising the general level of knowledge, I don't know. I do know I'm tired of seeing 99% the same lecture.

    • @danguee1
      @danguee1 2 года назад +10

      Yep. Everything at a level where it is 'intellectually* inclusive'. Cos explaining hard stuff excludes those people who haven't studied the material or have the brainpower to understand the explanation. What used to be called 'dumbed down'. [* god forbid using the word intellectual.....]

    • @PrometheusZandski
      @PrometheusZandski 2 года назад +10

      @@danguee1 I get that. I really do. Then I ask myself, exactly how many of those people would click on this lecture? How many of those people would dress up, drive to the university and attend this lecture?
      Looking at the comments, it seems I'm wrong.
      Still, I would have liked to see an actual lecture on what is eating the universe.

    • @danguee1
      @danguee1 2 года назад +13

      I think the RI should have different levels of lecture. Sort of beginner/foundation, intermediate and advanced. Because it's a bit sad if more advanced viewers are forced to watch repeated simple stuff because they're too 'boffin'. It's nice they want to communicate to the less knowledgeable. But don't ignore the bright kids in the class!

    • @davidohara7669
      @davidohara7669 2 года назад +17

      It is called "click bait".

    • @midgefidget5796
      @midgefidget5796 2 года назад +4

      Yeah, video was almost over when he got the the part that made me salivate.

  • @siggesaltens2663
    @siggesaltens2663 2 года назад +3

    Sigge Dr. Saltensø :Thank you Paul : I've been following You now for the majority of 77 year. Time is a Point. And there I stand, so help me, God, and watch You aproaching me.

  • @desperateastro
    @desperateastro Месяц назад

    Davies is one of several people with very broad and extensive multi-disciplinary knowledge. But he is almost unique in being able to communicate that knowledge to the layperson.

  • @timhannah4
    @timhannah4 14 дней назад

    Good One 👍Thank You!

  • @neilbeni7744
    @neilbeni7744 2 года назад +17

    My first physics book was a Paul Davies book I received as a 18th b'day present and I knew nothing of physics and thought it was the most boring present ever until I got bored one night and OMG I transformed into a new dimensional being 😂
    My mind was blown 💥 because I don't know math but Paul Davies made me understand the most technical stuff that I never ever imagined I would be able to understand without knowing math..
    Thank you Paul 👊💥😁

    • @lifesgood9528
      @lifesgood9528 2 года назад +1

      Ive done that before with a present too! The best ones are the ones you least expect!

    • @FixItStupid
      @FixItStupid 2 года назад

      Fake Money & Nuclear END Any Time Now Fake Money Takes The World To A Nuclear END

    • @seasonedbeefs
      @seasonedbeefs Год назад

      Which book please?

  • @donquixoteupinhere
    @donquixoteupinhere 2 года назад +53

    Great lecturer! Thanks for making this kind of quality content available to anyone with internet access!! Long may it continue!

  • @jpdiegidio
    @jpdiegidio Год назад +1

    Stuart Kauffman, At Home in the Universe. Among other things. The greatest mistery is just how we haven't still managed to fully extinguish ourselves.

    • @2msvalkyrie529
      @2msvalkyrie529 Год назад

      Won't be much longer ? Within next few years..?

  • @ptrisonic
    @ptrisonic Год назад +1

    I once sat next to Paul Davies on a flight from New York to London. I was inexplicably tongue tied. I figured out that I was just a musician and wouldn't be able to keep up with his reasoning - despite being very interested in the subject, of which Paul is justly respected for. So I wasted at least 6 hours because I was scared to show my ignorance.
    I really regret this 25 years later... Best, Pete.

  • @stevekirkby6570
    @stevekirkby6570 Год назад +14

    Fantastic lecture. Thank you.

    • @kirstinstrand6292
      @kirstinstrand6292 Год назад

      @-GinΠΓ Τάο On a conceptual level it shows future possibilities, likely to not occur in OUR lifetimes; all unknown, now.

  • @hans-rudigerdrzimmermann
    @hans-rudigerdrzimmermann 2 года назад +28

    Thank you Paul. I followed physics as a theoretical physicist since 40 years. We all assume that the physics laws and constants apply to the whole universe and do not change with time.
    There is also a not very much developed theory stating that the universe is a plane. Maybe there is another type of mathematics which descibes our universe.
    For me the most interesting point you made was about photon emission by an atom. It is emitted spontaneously out of the atom. There can be no photon inside the atom and it comes so to say from nothing. Good health to you and heartful wishes from Lima, Peru.

    • @jaungiga
      @jaungiga 2 года назад +4

      Regarding your comment about another type of mathematics describing the universe, there's an interesting (although probably not true) theory about an algorithmic description of the universe, postulated by Stephen Wolfram. You can google him up or go to the older videos in this very channel and find the talk Dr. Wolfram gave some months ago, which is a very good summary of his ideas

    • @hans-rudigerdrzimmermann
      @hans-rudigerdrzimmermann 2 года назад +1

      @@jaungiga Very good point from you. I saw his videos and I even have a small supracomputer based on wolfram alpha. Dr Wofram can be right, why not?

    • @Tinker1950
      @Tinker1950 2 года назад +1

      It's rather obvious that you have NOT studied physics nor even understand the methods or philosophy of science.

    • @farrier2708
      @farrier2708 2 года назад +2

      I have my own thoughts on the shape of the Universe, Hans'.
      If you take a straight line, it is a 1D universe but it has boundaries. However if you deform it in the second dimension to form a circle it creates a 1D universe without any boundary.
      Similarly, if you take a 2D surface and deform it around a 3D sphere you get a 2D surface without boundaries. The surface of the Earth, for example.
      By extrapolation, taking a 3D space and deforming around a 4D sphere the result will be a 3D space without boundaries.
      I therefore conclude that the actual shape of the Universe is a 4D spheroid. Spheroid, because it is probably rotating, as is everything else within it.
      I wish I had the maths to see if it's a viable hypothesis. Or not!
      Best regards from UK.

    • @jaungiga
      @jaungiga 2 года назад +1

      @@hans-rudigerdrzimmermann Oh, sure, he can be right and I hope he is because his "theory of everything" is the most elegant one I've encountered so far, but I'll remain a skeptic until we have further evidence of its validity. So far it's just a beautiful idea

  • @thejamnasium6447
    @thejamnasium6447 Год назад

    George Porter! I love his bass playing with The Meters

  • @PlanetXMysteries-pj9nm
    @PlanetXMysteries-pj9nm 5 месяцев назад

    "thank you for uploading these videos. Even if I'm having a hard night, I just put a relaxing astronomy video on and listen. It always makes my nights go much easier.
    Thank you!!!"

  • @francisalanbeattie4458
    @francisalanbeattie4458 Год назад +5

    Most impressive and informative. Thank you.

  • @Bacpakin
    @Bacpakin Год назад +6

    Professor Davies is a marvelous teacher.

  • @vitalstatistic63
    @vitalstatistic63 Год назад +1

    @7.42 the New York Times article written about "Hubbell" makes no mention of expansion. It simply states that the use of higher power telescopes to observe distant spiral nebulae or island universes has resolved the images to collections of individual stars, such as Andromeda, and explains that they were able to use those stars to calculate distance to the structures and thence the size of the structures. There is no mention in this article about velocity, redshift, nor expansion.

  • @webmelomaniac
    @webmelomaniac 2 года назад

    Fascinating!

  • @boum62
    @boum62 Год назад +9

    Great lecture ! Even I, a mere accountant, could follow him :)

  • @NatsAstrea
    @NatsAstrea Год назад +3

    This is a great presentation, making incomprehensible ideas less incomprehensible. I don't understand about the function of pressure, however, and would love to have Dr Davies explain that at greater length.

  • @UserNameWasCensored
    @UserNameWasCensored 10 месяцев назад +2

    I came here looking for an acoustic guitarist. I left with the average intelligence of a Nobel prize-winning physicist.

  • @syedalishanzaidi1
    @syedalishanzaidi1 Год назад +1

    I think some of the comments here are as interesting as the lecture itself. Alex Scott's comment is quite telling, but if I may add my own two bits worth here, we are in the realm of sheer conjectures and hypotheses. What matters in the end is that in the process of defining what we are up against vis a vis the Universe and Cosmology etc, we do hone the knives of our intellect, thereby arriving at the limits of our own capabilities. Theories and hypotheses will continue to fall by the wayside as we proceed, but the trick is to take in all of it with an aha of toleration. This journey of to-ing and fro-ing with ideas never did any harm to human civilizations in the past, only jolted us forward to where we are now at present. I love the idea of a platform where people discuss and share cutting-edge thinking in this way. Absent from Abrahamic religions, especially Islam, is any intellectual platform for free debate and exploration. That is my own lament, coming as I do, from a traditional Muslim background. But just to cap it up, I am using poetry (in Urdu) to air some of these issues and aspects myself. Can't say any more here except to say that you cannot chain thinking and ideas. You can't box in water as it has a way of finding its own way out.

  • @JamesGoodchapArt
    @JamesGoodchapArt Год назад +5

    Wonderful presentation, thank you so much :)

  • @marksakowski9272
    @marksakowski9272 Год назад +4

    Universe doesn't need people to understand it. It is understandable by itself.

  • @semmering1
    @semmering1 2 года назад

    So beautiful you channel - thank you so much!

  • @iannissenbaum908
    @iannissenbaum908 9 месяцев назад

    Excellent lecture, thanks v much!

  • @uncletiggermclaren7592
    @uncletiggermclaren7592 Год назад +10

    "It's a delight to, be back here in London, away from the unrelenting blue sky and warm sunshine"
    That is some top quality dry humour.

    • @ericgraham8150
      @ericgraham8150 Год назад

      I was thinking that too. That's the best kind of humour when you're lecturing. It gets kind of cringe when lectures try to make a joke, and make space for laughing.... best not to try so hard.

    • @2msvalkyrie529
      @2msvalkyrie529 Год назад

      Yes ! Wes Cecil should study this
      technique !! He's the worst ! It really is Cringeworthy !

  • @stevelux9854
    @stevelux9854 2 года назад +6

    As I am geared more towards engineering rather than science; I really cannot help but wonder why in the topic of universal expansion the 2nd law of thermodynamics does not seem to be considered.
    Is it because the idea that we and our measuring tools are atomically getting smaller, due to fields slowly losing their strength, is inconceivable?
    It just seems better to attribute, or at least look into the effects of something we see to something we think we understand than to something we know we don't understand.

    • @meacadwell
      @meacadwell Год назад

      It is...but only to a certain extent. Because quantum particles don't currently play nicely with it. As we learn more about quantum particles, and how they interact with things, there will be a specialist who will revisit it to try to make it fit into the, then, current theories.

    • @_UnknownEntity
      @_UnknownEntity Год назад

      Simple answer might be because we aren't there yet. Unless, you assume information as having mass.

    • @stevelux9854
      @stevelux9854 Год назад

      @@_UnknownEntity Or, it might be because there is no research money in it. If the answers were simple; where's the profit in that?

  • @DivineMisterAdVentures
    @DivineMisterAdVentures Год назад +1

    I'm at 24:00m not a hint of the title. Just checking on you. Time is elemental geometric progression from point to line - linearity defined by any two points, and perhaps (as is now common knowledge) vector functions.. You align events that manifest in any form (you know - bosons, photons, "Let there be light" and from it - matter.) and you have time. Collapse that in less energy and it goes away. It's very simple.

  • @googleyoutubechannel8554
    @googleyoutubechannel8554 9 месяцев назад

    Despite spacetime being almost useless in dealing with even atomic level interactions, it's strange that cosmologists still talk about 4d spacetime as if it is fundamental and not emergent from deeper dynamics.

  • @ctakitimu
    @ctakitimu 2 года назад +23

    Yay! I understood 90% of this! What a brilliant teacher

    • @Mrphilipjcook
      @Mrphilipjcook 2 года назад +1

      The other 10% is "dark knowledge" 😂

    • @danguee1
      @danguee1 2 года назад +1

      Yep. Thoroughly dumbed-down.

    • @ctakitimu
      @ctakitimu 2 года назад

      @@danguee1 I imagine he's used to it, unless you're on the same level as him

    • @cerealport2726
      @cerealport2726 Год назад +3

      ​@@danguee1 again, you complain about the level...
      The RI themselves say "...Our purpose at the Royal Institution is to connect as many people as possible with science...".
      if you don't like it, don't watch... or, make your own video explaining more complex topics to people, nothing is stopping you, except yourself.

    • @marymclaughlin9009
      @marymclaughlin9009 Год назад +1

      @@danguee1 Oh cry me a river. It's not dumbed down, it's clear and interesting and exactly what those of us sadly not so educated as you would love to have more of. So there ;-)

  • @paulheinrich7645
    @paulheinrich7645 2 года назад +10

    Suggesting it began with a quantum fluctuation presumes something was there to fluctuate. Same with multiverses-they all had to begin somewhere at sometime. That we exist, think, and are self-aware is a miracle. That we know so much and can look back so far is a miracle’s miracle; a blessing of Father Physics and Mother Nature.

    • @michaelandrews4783
      @michaelandrews4783 2 года назад +1

      "they all had to begin somewhere at sometime." is an assumption, it may well be that we are unable to exist in the dimension universes are born let alone understand the local physics that apply. Maybe there is no multiverse just an on switch for a school kids quantum computer the universe exists in that he will have to turn off before bedtime.

    • @HarryNicNicholas
      @HarryNicNicholas 2 года назад

      depends on how you define miracle, i feel like all this was pretty much unavoidable.

    • @dncbot
      @dncbot 2 года назад +1

      "Somewhere at sometime" is already post creation.
      The question, I believe, is what caused "something and somewhere", time and space.

    • @mauricebutlerfootballnewsa7566
      @mauricebutlerfootballnewsa7566 2 года назад +4

      Try GOD. We didn't get this lucky by chance , and miracles miracles only happens from the power of GOD

    • @pauljackson7901
      @pauljackson7901 2 года назад

      "they all had to begin somewhere".....no they didn't. You have to have time for "begin" to make sense and you need space for "somewhere" to make sense.

  • @tresajessygeorge210
    @tresajessygeorge210 Год назад +2

    THANK YOU DR.PAUL DAVIS...!!!
    SCIENCE AND MATH...!!!
    AND THE BEAUTY OF SERENE AND ENERGIZING COSMIC MUSIC & DANCE...OUR UNIVERSE...!!!
    THE BEAUTY ... BALANCE ...
    AND
    PURITY ( NOT RELIGIOUS PIETY ) ...
    OF THE EQUILIBRIUM OF THE PRAPANCHAM( THE INFINITY )...!!!

  • @BeesWaxMinder
    @BeesWaxMinder 2 года назад +1

    (I wish they had included the question and answer session as well but I suppose one can’t ask for everything!)

  • @SofaKingShit
    @SofaKingShit 2 года назад +4

    Wierd to think that there is an unbroken line between whatever was there at the beginning and the matter that comprises the cells in our bodies and even our thoughts at this precise moment.

    • @ann_onn
      @ann_onn 2 года назад +2

      Yeah.
      Also, 98 percent of our atoms in our body are replaced every year, so what exactly is "you". It's amazing to think about.
      In everyday speech, we use imprecise terms for everything. For example, a chair. If you remove a tiny bit of the wood, it's still a chair. How much can you remove, before it isn't? You could remove one leg, people would still call it a chair.
      It reminds me of an old comedy show, where a guy says he's had the same broom for twenty years... but it's had 17 new heads and 14 new handles.

    • @johnryan3913
      @johnryan3913 2 года назад

      @@ann_onn is a person without a leg still a person? Seems so. What about one without a head? If you decapitate someone, which of the two pieces is JaneDoe? There are three legged chairs. Then you get to pieces of the brain. And when a fetus is a person.

    • @spvillano
      @spvillano 2 года назад

      Yes, there is. It's called time.

  • @edwardlobb4446
    @edwardlobb4446 Год назад +5

    A superb presentation, from a brilliant individual.

  • @savage22bolt32
    @savage22bolt32 6 месяцев назад

    This is such a wonderful lecture. So sad that the seats are not full of curious people.

  • @QuanNguyen-di9nd
    @QuanNguyen-di9nd Год назад +2

    This begs the question of whether or not we are travelling very close/ at the edge of the event horizon of a super very massive black hole where our known universe is spiralling around

    • @Safetytrousers
      @Safetytrousers Год назад

      That could be, but it still begs all the questions of origin.

    • @QuanNguyen-di9nd
      @QuanNguyen-di9nd Год назад

      @@Safetytrousers maybe a simulation is not a far fetched theory after all.
      But personally, I have taken comfort in thinking of intelligent life, in this case human, as the universe trying to make sense of itself. It is similar to how human is trying to make sense of the consciousness and the soul. Now we do not know where our consciousness comes from, but surely it helps us make sense of our universe, just as the universe is trying to make sense of itself.
      Or perhaps there were no origin to begin with since time in a higher dimension happens differently. And the origin (to us) is actually happening, simultaneously.

    • @Safetytrousers
      @Safetytrousers Год назад

      @@QuanNguyen-di9nd That is all questions.

  • @fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353
    @fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353 2 года назад +9

    One of my top 5 all time favorite scientists

    • @0ned
      @0ned 2 года назад +1

      Who are the other four?
      Bill Gates
      Bill Gates
      Bill Gates
      and Bill Gates?

    • @luckygitane
      @luckygitane 2 года назад +5

      @@0ned I'm really struggling to see the utility of this reply

    • @0ned
      @0ned 2 года назад +1

      @@luckygitane "You can lead a horse to water, can't make him drink."

    • @yeeboi5545
      @yeeboi5545 2 года назад

      @@luckygitane They're baiting to try find followers for their conspiracy channel. Has psychosis written all over it. Hope they find help.

    • @Ed-quadF
      @Ed-quadF 2 года назад +1

      @@0ned Are you talking about Bill Gates?

  • @sd3457
    @sd3457 Год назад +4

    Man, I really didn't know how lucky I was back in 1990 at Newcastle University to be sitting in Paul's lectures.

  • @kenadams5504
    @kenadams5504 9 месяцев назад

    Paul is 'popular' and this lecture is 'informative ' .

  • @hvp685
    @hvp685 Год назад +1

    i love this lecture

  • @truthpopup
    @truthpopup Год назад +16

    The universe we live in has to be conducive to life, no matter how fantastically improbable that may be.

    • @etyrnal
      @etyrnal Год назад +4

      define life

    • @truthpopup
      @truthpopup Год назад +3

      @@etyrnal bake cookies

    • @etyrnal
      @etyrnal Год назад +4

      ​@@truthpopup - if you truly understood, you'd have known the cookies were already baked before anyone even knew what a cookie was

    • @etyrnal
      @etyrnal Год назад

      @Arturo’s Michelangeli magic

    • @manmanman2000
      @manmanman2000 Год назад

      @@etyrnal life: a highly complex turbulence in the flow of entropy

  • @aliasifchowdhury3419
    @aliasifchowdhury3419 2 года назад +3

    Good summary of cosmology....but the last 2 minutes are specially golden. I had to pause to absorb the quotes....should have been given 10 or so extra minutes for them.

  • @johntellefson4363
    @johntellefson4363 Год назад +1

    The first comm satellite was Telstar, not Telstra. And there was an instrumental pop tune of the same name to celebrate the occasion.

  • @bodebliss
    @bodebliss Год назад +2

    or maybe it happens often, but for different universes, one by one !

  • @brecknichols
    @brecknichols 2 года назад +4

    This is so wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Davies!!!

  • @MisakaMikotoDesu
    @MisakaMikotoDesu 2 года назад +7

    So glad to see lectures back in person.

  • @curt300s
    @curt300s 2 года назад

    Outstanding.

  • @Jszar
    @Jszar 3 месяца назад

    Would be great if they also recorded the Q&A.

  • @susanvallance9111
    @susanvallance9111 Год назад +5

    The best lecture of making CLEAR the ideas of TRUTH & WITHOUT All the Need to show or include the Math-….. which often times Begins to ‘loose’ the general person trying to understand these theories! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽So… Thank You 🙏🏽!!
    Fantastic Lecture and Spot On !!

    • @susanvallance9111
      @susanvallance9111 Год назад

      I Can’t Begin To Tell You, How Very Very MUCHHH I Enjoyed
      Your Lecture

    • @fabiom7338
      @fabiom7338 Год назад

      truth 😆😂

    • @Enonymouse_
      @Enonymouse_ Год назад

      Astrophysics and interstellar mechanics are almost entirely explained in advanced mathematical equations. It's an unfortunate reality for those of us not as acquainted or capable in that department.

    • @fabiom7338
      @fabiom7338 Год назад

      @@Enonymouse_ 😆 u lost buddy. good luck

  • @gamers_channel
    @gamers_channel 2 года назад +37

    If you can't explain the Universe to a 6 year old, you can't understand it yourself
    - Albert Einstein.
    This guy is very good

    • @danguee1
      @danguee1 2 года назад +3

      Not one of Einstein's greatest sayings (if it's not in fact a modern myth). None of the 6 year olds I know even understand simple differential calculus. I'm hardly going to be able to explain QFT to them, am I?

    • @gamers_channel
      @gamers_channel 2 года назад +1

      @@danguee1 your kid must be slow

    • @MountainFisher
      @MountainFisher Год назад +1

      @@danguee1 I don't think that what you are thinking was what Albert was thinking. It is true that he wrote it in a correspondence, but what he meant was if you cannot explain the Universe to a child you cannot explain it to an adult either.

  • @richardlynch5745
    @richardlynch5745 4 дня назад

    I discovered you with "God and the New Physics" and have read just about every book since then.... Happy to see you on Royal Society on RUclips... thanks for all your writings you have prodded me into some deep thoughts.... 👍👍 10:28

  • @manmanman2000
    @manmanman2000 Год назад +1

    48:11
    E = F*s divide by V = s^3 = A*s (E...energy, F...force, V...volume, s...space, A...area)
    E/V = F/A = p (p...pressure)

  • @tedzehnder961
    @tedzehnder961 2 года назад +3

    He said he lived through the "Golden Age" of cosmology but I think the golden age will be when they know what Dark energy and Dark matter is because we still don`t know what holds it all together.

    • @davidfiler5414
      @davidfiler5414 2 года назад +4

      @pyropulse A lot like most comments found on YT.

    • @stefcep
      @stefcep 2 года назад +1

      @pyropulse Agreed. Its crossing the line from science to faith. Multiverses that can never be proven to exist. Ditto strings and what is it now 11 dimensions.

    • @nmarbletoe8210
      @nmarbletoe8210 2 года назад +1

      @@davidfiler5414 The logical conclusion is that the universe started with a comment.

    • @davidfiler5414
      @davidfiler5414 2 года назад

      @@nmarbletoe8210 Really! Were you thare?

    • @nmarbletoe8210
      @nmarbletoe8210 2 года назад +1

      @@davidfiler5414 Nah someone else had already written 'first'

  • @lewistempleman9752
    @lewistempleman9752 Год назад +3

    Excellent talk well delivered!

  • @warpeace8891
    @warpeace8891 Год назад +1

    Just to be clear @ 12;33... Paul Davies says "I can well remember TELSTRA. The first communication satellite..."
    Telstra is an Australian telecommunications company.
    TELSTAR was the name of the satellite he can well remember.
    Thanks for sharing Ri

  • @jaybingham3711
    @jaybingham3711 Год назад

    An important clarification...space is expanding only on the cosmological (grandest/largest of) scale. But absolutely not locally. And local means any gravitationally bound areas such as large groups of galaxies that make up superclusters...including the Virgo Supercluster of which the Milky Way belongs to. So no expansion is taking place inside galaxies...let alone inside any star system (or spaces even smaller).

  • @Lanfeartyve
    @Lanfeartyve 2 года назад +3

    I could listen to this for all eternity

  • @johnborden9208
    @johnborden9208 2 года назад +54

    Just to let you know, the photo at about 3 minutes in is actually of the Kitt Peak National Observatory in southern Arizona, NOT the Lowell Observatory. Not a big deal of course, I'm just a stickler for accuracy. GREAT lecture otherwise!

    • @shannonplunk1245
      @shannonplunk1245 Год назад +1

      I was thinking it wasn't Lowell. He even pronounced it correctly, then incorrectly. Hard to believe he's from the country where English was established. He's murdering it.

    • @marcorodrigues8303
      @marcorodrigues8303 Год назад +1

      não ver que TRUMP tá inventando isso eu te digo porque ele daria um GOP em um Americano em seu País .em se fosse a Sim ele não existiria mais.ele deu o seu GOP em um Estrangeiro de outro País.😊#

    • @marcorodrigues8303
      @marcorodrigues8303 Год назад +1

      não ver que sou área .como alguém daí pode ser área e Oval 🥚👌#

    • @troymueller7747
      @troymueller7747 Год назад +5

      This is just wholesome constructive critique, nicely done

    • @jetsetter8541
      @jetsetter8541 Год назад +5

      Accuracy is essential in Theoretical Phisics & Mathematics.

  • @mathmanprime6107
    @mathmanprime6107 Год назад

    Awesome vid

  • @freelancethinker516
    @freelancethinker516 2 года назад +1

    Excellent

  • @jatinbangar4371
    @jatinbangar4371 2 года назад +11

    Physicists ALWAYS run out of time in these RI sessions. Literally could listen to them forever.

    • @HypnoDrip
      @HypnoDrip 2 года назад

      How's your day fellow indian

    • @MrSean03839
      @MrSean03839 2 года назад

      Sort of like the end of the universe...

    • @rampartranger7749
      @rampartranger7749 Год назад

      What do you mean by “time?”

  • @BeesWaxMinder
    @BeesWaxMinder 2 года назад +3

    31:34 - there are many examples of coincidence in the universe, the ability to view lunar and solar eclipses on Earth springs to mind, for instance BUT what are the chances (and I’m sure there must be A way to work this out) of the universe not being too “Banged” and spread out and not be so weak either that it’d fall in on itself and instead became “just right“ like it is now?
    Anyone any ideas, please?🤞

    • @druemclaughlin3706
      @druemclaughlin3706 2 года назад +1

      I guess one could conclude that purpose is established in its very fabric..else wise without stability we would not have our conscious place in this world of wonders...or anything else would for that matter...There is an immense glory here for those with honest and child like hearts!

    • @BeesWaxMinder
      @BeesWaxMinder 2 года назад

      @@druemclaughlin3706 true…

    • @stefcep
      @stefcep 2 года назад +2

      Hawking used to argue that is just ONE possible outcome of many that could occur, by chance but its also the one that allows intelligent beings to ask that. So here you are!

    • @BeesWaxMinder
      @BeesWaxMinder 2 года назад

      @@stefcep on behalf of the whole human race:
      “aw…Shucks!!” ☺️

    • @johndododoe1411
      @johndododoe1411 Год назад

      @@stefcep So put another way, the universe may have tried all the other ways, and this is the first one to work long enough for your comment to be written (using a causality based definition of time progressing, rather than a measurable definition).

  • @joltsofdeath
    @joltsofdeath Год назад

    Fantastic lecture, sent to all my nerds

  • @ybwang7124
    @ybwang7124 Год назад +1

    I might get around to it tomorrow, not hungry today.

  • @fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353
    @fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353 2 года назад +17

    One of the most open minded scientists alive

    • @0ned
      @0ned 2 года назад +1

      Yeah okay
      Just another royal liar
      Who's Hermann Fricke‽
      Here's word of Michael Faraday
      Two hundred years ago, mate!
      At least Maxwell credited Faraday's work.
      Kelvin plagiarized Nikola Tesla.
      And who's Hermann Fricke?
      US Patent Office Clerk Carl Frederick Krafft can tell you,
      not this fraud.

    • @elziraaparecidadossantos9395
      @elziraaparecidadossantos9395 2 года назад +1

      Um Grande Cosmologo

  • @paulwary
    @paulwary 2 года назад +5

    Is it consistent to say that our universe has no centre, and no boundary, but also say we may have bumped into another one?

    • @ianyoung7077
      @ianyoung7077 2 года назад +3

      Possibly. Nobody knows.😄

    • @farrier2708
      @farrier2708 2 года назад

      The Earths surface is a 2D surface with no centre and no boundaries. However, it constantly has similar 2D surfaces colliding with it.
      So, Yes! I think that comparable events in the third dimension would be entirely consistent.

    • @scogin2670
      @scogin2670 2 года назад

      With there being no center, That would help with my question. We sometimes wonder where we (Mankind) came from. What if... Like the universe is expanding and if it has no center... What if... We just always were. Like Infinity. Impossible to wrap your mind around, but it just always was and always will be. With short (Million year) Semi extinction periods where we have to start pushing the rock up the mountain yet again. Oh... AND... What if... The planet is set on a timer and the polar icecaps are the fuse. If we have not reached world peace and mastered space travel by then... then we won't. Time to shake the etch-a-sketch and start over again. When the ice caps thaw, bacteria escapes that combine (from the north and South Pole) and create the thing that shuts down all but a few thousand humans, scattered around the planet. I wonder if I have time to turn that into a book? But it seems like most everything else is wrapped in some sort of "What If".

    • @kenadams5504
      @kenadams5504 Год назад

      Multiverse theory is thought to be probably correct among Experts but untill its proven by Mathematics , it isnt something thats accepted .Having said that , lots of ideas cannot be proven but are considered to be correct. Black holes are mathematically described by Einstein in 1935 , as having a Bridge /wormhole which may be a link to somewhere other than our Universe .perhaps this is a clue as to the validity of the Multiverse idea.

    • @reessoft9416
      @reessoft9416 Год назад

      According to brane theory that's a possibility, yes.
      Every universe can move freely in a higher dimensional "block".
      At the moment we don't really know, as there's no evidence for any universe, other than our own.

  • @bobjary9382
    @bobjary9382 Год назад +1

    Top teacher !

  • @theknowledge.6869
    @theknowledge.6869 Год назад

    Thank You.