Brian Cox would like you to consider the very nature of the space-time continuum and our place within it.
It might seem like a big lift, so the world-renowned physicist is here to guide you. Cox is currently touring the United States, giving audiences a dazzling spectacle filled not only with stunning in-universe images and simulations black holes but also big questions: Why are we here? How has life evolved? Are space and time really as fundamental as we perceive them?
In the program titled “Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey,” Cox asks these questions and takes the audience on a journey to answer them, based on Albert’s past discoveries. Einstein to current research that is changing our very understanding of reality.
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In the realm of theoretical physics, Cox told Space.com: “We are now led, in recent years, to a theory which suggests that space and time are not fundamental – that there is a more deep.”
This concept, called “emergent spacetime”, is the idea that space and time are not fixed and immutable things, but rather made up of constituent parts, such as how the atom includes neutrons, protons and electrons (and these particles are made up of even more particles). The theory suggests that there are still more layers of the universe to peel away.
One of the ways scientists are investigating the idea of emergent spacetime is through black holes, Cox said. Black holes pose many puzzles, such as “these things nothing can escape from apparently have a temperature and glow and evaporate and radiate,” Cox said.
A question that haunts physicists right now seems quite simple: “Do black holes destroy informationsaid Cox. But in fact, thinking about the question is not at all simple. The problem deals with the idea of Hawking radiation. This theory, first described by stephen hawking in the 1970s, suggests that black holes have a measurable temperature. Where does this temperature come from? Basically, imagine two particles sharing information with each other; we fall into the black hole, and we do not fall there. The particle that falls into the black hole is destroyed by a burst of radiation.
However, these two particles are entangled, according to quantum entanglement the theory; two particles share information even though they are millions of light-years apart. So if one particle is destroyed, what happens to its twin? In the quantum world, information cannot be destroyed. So we are left with a paradox.
And that’s just one of the many mysteries of the universe and our place in it. Cox wants audiences to come away with a sense of wonder – at the complexities of the universe, the discoveries humans have made since we looked up to the sky, and how humanity fits into everything. that.
“The more we learn about the biology and evolutionary history of life on Earththe more it starts to look like, when germs can be everywhere, things like [civilizations] can be very rare indeed,” he said.
In other words, we could be the only beings in our galaxy – or at least our part of it – who have the ability to think about big questions like the nature of reality, and we shouldn’t take that for granted.
“Science has both relegated us from the center of the universe for the past 300 or 400 years, and also, perhaps, placed us in an extremely important position,” Cox said.
Interested in delving deeper into these universal mysteries? Discover North America “Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey” tour program (opens in a new tab)which runs until the end of June.
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