Into The Impossible

Frank Close is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics, and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College. He was formerly Head of Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, vice President of the British Science Association and Head of Communications and Public Understanding at CERN. He was awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for his 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics' in 1996, an OBE for 'services to research and the public understanding of science in 2000, and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science in 2013. He is the only professional physicist to have won a British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. Author of 20 books about science, the latest "Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass", marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs Boson. On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in unders

Today's guest, UC Berkeley Professor Jessica Lu, discusses the discovery of the first dark, isolated black hole or neutron star in the Milky Way using gravitational microlensing! This ‘ghost black hole’ is far from the center of the Milky Way. We also discussed: ⬛ dark matter and the future of multi-messenger astronomy w/ the Roman and James Webb Space telescope as well as the Vera Rubin Observatory. Finally, we answered your❓Questions -- you can always submit them on the "Community" tab for this channel. This work was led by UC Berkeley grad, Casey Lam, and details are in papers in The Astrophysical Journal (https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.01903). See Jessica's awesome Twitter thread on this discovery, and what it might mean: https://twitter.com/jlu_astro/status/1535292954180341760?s=20&t=ZFaQb9iG5SIsaQW3ijH7ZQ Please enjoy my black hole playlist for more on the theory and observation of these mysterious objects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvGInn1efR8&list=PLJGKdZD30K_9Gx0SBRjFn_TNPBN-9t9md Learn more about y

Was there a Big Bang? Did the universe emerge from a singularity? Is there any evidence for a Multiverse? Anna Ijjas and I explore these questions and much more, including her incredibly fascinating work on bouncing cosmological models. Anna Ijjas is a research faculty at New York University. Her research lies at the intersection of gravitational theory and cosmology. She has pioneered the application of mathematical and numerical relativity to cosmology with the goal of developing novel theories that explain the origin, structure and evolution of our universe. Her work has already led to several advances in this new field, including the establishment of slow contraction as a rapid and robust smoother. Currently, she is developing novel mathematical and computational methods for studying the effects of modifications of Einstein's relativity theory on cosmology and black holes. Her Website: https://anna-ijjas.com/ Topics discussed include: What should a theorist know about experimental cosmology? Why is the

Join Brian Keating and his friends Eric Weinstein and Harvard's Avi Loeb for an update on the Galileo Project, NASA's recent formation of a government panel investigating UAP/UFOs and more. Resources here: NASA to Set Up Independent Study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-... Eric Weinstein's Website https://ericweinstein.org Download the first-ever audiobook by Galileo https://BrianKeating.com/dialogue NASA is embarking on a RISKY mission to investigate UAPs https://www.axios.com/2022/06/14/nasa... Galileo Project home: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galil... NASA is putting together a research team to study UFOs https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/9/231... China Says It May Have Detected Signals From Alien Civilizations https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Avi and the interstellar meteorite: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/bad-as... Avi Loeb: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: https://avi-loeb.medium.com/imitation... Avi Loeb On scientific leg

Join Brian Keating and his friends Eric Weinstein and Harvard's Avi Loeb for an update on the Galileo Project, NASA's recent formation of a government panel investigating UAP/UFOs and more. Resources here: NASA to Set Up Independent Study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-... Eric Weinstein's Website https://ericweinstein.org Download the first-ever audiobook by Galileo https://BrianKeating.com/dialogue NASA is embarking on a RISKY mission to investigate UAPs https://www.axios.com/2022/06/14/nasa... Galileo Project home: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galil... NASA is putting together a research team to study UFOs https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/9/231... China Says It May Have Detected Signals From Alien Civilizations https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Avi and the interstellar meteorite: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/bad-as... Avi Loeb: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: https://avi-loeb.medium.com/imitation... Avi Loeb On scientific leg

Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction. He's won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2021, Powers has published 14 novels and has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory. Powers’ latest book is Bewilderment in which, The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves t

Do you ever look up to the stars and wonder about what is out there? Over the last few centuries, humans have successfully unraveled much of the language of the universe, exploring and defining formerly mysterious phenomena such as electricity, magnetism, and matter through the beauty of mathematics. But some secrets remain beyond our realm of understanding—and seemingly beyond the very laws and theories we have relied on to make sense of the universe we inhabit. It is clear that the quantum, the world of atoms and electrons, is entwined with the cosmos, a universe of trillions of stars and galaxies...but exactly how these two extremes of human understanding interact remains a mystery. Where Did the Universe Come From? And Other Cosmic Questions allows readers to eavesdrop on a conversation between award-winning physicists Chris Ferrie and Geraint F. Lewis as they examine the universe through the two unifying and yet often contradictory lenses of classical physics and quantum mechanics, tackling questions suc

Chat with Nobel Prize winner Adam Riess about his team's newest measurements of the 'most important number in cosmology' the Hubble Constant. Using the Hubble Space Telescope for what it was meant to do, Adam's team continues to make ultra-precise measurements. We'll also explore the Hubble Tension, the future of Hubble now that the James Webb Space Telescope has deployed, and other cosmic conundrums. Adam is a brilliant teacher and a wonderful raconteur. Don't miss your chance to chat with a brilliant scientist about the most important topic in cosmology today! From the team: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-005 From CNN: Measuring the expansion rate of the universe was one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s main goals when it was launched in 1990. Over the past 30 years, the space observatory has helped scientists discover and refine that accelerating rate – as well as uncover a mysterious wrinkle that only brand-new physics may solve. Hubble has observed more than 40 galaxies that

Philip Goff is a philosopher and consciousness researcher at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on how to integrate consciousness into a scientific worldview. Goff argues that the traditional approaches of materialism (consciousness explained in terms of physical processes in the brain) and dualism (consciousness is separate from the body and brain) face insuperable difficulties. He therefore defends a form of panpsychism, the view that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the physical world, not confined to biological entities but is a fundamental feature of all physical matter—from subatomic particles to the human brain..  Goff’s new book, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, traces the problem of consciousness back to the foundations of the scientific revolution, in Galileo's decision to set consciousness outside of the domain of science. He offers a provocative argument for panpsychism’s radically new picture of human consciousness.   Understanding

European Southern Observatory (ESO) released groundbreaking new Milky Way results from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHT). Today I speak to Shep Doeleman Founding Director of the Event Horizon Telescope about. what it all means! You can watch the press conference on ESO's YouTube channel https://youtu.be/rIQLA6lo6R0 and watch my breakdown of everything you need to know! Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies. The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes. The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very center of our galaxy. Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting

Eric Weinstein and I go for a wide-ranging quarterly catch-up on all sorts of goings-on in our Universe. We'll chat about Elon Musk and Twitter, censorship and control, abortion and leaks, a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox on intelligent aliens, Galileo Galilei, and more! Topics Include: Does Elon Musk have Buyer’s Remorse over Twitter? Roe vs Wade and the immorality of leaks Trust in science is at an all-time low. What can we do? Advice to Elon Musk RESOURCES MENTIONED: Previous Videos with Eric Eric Weinstein: UFOs, Portal Podcast Reboot, & 2022 Predictions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMS02ueFso0 Eric Weinstein: What is WRONG With The World?!: https://youtu.be/CzbElaoMfjk Get GALILEO’S DIALOGUE ON TWO WORLD SYSTEMS Audiobook https://briankeating.com/dialogue Translated by Stillman Drake. With a Foreward by Albert Einstein. Salviati narrated by Carlo Rovelli, and Sagredo narrated by Brian Keating. Simplicio narrated by Lucio Piccirillo Albert Einstein’s Foreward read by Frank Wilczek

Eric Weinstein and I go for a wide-ranging quarterly catch-up on all sorts of goings-on in our Universe. We'll chat about Elon Musk and Twitter, censorship and control, abortion and leaks, a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox on intelligent aliens, Galileo Galilei, and more! Topics Include: Does Elon Musk have Buyer’s Remorse over Twitter? Roe vs Wade and the immorality of leaks Trust in science is at an all-time low. What can we do? Advice to Elon Musk RESOURCES MENTIONED: Previous Videos with Eric Eric Weinstein: UFOs, Portal Podcast Reboot, & 2022 Predictions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMS02ueFso0 Eric Weinstein: What is WRONG With The World?!: https://youtu.be/CzbElaoMfjk Get GALILEO’S DIALOGUE ON TWO WORLD SYSTEMS Audiobook https://briankeating.com/dialogue Translated by Stillman Drake. With a Foreward by Albert Einstein. Salviati narrated by Carlo Rovelli, and Sagredo narrated by Brian Keating. Simplicio narrated by Lucio Piccirillo Albert Einstein’s Foreward read by Frank Wilczek

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s next great flagship observatory. It’s set to continue — and extend — the illustrious scientific tradition established by the Hubble Space Telescope, while peering deeper into the universe and observing what Hubble could not. But who was James Webb? Considering the controversy surrounding his legacy, I wanted to explore the allegations against him with my friend Hakeem Oluseyi and answer the question: Why was the James Webb Space Telescope named after him? Hakeem claims that some allegations wrongly accused an innocent man who was, among more well-known achievements, a hero of diversity and inclusion in American government. He worked with Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy to use NASA facilities in America’s southern states to promote racial integration and equal opportunity in employment Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Oluseyi was named a Visiting Robin

Nicole Yunger Halpern is a theoretical physicist, NIST physicist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland.  She is also currently a Fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Nicole reenvisions 19th-century thermodynamics for the 21st century, using the mathematical toolkit of quantum information (QI) theory. She applies QI thermodynamics as a lens through which to view the rest of science, gaining new perspectives on atomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter, chemistry, high-energy physics, and biophysics. She calls this research “quantum steampunk,” after the steampunk genre of art and literature that juxtaposes Victorian settings with futuristic technologies. Dr. Yunger’s book, Quantum Steampunk is about how the Industrial Revolution meets the quantum-technology revolution! It is a steampunk adventure guide to how mind-blowing quantum physics is transforming our understanding of information and energy.

Will Kinney is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he has been on faculty since 2003. Dr. Kinney's research focuses on the physics of the very early universe, including inflationary cosmology, the Cosmic Microwave Background, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy. He has authored more than seventy published research articles and received the SUNY Chancellor's award for excellence in teaching in 2014. In his new book, An Infinity of Worlds, physicist Will Kinney explains the theory that may hold the answers to these questions such as Why is the universe so big? Why is it so old? What is the origin of structure in the cosmos? It may even explain the ultimate origins of the universe. The theory of cosmic inflation, before the primordial fire of the Big Bang. Kinney argues that cosmic inflation is a transformational idea in cosmology, changing our picture of the basic structure of the cosmos and raising unavoidable questions about what we mean by a scientific theory. He expla

Jim is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory in 1989 and has published widely in the field. His current interest is in open quantum systems and the application of quantum mechanics in biology. He is a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest book, The World According to Physics, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. Jim is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and

What would a modern-day 'Voyage of the Beagle ' be like? Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum evokes Charles Darwin's travels in a trip not confined to the earth's confines. Come along with us on a journey of discovery through the entire galaxy where we encounter aliens and their planets with supersonic creatures, a moon where aliens have a language composed of smells, and aliens who scream with fear, act honestly and have technology. The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space. This is a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space. But short of aliens landing in New York City, how do we know what they are like? Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution - which applies throughout the universe - Cambridge zoologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be

The following is my appearance on the Leon Logothetis Podcast. Leon is the creator of THE KINDNESS DIARIES on Netflix and Amazon. He’s known for creating content around the world to highlight the best in humanity, and it was a privilege to be on his show. The show’s premise is that Leon does NOT know who is going to be his guest. That is why we start off with introductions. I was a bit nervous about going in blind, but Leon made it a great experience. Subscribe to his podcast here. From Leon’s show notes: “My guest this week is Brian Keating, who is an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background, using it to learn about the origins and evolution of the universe. Brian is an author, speaker, inventor and a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences (CASS) in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego.  It was a privilege to have Brian on the show and share his incredible knowledge about the co

Dr. Vavagiakis is a postdoctoral associate in the Physics Department at Cornell University. She work on four collaborations: ACT, CCAT-prime, CMB-S4, and the Simons Observatory. www.simonsobservatory.org https://act.princeton.edu https://ccatobservatory.org https://cmb-s4.org   Eve got her PhD at Cornell University in 2021, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Provost Diversity Fellow on instrumentation and analysis for cosmology and astrophysics. She designed Mod-Cam, a first light instrument for the CCAT Observatory‘s Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). And is currently leading the development of Mod-Cam for first light on the FYST, located at 5600 meter elevation in the Atacama Desert, Chile.  In addition to building instrumentation, Dr. Vavagiakis analyzes maps of the cosmic microwave background to measure thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich signals. These measurements probe the contents and evolution of galaxy groups and clusters and will constrain the fundamental physics of o

Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist interested in the origin of life and how to find life on other worlds. She is most interested in whether or not there are “laws of life’ related to how information structures the physical world that could universally describe life here on Earth and on other planets. Walker is deputy director of the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, which is devoted to confronting the big questions of science and philosophy.  She is Associate Director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems and Assistant Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is also Co-founder of the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet.org, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Marble Space. She is active in public engagement in science, with appearances at the World Science Festival and on "Through the Wormhole" and NPR's Science Friday. Sara’s provocative paper: Origins of Life: A Problem for Physics can b