"STEPHEN HAWKING'S UNIVERSE" "COSMIC ALCHEMY" ""Stephen Hawking's Universe" is made possible... by Alfred P. Sloan foundation to enhance public understanding... of the role of science and technology." "The Arthur Vining Davis foundations." "The corporation for public broadcasting." "And viewers like you." "Corporate funding is provided by Amgen." "Unlocking the secrets of life through biotechnology." "At Amgen, we produce medicines... that improve people's lives today... and bring hope for tomorrow." "Stephen Hawking:" "The world around us" "Is full of variety..." "Different materials, different textures." "How did they all arise?" "I helped to show that the universe" "Had a simple beginning" "As a single point in the big bang." "The question is," "How did everything we see get made from that?" "Narrator:" "The secrets of creation" "Long seemed beyond the reach" "Of science." "Today they are being starkly revealed." "Man:" "We cosmologists," "We try to recreate the history of the universe" "In a sense very much like an archeologist." "We have some clues about the universe" "As it was a long time ago." "And based on those clues," "We try to trace back its history" "To as close to the beginning" "As possible." "We can push back the frontier of what we know of the universe" "To very, very close to zero..." "time equals zero." "Narrator:" "We now know how the universe began" "In the big bang." "Stars and galaxies, planets and life," "Time and space itself came from a single point." "It seems an unlikely proposition." "How could the universe," "In all its variety and complexity," "Have come from one common primal source?" "Just as staggering is that scientists believe" "They know the answer." "Their quest to understand" "The essence of matter is ages old." "In medieval europe," "Alchemists believed in a process called transmutation." "They sought to unlock the mystery..." "What is the basic building block of creation?" "Alchemy is about the search to make gold." "It's about taking some primal substance" "And subjecting it to various operations" "Which change the substance to eventually become" "The most perfect substance of all, gold." "To the alchemist, the process of alchemy" "Was almost as important as the goal." "Some alchemists would say," ""If i can see the secrets of creation" "In my work, if i can look into my vessel and see" "The mysteries of the creation unfolding," "Then that is the most significant thing."" "The man who lived here at owlpen manor" "Was called thomas daunt vii," "And he was the last of a long line of alchemists." "Narrator:" "Alchemists were convinced" "One kind of matter could be transformed into another." "Their pursuit of gold was at the same time" "A search for fundamental forces" "And fundamental elements." "Gilchrist:" "Alchemists took on board" "The greek idea of the elements which was that" "Everything in the universe" "Is composed of the four elements..." "Earth, water, fire, and air." "Earth is seen as giving form to things, giving substance." "Water is like a universal solvent." "It connects, it flows," "It dissolves things." "Fire brings energy and light and heat." "It helps to create the vital inner fire" "That everything is said to have." "And air gives some space, it gives some movement." "It's the medium of communication between things." "Everything has its own" "Particular combination of those elements" "Which are put together in a particular proportion" "To make a particular thing." "Alchemists followed the line" "That if you shift around that balance of elements," "If you change those proportions," "Then you'll change the actual identity" "Of the substance that you've got." "Narrator:" "Seeking to make the ultimate substance," "Alchemists like thomas daunt" "Believed they had to start with a basic material," "One that was the source for all existing substances." "They called it primal matter." "Gilchrist:" "People tried all kinds of things" "To see if they could get the right primal matter," "Which included dung and urine" "And pretty unspeakable concoctions to start with." "Thomas daunt lived" "In the 18th century," "So he was practicing" "Very late for an alchemist, really," "Because the so-Called" "Modern scientific view of the world" "Had taken hold by then." "Narrator:" "This was the age of reason." "Its new breed of scientists" "Wanted experiments, not miracles." "They rallied against the dangerous witchcraft" "Alchemists were said to practice." "Gilchrist:" "That's possibly why thomas daunt" "Got himself a rather bad reputation locally." "He was thought of as a magician." "After his death, the little room where he worked" "Was sealed up along with all his books and papers." "But local people got rather nervous about this, too," "In case it was going to have an evil influence," "So they summoned the parson" "To open the doors and burn the books." "When the parson burnt the books, a flock of birds flew out." "The attitude of the new scientists coming along" "Disagreed with the practices of alchemy," "But the vision of it" "That everything has come from one source," "That there is a kind of basic elemental form to life," "And that you can actually rearrange" "The structure of matter" "Seems very pertinent to science today." "Hawking:" "Mystic beliefs and a greed for gold" "Are not a good basis for science." "The alchemists had little interest" "In how matter was created when the universe began." "But the idea of transmutation," "Allowing all varieties of matter to evolve" "From the primal source, was, perhaps accidentally," "A step in the right direction." "Narrator:" "The alchemists' techniques" "For breaking down and studying matter endured" "In the new science of chemistry." "For one of its pioneers," "Inspiration came not in a lab, but in a siberian glass factory." "In the mid-19th century, a boy, the proprietor's son," "Was entranced by the magic of primal forces." "He was dmitri mendeleev." "Mendeleev wrote in his diary that maybe first impressions" "Of chemistry he has got just at this glass factory..." "Having seen these combinations," "How the glass is formed" "And how the addition of different salts" "Changed the color of the glass." "Narrator:" "It was the height of the industrial revolution." "Stoked by the demands of mass production," "The science of chemistry flourished." "Understanding what things were made of" "Was vital to entrepreneurs." "To the new chemists," "The greek vision of only four elements..." "Earth, air, fire, and water..." "Now seemed patently simplistic." "They set out to deconstruct the world" "And find what it was made of." "They broke down complex substances" "Into simpler ones," "The basic ingredients of chemistry." "Babaev:" "These simple parts" "Have been called elements," "So there were absolutely no possibility" "To divide them further." "Narrator:" "In mendeleev's time," "Chemists believed there were about 65 elements," "Running the gamut of gases, liquids, and solids." "They thought each element's" "Unique properties were traceable" "To its fundamental essence," "The smallest component of any substance." "Like the early greeks," "They called this basic unit of matter an atom," "Which meant "uncuttable."" "But even as mendeleev was grappling with these notions," "His world was reduced to its essentials." "His family's glass factory burned down." "Well, mendeleev has got" "His first acquaintance with chemistry" "At the glass factory." "But, well, suddenly the factory was burned," "So the only hope of his mother" "Was to give education to her youngest son." "And that's why she took him to a very long journey" "To st." "Petersburg from the middle of siberia." "Narrator:" "The young mendeleev and his mother" "Traveled 1,400 miles across russia" "So he could enroll at st." "Petersburg university." "He quickly became" "One of russia's most prominent chemists." "Yet his was a solitary quest." "Some scientists already understood" "That what distinguished one element from another" "Were differences in the weights of their atoms." "They also believed it was this, the weight of the atoms," "That determined an element's unique character." "Mendeleev had a hunch he could group them in a way" "That linked them" "In the behavior of their chemical properties." "So what was important that mendeleev has associated" "The changes in properties of elements..." "These changes from metallic character" "To non-Metallic character..." "Just with the changes in atomic weight." "So this was his revolution." "Narrator:" "In the restless imagination" "Of a young scientist," "A realization began to take shape" "That perhaps there was an underlying order" "To all the elements on earth." "One night in 1869," "Mendeleev shut himself into his cottage" "By the black sea," "Determined to decipher the secret code of matter." "Babaev:" "Mendeleev was very fond of patience games," "And that's why he has used pieces of papers as cards." "He tried to move them on the table" "With the idea to find an initial arrangement." "This idea to order elements" "With the increase of their atomic weights" "Has come to his mind only early in the morning." "Narrator:" "Shuffling cards" "Bearing the symbols of each element," "Mendeleev tried to sort them in a logical order." "He started with hydrogen, which has the lightest atoms." "He worked his way through to uranium," "The heaviest natural element." "He grouped together any elements" "With similar chemical properties." "Within each group of like elements," "The difference between one atomic weight and the next" "Was always nearly the same." "Where the pattern was broken, mendeleev predicted" "That, in time, an element would be discovered" "To fill the gap." "It was a landmark discovery." "Here was an unmistakeable pattern" "To the way matter is organized." "In an unlikely game of solitaire," "Mendeleev had created the periodic table." "Hawking:" "The periodic table suggested for the first time" "A fundamental pattern for the different elements." "Although no one realized it then," "Mendeleev was pointing towards a common origin" "For all of the matter in the universe." "His work was the basis" "For all future developments." "Babaev:" "Let us say he put so many questions" "That a lot of scientists have tried to answer," "And by this manner" "He of course stimulated the development of idea" "Of evolution of elements, or, well, the origin of matter." "Maybe most important that he has changed" "The atomic weight of uranium," "And he changed it so that uranium has become" "The last element of the system." "And this was most intriguing to mendeleev," "And he has written a few times that, well," ""I recommend to young scientists" "To start their career with study of uranium."" "Narrator:" "Nearly 30 years later," "A young french scientist made a fateful decision" "To take up mendeleev's challenge" "And probe the secrets of uranium." "Her name was marie curie." "I am the daughter of irene and frederik joliot curie," "And the granddaughter of pierre and marie curie." "Narrator:" "In 1897, marie sklodowska," "A polish expatriate studying in paris," "Married the well-Known physicist" "Pierre curie." "At the time, she was searching for a subject" "For her doctoral dissertation." "She was captivated by an eerie experiment" "Performed accidently" "By henri becquerel." "He had placed some uranium on a photographic plate," "Planning to find out what effect sunlight has on it." "But that day, it rained." "He wrapped his experiment in thick paper" "Where no light could strike it." "He tucked it away in a dark drawer." "It was cloudy for three days." "On a whim," "Becquerel developed the plate, nonetheless." "He was amazed to find a ghostly imprint." "Uranium, it seems," "Emits strange, invisible rays." "A century later," "Radioactivity is a familiar word with ominous overtones." "Becquerel's discovery" "Lit a fire in marie curie." "Langevin-Joliot:" "If you wish to understand," "It's necessary to have quantitative measurement" "Of these radiations." "And you cannot do that with photographic plates." "Narrator:" "She set out to fathom the enigmatic rays." "Her first step was to somehow determine their power." "Becquerel had already shown" "They could conduct an electric current," "But its strength was so minute," "It seemed impossible to measure accurately." "It's something 10 to minus 11 smaller." "Try to understand what is 10 to minus 11 smaller." "Divide by 10 and 10 and 10 and 10," "And see that it is really the kind of thing" "You cannot measure with ordinary apparatus at all," "So you have to build a special one." "Narrator:" "What she designed was a scale..." "One that would compare a nearly immeasureable current" "With one she could gauge." "At one end she put a sample of uranium." "It emitted its electrical charge between two metal plates." "At the other end, using weights," "She put stress on a special kind of crystal," "To generate electricity." "The strength of that current could be adjusted" "By the amount of weight added." "The apparatus compared the two currents." "When, at last, both were equal, it pointed to zero." "That happened when the weight on the crystal" "Generated a trillionth of an amp," "The current that matched" "The uranium's." "That minute figure represented" "A colossal achievement." "Curie and her husband wondered" "If anything else would emit rays like uranium." "They decided to test pitchblende," "The mineral from which their uranium" "Had been extracted." "Since it was unrefined," "They thought it would generate a much smaller current" "Than pure uranium." "They were in for a surprise." "And what happens was that the current was much higher," "At least four times higher than with uranium," "With the corresponding amount of uranium." "And that was incredible because none of the impurities" "Or elements participating in pitchblende" "Have shown any sign of having the same property." "Narrator:" "Baffled, the curies separated out" "The chemicals in the pitchblende," "And found the strange current" "Was the signature of two unknown elements." "They called the first polonium, after marie's homeland, poland." "They dubbed the second radium." "Before the discovery, the curies have discussed" "About the possible physical properties of the new elements." "And pierre curie has told her," ""I wish it have a beautiful color."" "So what they found," "That with enough amount of radium it emitted light" "More beautiful than being" "Just a beautiful color." "So sometimes they come back in the evening" "Just to see the radium lighting," "And just look at it in the evening." "This was not the best thing to do." "Narrator:" "Little did the curies know" "The insidious danger their specimens harbored." "Their new radioactive discoveries" "Were almost certainly the cause of marie curie's fatal leukemia." "Hawking:" "But while the curies had managed" "To measure the radiation that these elements gave off," "They were no closer to understanding" "What the radiation actually was." "That was left to a young new zealand scientist" "Called ernest rutherford." "Narrator:" "Uranium and radium" "And the strange energy they radiated" "Seemed to hold clues to the very nature of matter." "The mystery of these elements unkown" "Fell to one of the great minds of science." "Today, the tools of ernest rutherford's studies" "Are treasured relics at canada's mcgill university." "But in their day," "He and his partner, frederick soddy," "Tirelessly worked their equipment." "They explored the nature of the curies' mysterious rays," "And rocked the world of science to the core." "They set up a physical experiment" "In which they tried to discover" "The nature of this emanation which was emitted by radium," "And measure the rate at which this emanation would diffuse" "From one point to another." "Narrator:" "Perhaps the rays would turn out to be" "Just radium in the form of a vapor," "As when water becomes steam." "In that case, the atomic weight of this strange gas" "Would be identical to that of radium." "But it wasn't." "In fact, it wasn't radium at all." "The emanation could not possibly be radium" "In vapor form in the way that, say, mercury gives off a vapor." "Therefore it had to be something different." "And the only rational conclusion was" "That one element, radium," "Was somehow producing another element" "Which was not radium vapor," "Was a completely different element" "With a different atomic weight." "Narrator:" "The impossible had happened." "One element, radium, had generated another, helium." "It was the miracle that eluded the alchemists." "Cohen:" "They were indeed quite worried" "That people would accuse them" "Of returning to ancient medieval alchemy." "And they were very careful" "In their use of language in the publications," "To emphasize that this was not alchemy." "This was" "A genuine transformation that was taking place." "Narrator:" "The implications were staggering." "If one element could arise from another," "Then all elements, all matter in the universe," "Could well have been the product of a primal transformation" "Of their own." "But how did this process work?" "And why, in radium, was it accompanied" "By the release of radioactive energy?" "In fact, the answer had been found years earlier." "In 1905, an extraordinary revelation" "Would forever change the way we look at the universe." "Among the claims of albert Einstein's" "Theory of relativity" "Was a single, elegant equation, e = m c-Squared." "Dowker:" "One of the major questions" "In cosmology and in astrophysics" "Is how the chemical elements" "Came to be in the universe." "Narrator:" "The "e" stands for energy," "The "m" for matter," ""C" is the speed of light." "According to Einstein," "Just as heat and light are different forms of energy," "So is matter itself." "Dowker:" "So energy is never lost or in fact gained." "It's just transformed from one form into another." "You can't actually prove that mass can be" "Completely converted into energy using special relativity." "But Einstein made that conceptual leap," "And conjectured that that was in fact true." "Narrator:" "Einstein imagined matter" "As something like a battery," "A form of stored energy." "The concept was powerful, but could it be proven?" "And would it explain the origin of the universe?" "Rutherford decided to delve deeper by peering within" "The building block of matter itself, the atom." "Hawking:" "We need to discover the inner workings of the atom" "If we are to understand how matter was made" "At the beginning of the universe." "I would have taken" "A theoretical approach to the problem," "But rutherford was an out-And-Out experimentalist." "He simply collected some old tubes and wires," "And built a machine to break the atom apart." "Narrator: 60 years later, ernest rutherford" "Has a kindred spirit in a 20-Year-Old student." "Man:" "In the true tradition of particle physics," "I hung out at junkyards" "To collect metal and odd bits of electronics" "That were just thrown away by everyone else," "But very important to me." "Narrator:" "Fred neill's quest" "To follow in rutherford's illustrious footsteps" "Begins in a scrap heap near memphis, tennessee." "He used radium which was" "A newly discovered element at the time." "And he used metal cans" "And glass tubes, huge amounts of wire," "And all sorts of eclectic bits" "That he collected from various places." "Most scrapyards purchase cars and crush them up." "This scrapyard" "Specifically purchases from the united states military" "All of their surplus." "They have everything from bolts to battleships, literally." "They have electronic bits from world war ii." "They have planes..." "anything..." "Anything imaginable." "How much do you want for this old thing?" "A buck and a quarter a pound." "All right." "Narrator:" "Neill must haggle and tinker his way" "To the essence of matter." "At least he knows how to find what he's looking for," "Thanks to his mentor." "All right, that'll work." "Good deal." "Rutherford knew that these particles" "Were coming off of the radium with a certain amount of speed." "So he aimed the particles" "That were coming off of the radium" "At a very thin piece of gold foil." "And he found that some of the particles" "Were bouncing off of the gold foil." "Rutherford was quoted saying" "That this is somewhat like shooting a 15-Inch shell" "At a piece of tissue paper" "And having it bounce back and hit you." "Well, this meant that there was some sort of immense force" "Inside the atom." "Narrator:" "Before rutherford," "The world had only a vague picture" "Of how the atom worked." "Now he set out to pry his way into the inner sanctum of matter" "By venturing within its fold." "Fred neill has his own jury-Rigged" "Particle accelerator." "Using radium in his experiment" "Would not make him popular with the neighbors." "He opts for a safe alternative." "My machine, just like rutherford's," "Used electrical simulation" "Of the emanations from the radium" "By heating up a piece of metal electrically." "Now, in order to make these move," "I use electrostatic electricity." "Now coulomb showed that particles that have a charge" "Are attracted to their opposite charge." "So what i do is i build up a huge amount of charge" "Just like a battery." "You hook one end of the tube up to a battery," "And you hook up the other end of the tube" "To the opposite pole of the battery," "And you can make particles move." "And they hit a target right here." "But in order to do that," "They can't be hampered by anything" "On their journey to the end of the target." "So to pull everything out" "That might slow the particles down," "I have to take all of the air out" "With this vacuum pump..." "Like so." "Now what you see is the particles" "Interacting with the air," "Which means i haven't pulled enough air out." "So after some amount of time i've pulled out all of the air," "And the particles begin to move straight to the target" "Without any interaction." "Narrator:" "Now there is virtually nothing inside the tube" "Except the atomic nuclei neill is firing," "And those ricocheting off the target." "Neill:" "You can detect them" "By using a tube just like this." "I am only picking up particles from the target" "Because there is nothing else there." "There's only particles coming" "From the synthesized radium emanations" "And from the bits of the target." "Narrator:" "The particles his geiger counter is recording" "Are being deflected by a like charge," "Testament that the atom has a positive nucleus." "Like rutherford, he is defining the atom's structure." "Neill:" "The greek philosophers had said that the atom" "Was this indivisible object" "That was the building block of all things." "Well, rutherford found that it most certainly is not." "The atom has building blocks of its own." "He'd found that there is" "Some huge amount of energy held in electric charges" "That was somehow bound together in the center," "And that there was just this myriad of particles." "It was never known before" "That the atom was made up of huge numbers" "Of these bizarre, odd things that had never been seen." "Narrator:" "Scientists began to explore a new horizon." "They found even smaller atomic components" "By smashing them at ever higher rates." "Neill:" "The next advancement, in order to make" "Particles go faster and faster," "Was to change the direction the particles are going." "So livingston and lawrence figured" "That perhaps we can make them go in a circle," "Because we already know" "That charged particles move in a magnet." "So that's what i've done." "I've built a cyclotron just like lawrence and livingston did." "So i've got a rather large magnet." "You can see it's rather strong." "And i have a chamber where the particles go in." "The particles have to go in a circle," "So i have these special electrodes" "That are hollowed out" "To allow the particles to go in a circle" "Inside the magnetic field." "I evacuate the chamber," "And i apply an electrostatic field" "Just like the linear accelerator, only this time," "Since the particles are moving in a circle," "I have to have the electrostatic field change also." "So the connection between this particle accelerator" "And the ones that are many miles in diameter," "Just like the one in cern," "One of the largest accelerators in the world, is very simple." "The particles are moving in a circle," "And they are going to extremely high speeds," "The only difference being that the larger the accelerator," "The larger the electrostatic charge" "You can put on the particle." "Thus, the faster the particle will go," "And the more interesting" "Nuclear reactions you can carry out," "And the more you can learn about the structure of the atom." "Hawking:" "The evidence from particle accelerators" "Revealed a new world of subatomic physics." "It was now that the full significance" "Of Einstein's famous equation, e = m c-Squared," "Began to be realized." "Matter and energy were interchangeable." "Narrator:" "Einstein's correlation was proven right." "The more energy released when a particle is smashed," "The more mass the particle loses." "But a mathematician named paul dirac" "Went one theoretical step further." "Dowker:" "Paul dirac held" "The lucasian chair of mathematics in cambridge" "Which was once held by newton" "And is currently held by stephen Hawking." "Narrator:" "Dirac's theory was altogether counter-Intuitive." "He argued that for Einstein's theory to be right," "Energy wouldn't just produce matter." "It also had to generate" "A perfect mirror image, antimatter." "Every particle has a twin, an anti-Particle." "If ever the two met, they would unleash a fury." "Dowker:" "The special quality that antimatter has" "Is that it can completely annihilate" "With matter to form energy." "It's only when matter interacts with antimatter" "That all the mass can completely annihilate" "And you can be left" "With only pure energy." "Narrator:" "At first, antimatter was nothing more than theory," "A mathematical abstraction" "That defied common sense." "But physicists had already shown that there are untold realities" "Well beyond the world we experience." "One way of thinking about matter and antimatter" "Is to think that we have two worlds" "Which are mirror images of each other." "The question is," "What is this antimatter?" "It sounds very science fiction-Like," "Sounds very fanciful." "And it turns out" "That there is a very boring aspect to antimatter," "And there is a very exciting aspect to antimatter." "So starting with the boring one," "The boring one is that antimatter" "Is very much like matter." "It really is basically the same thing." "Antimatter does not go up with gravity." "It goes down with gravity just like matter does." "The main difference between matter and antimatter" "Is the electric charge." "So if you have a little particle of matter" "Such as an electron," "Its antimatter particle, it's going to be a positron," "Which will have a positive charge." "And so to each particle of matter," "There's going to be a particle of antimatter" "With opposite electric charge." "The most exciting part is" "That when matter and antimatter come together" "They disappear." "They become something new." "They become something they weren't before." "And what they became is just pure energy." "One of the beautiful consequences" "Of this whole process of matter and antimatter" "Disintegrating into energy" "Is that you could also out of energy" "Create matter and antimatter." "So the process is perfectly reversible." "You can go both ways." "Narrator:" "Still, if energy" "Could be converted into matter and antimatter," "They would both be instantly annihilated," "Turning back into energy." "Could antimatter ever actually be detected?" "Hawking:" "It seemed there could be" "Whole anti-Worlds and anti-People" "Made of antimatter." "If you meet your anti-Partner, don't kiss or shake hands." "You would both disappear in a tremendous flash of light." "Could the reverse process," "Of energy turning into matter and antimatter," "Have happened in the big bang?" "Was that where all of the matter in the universe came from?" "Dirac's theory had to be confirmed." "Antimatter had to be found somewhere," "If only for an instant," "Before it was annihilated by matter." "Narrator:" "The search turned skyward." "It was discovered that a strange radiation from space" "Was bombarding the earth." "Perhaps cosmic rays could reveal" "Hints of antimatter." "Woman:" "People didn't go out looking for cosmic rays." "They found them by pure accident." "What they were doing was trying to find out" "More about radioactivity," "And so they took their various devices" "Like electroscopes and so forth at different altitudes." "There was actually a priest..." "went up in the eiffel tower" "And suggested that other people..." "Not him but other people..." "go up in balloons." "And when they did these experiments," "They kept finding that they were getting" "More radiation than they expected," "So they decided there was something coming from above," "And this is what's now called cosmic radiation." "They went to mountaintops" "Because they were trying to get as high up as possible" "So that they got the cosmic rays" "Before it interacted with the atmosphere." "Cosmic rays come from anywhere we know in the galaxy." "And there are certain places i think that they are coming" "From maybe other galaxies outside," "And we are not sure how much of the universe" "They are coming from." "Narrator:" "Scientists devised an apparatus" "That could capture the imprint" "Of cosmic rays passing through it." "In a cloud chamber, particles are betrayed" "By their movement." "Erzberger:" "All you have to have for a cloud chamber" "Is something you can see through." "And then you have to have something like alcohol" "That evaporates easily." "You put it on dry ice" "Which makes it really cold in the bottom" "So it becomes supersaturated, so it's ready to form a cloud" "Whenever some particle goes through there," "And that makes a little trail of droplets." "That's the same kind of thing that happens" "When an airplane goes through the sky," "That you see the water vapor trail" "After the exhaust of the airplane." "They are very temporary trails" "That are formed by cosmic rays or even radioactive particles" "Because the little droplets will form," "And they fall down to the bottom of the chamber" "Due to gravity," "And so it just sort of wisps past there." "Supposedly on top of very high mountains" "You see about one cosmic ray" "Per square centimeter every second." "Near sea level you see far fewer than that," "Maybe a few a minute." "Narrator:" "In 1932, an american physicist," "Carl anderson," "Designed an ingenious way to test if any of the particles" "Passing through a cloud chamber were from the antimatter world." "Magnets on either side of the chamber" "Would pull each particle" "In a predictable direction." "To slow the particle down," "He put a lead bar across its path," "Making its track more pronounced." "But what he found were particles that arced in a direction" "That ran counter to the magnet's pull." "These were anti-Particles." "What dirac had predicted, anderson discovered." "Antimatter had left an unmistakeable mark." "Erzberger:" "When anderson saw the first tracks," "This was really exciting," "And it just sort of blew people's minds" "Because they had not ever seen antimatter before." "There was no evidence for it," "And also this was the first particle they had ever seen" "That was not found in an atom." "So even though paul dirac had predicted" "There must be some kind of a particle" "That was the opposite of an electron," "Nobody had really believed it or thought it was possible" "Until they actually had tracks." "Narrator:" "Today, in colossal subterranean accelerators," "The violent birth of matter and antimatter" "Reveals the very traces of creation." "Glaiser:" "You may think that this is some sort of beautiful art," "And it is in a sense art," "But it's an art made by physicists." "What you have is a big snapshot that captures in one moment" "All this dance of particles being created and destroyed" "Inside particle accelerators." "So it may look like jackson pollock," "But it is actually a computer-Enhanced picture" "Of a particle collision within a detector." "Each one of these particles in a sense tells the story" "Or a possible story" "Of how the universe was a long, long time ago." "Narrator:" "The cryptic patterns of crashing particles" "Is nature's own calligraphy." "They are a scripted chronicle for how matter was formed" "In the big bang." "Glaiser:" "Here you have a detail of what people would see" "In a detector in which you have" "The debris of a little bang creating matter and antimatter" "Out of energy." "And this is a photon." "And a photon is a little bundle of energy" "That doesn't leave a track" "Because it doesn't have an electric charge." "So it moves up here, it collides with a particle," "And out of the strength of this collision" "You have these two spirals coming out," "One of them being a particle which is matter," "And the other one being its antimatter cousin," "Its anti-Particle." "And out of this collision you have two tracks..." "This one that you can see," "And then you have another one which is an invisible one," "Which is another photon, a bundle of energy." "And you can see precisely that this bundle of energy" "Will eventually create matter and antimatter." "And this happens at this point quite suddenly," "When this photon gives birth in a sense" "To an electron and a positron." "And that is a beautiful manifestation" "Of matter being created out of energy." "Well, if matter and antimatter are essentially the same," "With opposite electric charges, where is the antimatter?" "How come the universe is made of matter?" "We go back to the laws that control" "How particles and anti-Particles interact," "And those laws show that the universe" "Is not perfectly symmetric between matter and antimatter." "Of course all these pictures that we scientists build" "Are very much dependent" "On our trust of the laws of physics." "I mean, why should the pictures" "That we build of the universe" "Really correspond to reality or not?" "How could we trust those pictures?" "Well, i think the best way to explain that" "Is just to look at technology." "In a sense, a lot of what we have" "Is very much dependent on the laws of physics." "We wouldn't have computers, we wouldn't have tv sets" "If we didn't understand how atoms functioned," "How electrons orbit around nuclei," "How quantum mechanics..." "Which is the part of physics that explains" "How the little particles behave... operates." "And we wouldn't understand how planets go around the sun" "If we didn't understand the laws of gravity for example," "Of how gravity behaves and actually controls" "The universe as a whole." "Now we have certain clues" "About how the universe behaved in the beginning." "The universe that we know existed then" "Was very rich." "There was a lot of energy." "There was a lot of potentiality for that energy" "To be translated into particles and anti-Particles." "Then what we have is a picture of the universe" "Of many, many particles..." "The elementary particles" "That are the building blocks of matter," "Which are colliding with each other at a frantic rate," "And they don't really bind." "All you have is a dance of particles" "Moving around at tremendous energies," "Colliding with each other," "And hence creating more particles" "And more energy out of particles" "In this creation-Destruction dance." "As the universe cools and expands," "The particles stop colliding" "So strongly and so energetically," "And they have more time to look at each other" "And perhaps bind and do something." "So at about one second of life," "The universe started to make nuclei." "That is, protons and neutrons started to bind." "At about 300,000 years or so, atoms formed," "Which means that the nuclei bind with electrons" "To form the atoms." "Most of them..." "overwhelming majority, hydrogen." "From those hydrogen atoms," "They, because of gravity, form clouds." "Those clouds start condensing." "They get denser and denser and hotter and hotter." "And as that happens," "Those clouds start forming galaxies" "And stars within these galaxies" "Which are basically 99% of hydrogen burning." "And eventually those stars are going to have" "Solar systems attached to them." "That is, they are going to have planets orbiting around them," "And maybe you're going to have a planet" "Which is close enough so that it is hot," "But not too far enough so it's not too cold," "That life as we understand it here on earth could develop." "And then we could come back here and tell the story" "About the life of the universe from scratch to the end." "If the universe was perfectly symmetric" "Between matter and antimatter, we wouldn't be here," "Because the universe would just be a big sea of energy." "So the fact that the universe is not perfectly symmetric" "Is the ultimate reason for us to be here." "Hawking:" "From a white-Hot big bang" "To planets and people" "Is a long and extraordinary journey." "From energy to particles, from particles to atoms," "And from atoms to everything we see," "It is a remarkable story." "It may be difficult to believe" "That all of the matter in the universe" "Came from just energy," "But that is the way the universe seems to be." "To learn more about "Stephen Hawking's universe,"" "Visit pbs online at the internet address" "On your screen." "" " Captions by vitac:" "Burbank,Pittsburgh, Tampa and Washington, D.C. " ""Stephen Hawking's universe" was made possible" "By Alfred P. Sloan foundation to enhance public understanding" "Of the role of science and technology," "The Arthur Vining Davis foundations," "The corporation for public broadcasting," "And viewers like you." "Corporate funding is provided by Amgen," "Unlocking the secrets of life through biotechnology." "At Amgen, we produce medicines" "That improve people's lives today" "And bring hope for tomorrow." "STEPHEN HAWKING'S UNIVERSE" "ON THE DARK SIDE" ""Stephen Hawking's Universe" is made possible... by Alfred P. Sloan foundation to enhance public understanding... of the role of science and technology." "The Arthur Vining Davis foundations." "The corporation for public broadcasting." "And viewers like you." "Corporate funding is provided by Amgen." "Unlocking the secrets of life through biotechnology." "At Amgen, we produce medicines... that improve people's lives today... and bring hope for tomorrow." "Stephen:" "Personally, I am sure" "That the universe began" "With a hot big bang, but will it go on forever?" "And if not," "How will it end?" "I am much less certain about that." "The expansion of the universe spreads everything out," "But gravity tries to pull it all back together again." "Our destiny depends on which force will win." "And the influence of gravity in turn depends" "On what the universe is made of," "And just how much of it there is." "It won't be easy to find out if, as we suspect," "Most of it is dark matter, stuff we can't even see." "Narrator:" "In our age-Old attempts" "To give the universe definition," "We've often grappled with phenomena we could not see." "Priya natarajan is an astrophysicist" "Studying something that may be beyond our imagination." "But working with the unseen may be easier for her than many," "For she once aspired to be a poet." "Natarajan:" "There is this impression that everything" "The scientists do is very circumscribed," "Whereas it is not, because we are bringing" "The ways in which" "We perform a model," "The ways... the ingredients that we put in." "And the ways in which we choose" "To mix the ingredients" "Has a lot to do with our individual creativity" "And our feelings and our sense and intuition" "Of how things ought to be." "So it's almost like writing poetry," "Where you pick a particular poetic form." "For instance, you could pick the sonnet" "Or you could pick the japanese haiku," "Which, each of these forms has a set of rules," "So you operate within a set of rules," "Which is very much like the laws of physics" "That you operate within in a model." "But, then, inside the form or inside the model," "There's a lot of freedom," "There's a lot of choices you can make." "Narrator:" "Natarajan grew up in india." "Her life changed when she was awarded a scholarship" "To cambridge university in britain." "Here she's taken on a quest," "As spiritual as it is scientific." "She ponders the ultimate destiny of the universe." "Natarajan:" "We see the stars that shine in the galaxy," "And we also have evidence that there is some gas in the galaxy," "Because we can see the light that's scattered off the gas." "But as it turns out," "Galaxies contain a lot more than just that." "Narrator:" "Natarajan owes her inspiration" "To a maverick astronomer named vera rubin," "Who, in the late 1960s," "Dared question a basic premise of astronomy." "Natarajan:" "What vera rubin did in her work" "Was map the speeds of stars at different distances" "From the center of a huge spiral galaxy." "Narrator:" "Vera rubin noticed something" "Which defied accepted wisdom." "Stars spinning around the center of galaxies" "Were supposed to behave like the planets" "That orbit the sun." "They don't." "Natarajan:" "With our solar system," "You have the sun in the center" "And you have sort of the planets orbiting around." "And since the dominant gravity is that of the sun," "The planets that are the outer planets," "They move much slower than the planets on the inside." "So naturally what people expected to find" "Was similarly in a galaxy," "If you measure the speed of the stars" "Away from the center towards the edge," "You expect it to fall off." "And what vera rubin found, instead," "When she actually measured that for a spiral galaxy," "Was that the speed stayed the same." "As she sort of mapped the speed of the stars" "From the inside out, all the way out to the edge," "They stayed the same." "Narrator:" "Rubin was the first to pose a question" "That has baffled scientists ever since." "If all the stars in a galaxy move at the same speed," "Regardless of their distance from the center," "Then the center couldn't be" "The only source of gravity affecting them." "Something else would have to be exerting a powerful force," "Something we simply can't see." "What she found was" "That in order to explain the speeds that she observed," "She needed to have a lot more stuff" "In the galaxy than we see," "And since the stuff is not visible" "And it's not emitting any light," "She coined the term "dark matter"" "To refer to that." "Narrator:" "Rubin had every reason to believe" "Her discovery would be met with great excitement." "It was, though not the kind she might have expected." "Natarajan:" "Her announcement that there was dark matter" "Associated with every individual galaxy" "Was received with much skepticism," "Because of the far-Reaching implications it had," "And because, also," "Of the inferred percentage of dark matter." "From her work, she inferred that almost 90% of the mass" "In a spiral galaxy had to be dark." "Narrator:" "Rubin's findings suggested" "That the destiny of galaxies" "Is governed by a vast and inscrutable network." "Every galaxy is enveloped in dark matter," "Invisibly locking all the stars in its embrace" "With the gravity it exerts." "The black emptiness of space," "It seems, isn't that empty after all." "99% of the universe could well be made up" "Of dark matter," "A sprawling, cosmic web." "For cosmologists like myself," "It's crucial to know precisely how much dark matter there is" "In order to know" "What will become of the universe eventually." "Natarajan:" "The total mass of our universe is what decides" "The fate of our universe, whether we continue expanding," "Or whether we stop and decelerate," "Or we turn around back on ourselves." "So the ultimate fate of what really happens to us" "Depends on how well we have made an inventory" "Of the mass in the universe." "And therefore, if such a large fraction is indeed dark," "That has very important consequences." "Hawking:" "Few people now doubt that vera rubin was right." "Dark matter determines the future of the universe." "To know our ultimate fate," "We need to be sure that dark matter exists," "And how much of it there is." "Searching for the invisible is not for the faint-Hearted." "When chris stubbs first told his colleagues" "He wanted to look for dark matter," "They told him he was out of his mind." "That wasn't the way to a safe job." "There's an infinite amount of science to do," "And I think the trick is to choose carefully" "What you spend your time doing." "And my taste, for a long time," "Has run towards fundamental problems" "That may be very difficult to address experimentally," "But which have a very large impact" "On our understanding of the universe." "Narrator:" "Chris stubbs has made a career" "Of shooting in the dark." "He's part of an international team" "Of 18 scientists and 3 institutions," "All with one improbable goal." "Stubbs:" "We're carrying out" "An experiment to look" "For a particular kind of dark matter," "Which we call "machos," which is a shorthand" "That stands for "massive compact halo objects."" "The idea is that our galaxy" "Has a big halo of dark matter around it" "That's made out of astronomical objects" "That, for one reason or another," "Don't shine like the stars that we see." "Narrator:" "Stubbs believes these strange vestiges of stars," "Their compressed corpses," "Litter the universe." "Machos range from the size of the earth" "To 10 times that of the sun." "If they are the secret phantoms that govern the motion of stars," "They would be most numerous on the fringes of galaxies." "Hawking:" "It was the right place to search," "But finding them would be like" "Looking for a black bat on a dark night." "The one thing that he knew was that his subjects" "Were fairly heavy." "And if they were heavy," "They would have a gravitational effect" "On light passing nearby." "The macho-Hunter turned" "To 's general theory of relativity" "To tell him how gravity affects light." "Narrator:" "Stubbs set out to find stealth stars" "In the dark reaches of space." "By shedding a little ian light on them." "According to relativity," "Space and time can be thought of as one." "An object marks its place in the fabric of space-Time" "With a dent, a pocket into which other objects" "That pass within its sphere must fall." "This is how gravity works," "And nothing is immune to its power," "Not even light." "We're used to the idea that light travels in straight lines," "And when space-Time itself" "Is curved, light still tries" "To travel in a straight line," "But it can't," "Because space-Time itself" "Actually has shape and dents and warps in it." "So just like matter," "Light which is traveling in a space-Time" "Where there's some large massive object" "Will actually be attracted to the object," "And its path will be bent towards it." "This effect of the bending of light" "Is what is used by astronomers" "In their search for machos in the halo of our galaxy." "Stubbs:" "Einstein's general theory of relativity tells us" "That light passing close to an object," "Like the sun or a lump of dark matter," "Is deflected... it gets bent." "And the effect that a mass has" "On the light coming from a distant star or galaxy" "Is just like putting a lens in front of the star." "It distorts the image, and it makes it appear brighter." "Narrator:" "If a macho passes between us" "And a distant group of stars," "They would brighten, then fade back to normal," "A telltale sign of the macho's presence." "Stubbs used the stars as a million cosmic spotlights," "Hoping one might flare," "Magnified by the chance sweep of a stray macho." "It was a painstaking hunt for a faint glimmer" "From something that may not even exist." "This is just before peak brightness." "It still stands out from the rest of the stars." "Stubbs:" "Our experiment has made more measurements" "Of the brightness of individual stars" "Than the entire cumulative history of astronomy combined," "And we then sift through all of these records" "In order to find the one time in a million" "When a star gets brighter" "As a result of a macho" "Traveling close to the line of sight" "Between us and the star." "Narrator:" "Hours of patient observation," "Months of marshaling data..." "A lot was riding on little more than a good guess." "Stubbs:" "Two years after we started the experiment," "We were looking through the data," "Trying to understand how to analyze it," "And much to our surprise" "Found exactly what we thought we were looking for," "In that we saw a star get brighter" "And then fainter again with exactly the signature" "That's predicted by general relativity." "Okay, this looks like it definitely" "Fits pretty well." "It's easy to draw a nice curve." "Stubbs:" "Our experiment has detected" "A previously unknown component of this galaxy." "It's a stunning result." "Narrator:" "Chris stubbs clinched it." "Dark matter is no fantasy." "It's actually out there." "But a mystery lingers." "To power the fast rotation of stars" "Vera rubin had detected would take a lot of dark matter." "It seems there are just not enough machos" "To account for that kind of colossal gravitational pull." "Stubbs:" "The simplest point of view" "Is that the machos are ordinary matter" "Made up of the same material that exists in stars." "It just didn't happen to end up in stars." "And we think we know exactly how much..." "We think we know how much ordinary matter" "There is in the universe, and it just isn't enough" "To solve the dark matter problem of the universe." "We need to find something else" "To account for more of the dark matter." "Machos were big, so why not try something tiny?" "One candidate was a well-Known particle," "The neutrino." "This is produced in atomic bomb explosions," "So it would also have been produced" "In the big bang explosion." "If it had a tiny mass of its own," "It could be the dark matter," "Or it could be one of the so-Called exotic particles" "Whose existence was predicted by theory," "But which were very hard to detect in reality." "Perhaps they are actually out there," "Silently shaping the evolution of the universe." "Narrator:" "Professor carlos frenk" "Believes small things can have a powerful influence," "In the case of neutrinos and in the case of his son david." "Frenk:" "I think there is a great parallel" "Between the evolution" "Of the largest system that we know of," "Which is the universe," "And the evolution of the biological system," "Like a person or like my son." "I often wonder what are the factors" "That are going to influence the development of my son," "Whether he will be a physicist or a scientist," "Whether he will be a musician," "Or whether he will be anything else." "I don't quite understand what are the forces" "That are going to drive him in one direction or the other." "The universe, however, is simpler," "Because we have a much greater mastery" "Over the laws that govern the evolution of the universe." "Narrator:" "Frenk is determined to reconstruct the way" "The young universe evolved into the universe we know today." "The most crucial piece of the puzzle" "Is the most elusive..." "The role played by dark matter." "David's science class relies on models." "It is the lot of the probing mind" "To require the concrete" "To envision concepts beyond our grasp." "So it is, for david's father." "Frenk experiments with computerized representations" "Of a universe largely unseen," "From its elemental birth" "To the rich complexity we know today." "But his model will only work if he programs in" "The precise characteristics for dark matter." "He starts each recreation just a second after the big bang." "Frenk:" "Prior to that time," "The universe was made up of a cosmic soup" "Of elementary particles and radiation." "Nothing else could exist" "In the midst of this tremendous heat." "But then, after about 100 seconds," "The universe had cooled down a little bit" "To a mere 10 billion degrees," "But this temperature is now low enough" "That the first thermonuclear fusion reactions can take place." "Narrator:" "At that critical instant," "According to frenk's scenario," "A mysterious group of particles broke free from the pack." "Long before the appearance of stars and galaxies," "They swarmed into great clusters of dark matter." "These vast aggregates exerted a powerful gravitational pull" "On the remaining ordinary matter." "As the dark empire grew" "In tandem with the expanding universe," "It reined in more and more ordinary matter," "Ultimately giving rise to the stars." "Eventually, one billion years after the big bang," "Congregations of stars drew together" "To from the earliest galaxies." "Frenk's tale was an epic one." "He had its framework by the early 1980s," "But it was missing one crucial ingredient." "What was the dark matter?" "The idea that was around at the time" "Was that the dark matter could consist" "Of small elementary particles called neutrinos." "Narrator:" "Could this minute shrapnel from the big bang" "Work as the dark matter in his model?" "Frenk:" "That was a very trendy," "Fashionable idea, if you like, in those days," "And it was the first concrete proposal we had" "For what the dark matter could be," "And this was very significant." "And some people would say..." "a very significant idea," "And so people would say it signalled" "The beginning of a revolution in the way" "In which we study the universe," "Because for the first time, the neutrino hypothesis" "Provided a concrete starting point" "That we could explore in an unambiguous fashion" "Using the tools of evolutionary cosmology." "Narrator:" "Neutrinos stream through the universe" "At virtually the speed of light." "Every second, about 100 trillion" "Shoot straight through your body." "These tiny particles suffuse the universe," "They are everywhere," "Yet they will slip through any barrier," "So they're almost impossible to nab." "For particle physicists, no catch is more challenging." "Their goal is to find out if neutrinos have mass." "Without mass, they wouldn't have a gravitational effect," "And they wouldn't be a candidate for dark matter." "In northern france," "Yves declais is leading an ambitious effort" "To reel in neutrinos." "Declais:" "When you prepare your bait," "When you have prepared your detector," "When you have prepared your trap," "You have to install it at the right place," "And so you have to go" "Where you think you will be able to detect neutrino," "Where you will be right to get out some fish" "Out from the river." "And after that," "You have not only to wait, but you have to work," "And you will see what will be the result." "You will see how many neutrino, how many fish" "You will get out from the river." "Narrator:" "The best place to cast a line is already known." "Neutrinos are produced where there's radioactive decay." "Both are governed by the physics of nuclear reactions." "Fred reines worked on the atomic bomb," "Then became the first neutrino hunter." "Declais:" "He thought it was possible to see" "The flash of light produced" "By the introduction of a neutrino" "Into some water detector," "When you have the explosion of the bomb," "And in order to detect this flash" "With respect to the natural background around." "But it was quite difficult to install such an experiment" "Near an atomic bomb." "Narrator:" "Eventually, reines shifted his experiments" "To a safer source of neutrinos, a nuclear power plant." "In 1956, he became the first to trap a neutrino." "The achievement won him the nobel prize." "But reines wasn't able to learn if the neutrino had any mass." "That challenge now falls to yves declais." "Like reines, he will stalk his tiny quarry" "In the bowels of a colossal furnace." "Beside a nuclear power station is an underground bunker," "Shielded by the earth from the interference of cosmic rays." "Declais:" "You have to be in the right place," "Very strong neutrino source in order to be able" "To see some interaction of these neutrino." "And you have, also," "To protect your detector against the background." "And when you detect low-Energy neutrinos," "The main background comes from the sky," "Comes from cosmic rays," "So you have to install your detector" "As deep as possible underground." "In this experiment we want to see" "If the nature of the neutrino" "Change between the source of the neutrino" "And the detector one kilometer away." "And if the nature of the neutrino change" "During this path of one kilometer," "We can demonstrate," "We can prove that this is related" "To the existence of a mass for the neutrino." "It is a little bit complicated to compute," "But it is a very, very simple system." "Narrator:" "Neutrinos, by definition," "Must have mass if they undergo" "A subtle distinguishable transformation." "Declais and his team have already conducted" "A neutrino census nearby the reactor." "Now they want to take a comparative tally here," "Two-Thirds of a mile away." "You can see yours..." "no, passed too quickly." "Two events very far apart." "Narrator:" "They want to see if there are fewer" "Of the kind of neutrinos they clocked" "Closer to the reactor." "The rest, then, would have undergone" "The telltale transformation" "By the time they traveled this distance," "Proving the particles have mass." "It may take years, but yves is persistent." "Declais:" "This is really important" "For particle physics" "And also for cosmology and astrophysics." "One of the best candidates for the dark matter," "For the missing matter in the universe," "Is the neutrino, if the neutrino has a mass." "Even if the mass of the neutrino can be very tiny..." "Very, very, very small..." "Because the universe is completely filled" "By a lot of neutrino coming from the early universe," "From the first three seconds of the universe." "Narrator:" "Meanwhile, carlos frenk" "Wasn't waiting for word." "He kept hammering away at his digital reenactment of creation." "His approach was to assume neutrinos have mass," "And see what kind of universe would result." "Frenk:" "So we programmed our computer" "To follow the evolution of the universe" "In which the dark matter was made up of massive neutrinos," "And that the aim was to produce in the computer" "A synthetic universe" "That we could then compare with the real thing." "So we programmed our computer up in this fashion," "And let it churn away over christmas," "And when we came back, we saw the first maps" "Being generated by the computer." "Here we have a recognizable universe," "A credible universe, something that's made galaxies," "Something that's made galaxy clusters," "Something that is competitive vis-A-Vis the real universe." "There was a great sense of elation," "And the thought that we might have solved" "What was already, clearly then, and sadly still is today," "The main unsolved problem in cosmology." "It was one of those feelings you have once in a lifetime," "When you think you've really stumbled upon something major." "Now, that was our first impression." "Narrator:" "The impression was fleeting." "Frenk was so elated" "To have concocted his own digital universe," "At first he didn't notice a fatal flaw." "On closer inspection, his model for creation" "Didn't quite look like the real thing." "And that was very depressing." "We thought for a while, for a few weeks, perhaps," "That we really had found the key to the universe," "And that key evaporated," "And it was a terribly disappointing period." "Narrator:" "In failure, there can be lessons." "In perseverance there can be results." "Frenk wasn't about to give up." "Frenk:" "It is paradoxical that we can understand the universe" "Better than we can understand a tiny little part." "My son is an insignificant little speck" "In this gigantic universe," "And yet I can understand the universe better" "Than I can understand my son." "And so often I regard myself as being very lucky" "That I am a physicist," "Rather than a biologist or a psychologist." "They have a much tougher time than we do," "Because we deal with systems that are intrinsically simple." "Biologists and psychologists" "Deal with this much more complex," "And in some ways magical world of humans," "Who are essentially unpredictable." "Narrator:" "Particle physicists urged a startling alternative," "To replace the neutrino" "With an entirely hypothetical component." "Frenk dubbed it "cold dark matter."" "His long struggle with neutrinos hadn't worked," "But he had learned much in the process." "Now, maybe, practice would make his model perfect." "Frenk:" "Our next step, then," "Was to change our starting assumption," "And now take the dark matter to be composed" "Of cold dark matter." "Frenk:" "I must say, we were very skeptical" "When we started this new project." "By then we had got slightly fed up" "With particle physicists trying to tell us astronomers" "What our universe was made of." "Particle physicists are supposed to be working on something else," "And they have no right to come and tell us astronomers" "What our universe is made of." "So our approach at first was really, frankly, cynical..." "We started off saying, right, let's go and put" "These particle physicists right." "We ruled out neutrinos." "Now let's go rule out cold dark matter as well," "And get those guys off our backs so they can" "Go and do their own thing with accelerators" "And we can keep on trying to understand how galaxies form." "Frenk:" "What happened was that," "These cold dark matter universes turned out to be" "Far richer and far more interesting" "Than we ever had any right to expect." "Narrator:" "Frenk's new model works at last," "But there's a catch." "It relies on an invented particle," "A symbol tapped out on a keyboard." "Does cold dark matter exist?" "The burden of proof is on the experimentalists" "Who now have to go and detect these particles." "And until that happens," "Then we cannot be by any means certain" "That this is a correct theory." "But if they do succeed," "This really will be an outstanding achievement," "And I think it's not an exaggeration" "To say that if the dark matter" "Turns out to be an exotic elementary particle," "This really will go down in history" "As one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever." "Hawking:" "The evidence suggests that most of the universe" "Is made up of something no one has ever seen." "By its very nature," "Cold dark matter has to be hard to detect." "Finding a way to do so" "Is one of the most difficult tasks in physics today." "Narrator:" "Now, in search of a particle" "That can't be seen," "One that has only pure conjecture" "To vouch for its existence," "A team of scientists has come" "To the mining country of northern england." "Leading them is neil spooner." "Spooner:" "It's fairly astounding" "That at the end of the 20th century," "We actually don't know" "What most of the universe is made of..." "Not 90%, maybe even 99%..." "And that it sort of" "Puts one in, as a human being..." "Into some perspective that we..." "The earth is not the center" "Of the solar system, et cetera," "And maybe we're not even" "The only life now." "And we're not even made" "Of particularly common matter," "In that we're not the typical" "Matter that's around, because" "Most of it's dark matter," "Which we don't know what it is." "Narrator:" "Spooner's first challenge" "Was finding a way to glimpse the particles he was after." "As with neutrinos," "The search for cold dark matter must be conducted underground," "Beyond the reach of cosmic rays." "His team is going to great lengths to find dark matter," "And great depths." "Spooner:" "It just happens" "That my father is a mining engineer by profession." "So I just asked him what was the deepest mine in britain," "Naively thinking it would be a coal mine, which would be" "Useless for us because it would be quite difficult" "To work in the coal mine," "Because of the safety aspect of it." "But it turned out that he looked it up," "And it was boulby, which is a salt mine," "Which is ideal for us." "Narrator:" "Boulby mine is not only the deepest in britain," "But in all europe." "The elevator bores into the ground" "For five long minutes," "Plummeting a mile below the surface." "At this depth, the air is 18 degrees hotter" "Than at the surface, and choked with dust." "Building delicate instruments" "That can stand up to these corrosive conditions" "Was a daunting prospect." "Spooner:" "It's a technological fight," "Trying to work deep underground" "In the salt mine, which is an environment which," "Well, we're dealing with fairly intricate electronics," "And we're trying to be clean." "And trying to do that in a mine is sort of very, very difficult." "Narrator:" "Deep in the earth, it's hard to tell the locals," "Working their picks and shovels," "From the particle physicists mining for matter." "Spooner:" "They all say, "have you found it yet?"" "We usually say, "not yet, but we're working on it."" "Narrator:" "Even though dark matter may occupy 99% of the universe," "The particles spooner and his team are after are elusive." "They aren't known as "weakly interacting massive particles,"" "Or "wimps," for nothing." "They meekly shun contact with anything else." "Spooner:" "These particles are neutral." "They're not charged." "Their interaction is like a sort of a billiard-Ball effect" "If they interact, which mainly they don't." "But when they do, they just will strike an atom" "Which will recoil." "So what we're looking for is these little recoils of atoms." "I'm talking about very small distances..." "Thousandths of a millimeter or so." "And as this atom recoils, it gives off some energy," "In our case, light." "And you try and detect this light." "Narrator:" "That glint would be so faint and evanescent" "That even slight radiation from surrounding rocks might mask it." "So the detector is further insulated" "Within 200 tons of distilled water." "Spooner:" "We're over a kilometer underground," "So we've got rid of the cosmic rays," "And then we're in the water," "So we can screen off the stuff coming from the walls," "And then we've got our detector in the middle," "Sitting there waiting for a wimp." "Our detector was a simple crystal," "Which gives off little bursts of light" "When struck by the particle." "We have to really amplify this light," "Because it's very low level." "Seems to be okay." "Spooner:" "We use this device called a photomultiplier" "To convert light into electrons." "These are then multiplied," "And you get..." "for every one that comes in," "You get about a million coming out." "And that provides a nice, big signal," "Which you can then measure and record." "In the last year or two," "We have made fairly significant progress." "We've improved our detectors" "Such that we're now about 50 times more sensitive" "Than anyone else was previously." "But we still need to get" "Probably another 100 times better." "If we do that," "Then we should see them" "Or we should not see them." "If we see them, then obviously" "That's very exciting," "And maybe we've discovered" "What dark matter is, or what" "Most of the dark matter is." "If we don't see them, that's also pretty exciting," "Because it's got to be something," "And if it's not wimps, maybe it's not machos," "And maybe neutrinos don't have mass." "We don't know, but it's got to be something." "So that would deepen the mystery." "Frenk:" "If and when the dark matter..." "Or I should say, when the dark matter is discovered," "Because it's not a question" "That dark matter is there to be discovered" "And it will be discovered." "I can say that with complete certainty..." "Well, as complete as a scientist can ever do." "But when the dark matter is discovered," "I think the whole jigsaw of our universe" "Will fall into place." "We will understand not only" "Why our universe looks the way it does," "We will understand why there are galaxies," "How they came to be, why there are planets," "Why there are stars, but we would also understand" "What the ultimate fate of our universe will be." "There are two possibilities." "If there's only a fairly small amount of dark matter," "The universe will continue to expand forever," "Getting colder and colder, and more and more empty." "On the other hand, if there's a lot of dark matter," "Gravity will slow down the expansion of the universe" "And stop it eventually." "Then the universe will begin to contract," "And will end up in a big crunch, like the big bang in reverse." "From what we know now, it could go either way." "If I placed a bet," "I think I know which fate i'd back." "But how would I collect after the big crunch?" "Whichever way the universe eventually goes," "Its evolution is being affected by dark matter right now." "Before we have even discovered what it's made of," "Some astronomers have begun mapping its effects." "Woman:" "The challenge of mapping the universe" "Is that you have to do it in three dimensions." "And human beings are very good at making two-Dimensional maps." "It's the challenge of getting that third dimension" "And putting it in your head, being able to close your eyes" "And see in 3-D what's around you." "It's a challenge, but it's fun." "So I think we'll lay things out" "With the equator down here." "Faber:" "When we first started this mapping business," "It was very, very primitive," "And people knew that there were clusters over there" "And a few over there and so on." "It was a little bit like stanley" "Going to darkest africa." "He knew where the congo river was, and the nile maybe," "But not much about anything else." "Looks like it's over there." "Narrator:" "Exploring a dark continent of her own," "Sandra faber has spent years charting unknown terrain." "Her mapping techniques have revolutionized" "The way we look at the universe and contemplate its future." "Faber:" "What we're going to see here" "Is three slices of the universe." "And earth is down here in this diagram," "Right here at the point." "And now we see the first slice" "Being displayed like this." "Each little black dot is a galaxy." "This was taken from the southern hemisphere," "And now we see finally the third slice is coming up here." "What's interesting about these maps" "Is that the galaxies are not uniformly distributed in space." "Instead, what we see is that they tend to pile up" "Along these walls." "Some people have called them soap bubbles." "And then the insides of these spaces are called voids." "They're relatively empty of galaxies." "And, of course, this whole structure" "Is expanding as the universe expands." "Now, the question is, of course," "Why do the galaxies trace" "This beautiful large-Scale structure?" "Narrator:" "Sandra's hunch was that this structure" "Was created by the unseen influence of dark matter." "She set out to prove it" "With the most advanced telescopes in the world." "Observing is almost mystical." "It's the act that really puts me in contact" "With the rest of the universe." "Sitting there and accepting these photons," "I imagine projecting myself back along that same path," "And in some way, i know this sounds ridiculous," "Being in communication and communion" "With where they came from." "I often think if somebody's looking back at me," "I wonder if their telescope is bigger than mine." "Narrator:" "Even through the most powerful instruments," "Galaxies millions and billions of light-Years away" "Appear as tiny specks." "Yet faber's work demands the most exacting measurements," "Even of these far-Flung galaxies." "So sensitive are the telescope's detectors" "That before each run they must be cooled" "With liquid nitrogen." "At over 300 degrees below zero," "Their very atoms are stilled." "Faber:" "Having checked everything out," "We then walk into the control room off the dome." "Gone are the days of standing in the cold." "We don't do that anymore." "We aim the telescope" "And we sit there and we wait, we expose." "Ah!" "So this is our next observation." "What was this galaxy?" "This was ngc-5813." "5813, okay." "Narrator:" "Sandra and her colleagues" "Developed their mapping technique" "To fathom the role dark matter plays" "In the architecture of the universe." "This looks different from our previous spectrum." "Narrator:" "That dark matter governs" "The motion of individual stars, there's no question." "At stake is how it guides the paths of entire galaxies" "As they drift through space." "Bit by bit, the data" "Is falling together" "Into an awesome portent of our galaxy's fate." "Faber:" "Suddenly it came to us" "That if we plotted all of these motions of galaxies," "That an enormous region of space, including us," "Was moving roughly in parallel, like a big river of galaxies," "At the break-Neck speed" "Of 600 kilometers per second," "And that was a definitely new thought for us." "That really struck us very strongly." "We said, what have we discovered?" "This is truly remarkable." "Then we began to look at our survey" "In more detail, and we saw" "That, in fact, off in the distance there," "Towards which this great river was flowing," "Was a very large structure, which one of us later named" ""The great attractor,"" "And it turned out to be a very, very big supercluster," "A super-Supercluster of galaxies," "And our motion towards that is due to its gravity." "It's pulling all of us in." "And at something like 50 to 100 billion years from now," "Our galaxy will be one of several thousand on an orbit" "In the great supercluster called the great attractor." "Narrator:" "A staggering force," "Emanating from a huge concentration of matter," "Known and unknown," "Is relentlessly reeling us in across intergalactic space." "The fate of the universe" "Is shaped by a vast sprawl of dark matter," "By a cosmic specter drawing the galaxies together" "Into clusters and superclusters," "Turning great patches of sky into empty voids." "Faber:" "The way the dark matter clusters" "Will affect exactly how galaxies form" "And how superclusters, voids, walls, and so on form." "Dark matter is key." "It is controlling the motion of everything else." "It's making the galaxies form." "It's making the large-Scale structure form." "It's in charge." "Narrator:" "We can still only guess" "What dark matter holds in store for us." "And it seems not all great minds guess alike." "Faber:" "Well, currently, it looks as though" "There's not enough matter in the universe, quite," "To retard the expansion." "If we had to bet right now, we'd probably bet" "That the universe will expand forever." "It's a fascinating idea." "If the universe expands forever," "What will happen to it as it cools off?" "Stars are gradually consuming all the gas in galaxies." "Over time, it will all be used up." "Those stars will burn and use up their fuel and die," "Become cold, dead remnants, white dwarves," "Maybe some black holes in there." "Galaxies are ever merging to make yet larger structures," "But will become ever dimmer as the stars in them die out." "And ultimately," "Even the very stuff of which stars are made..." "The protons, neutrons, and so on... will decay." "And it may be that the ultimate state of the universe" "Is to have no matter at all..." "a sea of elementary particles," "Dead photons, and nothing else." "Hawking:" "And the alternative of a big crunch" "Is not much better." "A few years ago, when I was giving a lecture," "I was asked not to mention the end of the universe," "In case it depressed the stock market." "But I can reassure worried investors," "Either way, the universe is good" "For many billions of years more." "The end may be coming, but not just yet." "To learn more about "Stephen Hawking's universe,"" "Visit pbs online at the internet address" "On your screen." "" " Captions by vitac:" "Burbank,Pittsburgh, Tampa and Washington, D.C. " ""Stephen Hawking's universe" was made possible" "By alfred p." "Sloan foundation to enhance public understanding" "Of the role of science and technology," "The arthur vining davis foundations," "The corporation for public broadcasting," "And viewers like you." "Corporate funding is provided by amgen," "Unlocking the secrets of life through biotechnology." "At amgen, we produce medicines" "That improve people's lives today" "And bring hope for tomorrow." ""STEPHEN HAWKING'S UNIVERSE" IS MADE POSSIBLE" "BY ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION TO ENHANCE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING" "OF THE ROLE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY," "THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS," "THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING," "AND VIEWERS LIKE YOU." "CORPORATE FUNDING IS PROVIDED BY AMGEN," "UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF LIFE THROUGH BIOTECHNOLOGY." "AT AMGEN, WE PRODUCE MEDICINES" "THAT IMPROVE PEOPLE'S LIVES TODAY" "AND BRING HOPE FOR TOMORROW." "Stephen Hawking:" "THE WORLD AROUND US" "IS FULL OF VARIETY ..." "DIFFERENT MATERIALS, DIFFERENT TEXTURES." "HOW DID THEY ALL ARISE?" "I HELPED TO SHOW THAT THE UNIVERSE" "HAD A SIMPLE BEGINNING" "AS A SINGLE POINT IN THE BIG BANG." "THE QUESTION IS," "HOW DID EVERYTHING WE SEE GET MADE FROM THAT?" "Narrator:" "THE SECRETS OF CREATION" "LONG SEEMED BEYOND THE REACH" "OF SCIENCE." "TODAY THEY ARE BEING STARKLY REVEALED." "Man:" "WE COSMOLOGISTS," "WE TRY TO RECREATE THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE" "IN A SENSE VERY MUCH LIKE AN ARCHEOLOGIST." "WE HAVE SOME CLUES ABOUT THE UNIVERSE" "AS IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO." "AND BASED ON THOSE CLUES," "WE TRY TO TRACE BACK ITS HISTORY" "TO AS CLOSE TO THE BEGINNING" "AS POSSIBLE." "WE CAN PUSH BACK THE FRONTIER OF WHAT WE KNOW OF THE UNIVERSE" "TO VERY, VERY CLOSE TO ZERO ..." "TIME EQUALS ZERO." "Narrator:" "WE NOW KNOW HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN" "IN THE BIG BANG." "STARS AND GALAXIES, PLANETS AND LIFE," "TIME AND SPACE ITSELF CAME FROM A SINGLE POINT." "IT SEEMS AN UNLIKELY PROPOSITION." "HOW COULD THE UNIVERSE," "IN ALL ITS VARIETY AND COMPLEXITY," "HAVE COME FROM ONE COMMON PRIMAL SOURCE?" "JUST AS STAGGERING IS THAT SCIENTISTS BELIEVE" "THEY KNOW THE ANSWER." "THEIR QUEST TO UNDERSTAND" "THE ESSENCE OF MATTER IS AGES OLD." "IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE," "ALCHEMISTS BELIEVED IN A PROCESS CALLED TRANSMUTATION." "THEY SOUGHT TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERY ..." "WHAT IS THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCK OF CREATION?" "ALCHEMY IS ABOUT THE SEARCH TO MAKE GOLD." "IT'S ABOUT TAKING SOME PRIMAL SUBSTANCE" "AND SUBJECTING IT TO VARIOUS OPERATIONS" "WHICH CHANGE THE SUBSTANCE TO EVENTUALLY BECOME" "THE MOST PERFECT SUBSTANCE OF ALL, GOLD." "TO THE ALCHEMIST, THE PROCESS OF ALCHEMY" "WAS ALMOST AS IMPORTANT AS THE GOAL." "SOME ALCHEMISTS WOULD SAY," ""IF I CAN SEE THE SECRETS OF CREATION" "IN MY WORK, IF I CAN LOOK INTO MY VESSEL AND SEE" "THE MYSTERIES OF THE CREATION UNFOLDING," "THEN THAT IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT THING."" "THE MAN WHO LIVED HERE AT OWLPEN MANOR" "WAS CALLED THOMAS DAUNT VII," "AND HE WAS THE LAST OF A LONG LINE OF ALCHEMISTS." "Narrator:" "ALCHEMISTS WERE CONVINCED" "ONE KIND OF MATTER COULD BE TRANSFORMED INTO ANOTHER." "THEIR PURSUIT OF GOLD WAS AT THE SAME TIME" "A SEARCH FOR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES" "AND FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS." "Gilchrist:" "ALCHEMISTS TOOK ON BOARD" "THE GREEK IDEA OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH WAS THAT" "EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE" "IS COMPOSED OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS ..." "EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AND AIR." "EARTH IS SEEN AS GIVING FORM TO THINGS, GIVING SUBSTANCE." "WATER IS LIKE A UNIVERSAL SOLVENT." "IT CONNECTS, IT FLOWS," "IT DISSOLVES THINGS." "FIRE BRINGS ENERGY AND LIGHT AND HEAT." "IT HELPS TO CREATE THE VITAL INNER FIRE" "THAT EVERYTHING IS SAID TO HAVE." "AND AIR GIVES SOME SPACE, IT GIVES SOME MOVEMENT." "IT'S THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THINGS." "EVERYTHING HAS ITS OWN" "PARTICULAR COMBINATION OF THOSE ELEMENTS" "WHICH ARE PUT TOGETHER IN A PARTICULAR PROPORTION" "TO MAKE A PARTICULAR THING." "ALCHEMISTS FOLLOWED THE LINE" "THAT IF YOU SHIFT AROUND THAT BALANCE OF ELEMENTS," "IF YOU CHANGE THOSE PROPORTIONS," "THEN YOU'LL CHANGE THE ACTUAL IDENTITY" "OF THE SUBSTANCE THAT YOU'VE GOT." "Narrator:" "SEEKING TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE SUBSTANCE," "ALCHEMISTS LIKE THOMAS DAUNT" "BELIEVED THEY HAD TO START WITH A BASIC MATERIAL," "ONE THAT WAS THE SOURCE FOR ALL EXISTING SUBSTANCES." "THEY CALLED IT PRIMAL MATTER." "Gilchrist:" "PEOPLE TRIED ALL KINDS OF THINGS" "TO SEE IF THEY COULD GET THE RIGHT PRIMAL MATTER," "WHICH INCLUDED DUNG AND URINE" "AND PRETTY UNSPEAKABLE CONCOCTIONS TO START WITH." "THOMAS DAUNT LIVED" "IN THE 18th CENTURY," "SO HE WAS PRACTICING" "VERY LATE FOR AN ALCHEMIST, REALLY," "BECAUSE THE SO-CALLED" "MODERN SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE WORLD" "HAD TAKEN HOLD BY THEN." "Narrator:" "THIS WAS THE AGE OF REASON." "ITS NEW BREED OF SCIENTISTS" "WANTED EXPERIMENTS, NOT MIRACLES." "THEY RALLIED AGAINST THE DANGEROUS WITCHCRAFT" "ALCHEMISTS WERE SAID TO PRACTICE." "Gilchrist:" "THAT'S POSSIBLY WHY THOMAS DAUNT" "GOT HIMSELF A RATHER BAD REPUTATION LOCALLY." "HE WAS THOUGHT OF AS A MAGICIAN." "AFTER HIS DEATH, THE LITTLE ROOM WHERE HE WORKED" "WAS SEALED UP ALONG WITH ALL HIS BOOKS AND PAPERS." "BUT LOCAL PEOPLE GOT RATHER NERVOUS ABOUT THIS, TOO," "IN CASE IT WAS GOING TO HAVE AN EVIL INFLUENCE," "SO THEY SUMMONED THE PARSON" "TO OPEN THE DOORS AND BURN THE BOOKS." "WHEN THE PARSON BURNT THE BOOKS, A FLOCK OF BIRDS FLEW OUT." "THE ATTITUDE OF THE NEW SCIENTISTS COMING ALONG" "DISAGREED WITH THE PRACTICES OF ALCHEMY," "BUT THE VISION OF IT" "THAT EVERYTHING HAS COME FROM ONE SOURCE," "THAT THERE IS A KIND OF BASIC ELEMENTAL FORM TO LIFE," "AND THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY REARRANGE" "THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER" "SEEMS VERY PERTINENT TO SCIENCE TODAY." "Hawking:" "MYSTIC BELIEFS AND A GREED FOR GOLD" "ARE NOT A GOOD BASIS FOR SCIENCE." "THE ALCHEMISTS HAD LITTLE INTEREST" "IN HOW MATTER WAS CREATED WHEN THE UNIVERSE BEGAN." "BUT THE IDEA OF TRANSMUTATION," "ALLOWING ALL VARIETIES OF MATTER TO EVOLVE" "FROM THE PRIMAL SOURCE, WAS, PERHAPS ACCIDENTALLY," "A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION." "Narrator:" "THE ALCHEMISTS' TECHNIQUES" "FOR BREAKING DOWN AND STUDYING MATTER ENDURED" "IN THE NEW SCIENCE OF CHEMISTRY." "FOR ONE OF ITS PIONEERS," "INSPIRATION CAME NOT IN A LAB, BUT IN A SIBERIAN GLASS FACTORY." "IN THE MID-19th CENTURY, A BOY, THE PROPRIETOR'S SON," "WAS ENTRANCED BY THE MAGIC OF PRIMAL FORCES." "HE WAS DMITRI MENDELEEV." "MENDELEEV WROTE IN HIS DIARY THAT MAYBE FIRST IMPRESSIONS" "OF CHEMISTRY HE HAS GOT JUST AT THIS GLASS FACTORY ..." "HAVING SEEN THESE COMBINATIONS," "HOW THE GLASS IS FORMED" "AND HOW THE ADDITION OF DIFFERENT SALTS" "CHANGED THE COLOR OF THE GLASS." "Narrator:" "IT WAS THE HEIGHT OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION." "STOKED BY THE DEMANDS OF MASS PRODUCTION," "THE SCIENCE OF CHEMISTRY FLOURISHED." "UNDERSTANDING WHAT THINGS WERE MADE OF" "WAS VITAL TO ENTREPRENEURS." "TO THE NEW CHEMISTS," "THE GREEK VISION OF ONLY FOUR ELEMENTS ..." "EARTH, AIR, FIRE, AND WATER ..." "NOW SEEMED PATENTLY SIMPLISTIC." "THEY SET OUT TO DECONSTRUCT THE WORLD" "AND FIND WHAT IT WAS MADE OF." "THEY BROKE DOWN COMPLEX SUBSTANCES" "INTO SIMPLER ONES," "THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF CHEMISTRY." "Babaev:" "THESE SIMPLE PARTS" "HAVE BEEN CALLED ELEMENTS," "SO THERE WERE ABSOLUTELY NO POSSIBILITY" "TO DIVIDE THEM FURTHER." "Narrator:" "IN MENDELEEV'S TIME," "CHEMISTS BELIEVED THERE WERE ABOUT 65 ELEMENTS," "RUNNING THE GAMUT OF GASES, LIQUIDS, AND SOLIDS." "THEY THOUGHT EACH ELEMENT'S" "UNIQUE PROPERTIES WERE TRACEABLE" "TO ITS FUNDAMENTAL ESSENCE," "THE SMALLEST COMPONENT OF ANY SUBSTANCE." "LIKE THE EARLY GREEKS," "THEY CALLED THIS BASIC UNIT OF MATTER AN ATOM," "WHICH MEANT "UNCUTTABLE."" "BUT EVEN AS MENDELEEV WAS GRAPPLING WITH THESE NOTIONS," "HIS WORLD WAS REDUCED TO ITS ESSENTIALS." "HIS FAMILY'S GLASS FACTORY BURNED DOWN." "WELL, MENDELEEV HAS GOT" "HIS FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHEMISTRY" "AT THE GLASS FACTORY." "BUT, WELL, SUDDENLY THE FACTORY WAS BURNED," "SO THE ONLY HOPE OF HIS MOTHER" "WAS TO GIVE EDUCATION TO HER YOUNGEST SON." "AND THAT'S WHY SHE TOOK HIM TO A VERY LONG JOURNEY" "TO ST." "PETERSBURG FROM THE MIDDLE OF SIBERIA." "Narrator:" "THE YOUNG MENDELEEV AND HIS MOTHER" "TRAVELED 1,400 MILES ACROSS RUSSIA" "SO HE COULD ENROLL AT ST." "PETERSBURG UNIVERSITY." "HE QUICKLY BECAME" "ONE OF RUSSIA'S MOST PROMINENT CHEMISTS." "YET HIS WAS A SOLITARY QUEST." "SOME SCIENTISTS ALREADY UNDERSTOOD" "THAT WHAT DISTINGUISHED ONE ELEMENT FROM ANOTHER" "WERE DIFFERENCES IN THE WEIGHTS OF THEIR ATOMS." "THEY ALSO BELIEVED IT WAS THIS, THE WEIGHT OF THE ATOMS," "THAT DETERMINED AN ELEMENT'S UNIQUE CHARACTER." "MENDELEEV HAD A HUNCH HE COULD GROUP THEM IN A WAY" "THAT LINKED THEM" "IN THE BEHAVIOR OF THEIR CHEMICAL PROPERTIES." "SO WHAT WAS IMPORTANT THAT MENDELEEV HAS ASSOCIATED" "THE CHANGES IN PROPERTIES OF ELEMENTS ..." "THESE CHANGES FROM METALLIC CHARACTER" "TO NON-METALLIC CHARACTER ..." "JUST WITH THE CHANGES IN ATOMIC WEIGHT." "SO THIS WAS HIS REVOLUTION." "Narrator:" "IN THE RESTLESS IMAGINATION" "OF A YOUNG SCIENTIST," "A REALIZATION BEGAN TO TAKE SHAPE" "THAT PERHAPS THERE WAS AN UNDERLYING ORDER" "TO ALL THE ELEMENTS ON EARTH." "ONE NIGHT IN 1869," "MENDELEEV SHUT HIMSELF INTO HIS COTTAGE" "BY THE BLACK SEA," "DETERMINED TO DECIPHER THE SECRET CODE OF MATTER." "Babaev:" "MENDELEEV WAS VERY FOND OF PATIENCE GAMES," "AND THAT'S WHY HE HAS USED PIECES OF PAPERS AS CARDS." "HE TRIED TO MOVE THEM ON THE TABLE" "WITH THE IDEA TO FIND AN INITIAL ARRANGEMENT." "THIS IDEA TO ORDER ELEMENTS" "WITH THE INCREASE OF THEIR ATOMIC WEIGHTS" "HAS COME TO HIS MIND ONLY EARLY IN THE MORNING." "Narrator:" "SHUFFLING CARDS" "BEARING THE SYMBOLS OF EACH ELEMENT," "MENDELEEV TRIED TO SORT THEM IN A LOGICAL ORDER." "HE STARTED WITH HYDROGEN, WHICH HAS THE LIGHTEST ATOMS." "HE WORKED HIS WAY THROUGH TO URANIUM," "THE HEAVIEST NATURAL ELEMENT." "HE GROUPED TOGETHER ANY ELEMENTS" "WITH SIMILAR CHEMICAL PROPERTIES." "WITHIN EACH GROUP OF LIKE ELEMENTS," "THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE ATOMIC WEIGHT AND THE NEXT" "WAS ALWAYS NEARLY THE SAME." "WHERE THE PATTERN WAS BROKEN, MENDELEEV PREDICTED" "THAT, IN TIME, AN ELEMENT WOULD BE DISCOVERED" "TO FILL THE GAP." "IT WAS A LANDMARK DISCOVERY." "HERE WAS AN UNMISTAKEABLE PATTERN" "TO THE WAY MATTER IS ORGANIZED." "IN AN UNLIKELY GAME OF SOLITAIRE," "MENDELEEV HAD CREATED THE PERIODIC TABLE." "Hawking:" "THE PERIODIC TABLE SUGGESTED FOR THE FIRST TIME" "A FUNDAMENTAL PATTERN FOR THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS." "ALTHOUGH NO ONE REALIZED IT THEN," "MENDELEEV WAS POINTING TOWARDS A COMMON ORIGIN" "FOR ALL OF THE MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE." "HIS WORK WAS THE BASIS" "FOR ALL FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS." "Babaev:" "LET US SAY HE PUT SO MANY QUESTIONS" "THAT A LOT OF SCIENTISTS HAVE TRIED TO ANSWER," "AND BY THIS MANNER" "HE OF COURSE STIMULATED THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDEA" "OF EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTS, OR, WELL, THE ORIGIN OF MATTER." "MAYBE MOST IMPORTANT THAT HE HAS CHANGED" "THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF URANIUM," "AND HE CHANGED IT SO THAT URANIUM HAS BECOME" "THE LAST ELEMENT OF THE SYSTEM." "AND THIS WAS MOST INTRIGUING TO MENDELEEV," "AND HE HAS WRITTEN A FEW TIMES THAT, WELL," ""I RECOMMEND TO YOUNG SCIENTISTS" "TO START THEIR CAREER WITH STUDY OF URANIUM."" "Narrator:" "NEARLY 30 YEARS LATER," "A YOUNG FRENCH SCIENTIST MADE A FATEFUL DECISION" "TO TAKE UP MENDELEEV'S CHALLENGE" "AND PROBE THE SECRETS OF URANIUM." "HER NAME WAS MARIE CURIE." "I AM THE DAUGHTER OF IRENE AND FREDERIK JOLIOT CURIE," "AND THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF PIERRE AND MARIE CURIE." "Narrator:" "IN 1897, MARIE SKLODOWSKA," "A POLISH EXPATRIATE STUDYING IN PARIS," "MARRIED THE WELL-KNOWN PHYSICIST" "PIERRE CURIE." "AT THE TIME, SHE WAS SEARCHING FOR A SUBJECT" "FOR HER DOCTORAL DISSERTATION." "SHE WAS CAPTIVATED BY AN EERIE EXPERIMENT" "PERFORMED ACCIDENTLY" "BY HENRI BECQUEREL." "HE HAD PLACED SOME URANIUM ON A PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE," "PLANNING TO FIND OUT WHAT EFFECT SUNLIGHT HAS ON IT." "BUT THAT DAY, IT RAINED." "HE WRAPPED HIS EXPERIMENT IN THICK PAPER" "WHERE NO LIGHT COULD STRIKE IT." "HE TUCKED IT AWAY IN A DARK DRAWER." "IT WAS CLOUDY FOR THREE DAYS." "ON A WHIM," "BECQUEREL DEVELOPED THE PLATE, NONETHELESS." "HE WAS AMAZED TO FIND A GHOSTLY IMPRINT." "URANIUM, IT SEEMS," "EMITS STRANGE, INVISIBLE RAYS." "A CENTURY LATER," "RADIOACTIVITY IS A FAMILIAR WORD WITH OMINOUS OVERTONES." "BECQUEREL'S DISCOVERY" "LIT A FIRE IN MARIE CURIE." "Langevin-Joliot:" "IF YOU WISH TO UNDERSTAND," "IT'S NECESSARY TO HAVE QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT" "OF THESE RADIATIONS." "AND YOU CANNOT DO THAT WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES." "Narrator:" "SHE SET OUT TO FATHOM THE ENIGMATIC RAYS." "HER FIRST STEP WAS TO SOMEHOW DETERMINE THEIR POWER." "BECQUEREL HAD ALREADY SHOWN" "THEY COULD CONDUCT AN ELECTRIC CURRENT," "BUT ITS STRENGTH WAS SO MINUTE," "IT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE TO MEASURE ACCURATELY." "IT'S SOMETHING 10 TO MINUS 11 SMALLER." "TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS 10 TO MINUS 11 SMALLER." "DIVIDE BY 10 AND 10 AND 10 AND 10," "AND SEE THAT IT IS REALLY THE KIND OF THING" "YOU CANNOT MEASURE WITH ORDINARY APPARATUS AT ALL," "SO YOU HAVE TO BUILD A SPECIAL ONE." "Narrator:" "WHAT SHE DESIGNED WAS A SCALE ..." "ONE THAT WOULD COMPARE A NEARLY IMMEASUREABLE CURRENT" "WITH ONE SHE COULD GAUGE." "AT ONE END SHE PUT A SAMPLE OF URANIUM." "IT EMITTED ITS ELECTRICAL CHARGE BETWEEN TWO METAL PLATES." "AT THE OTHER END, USING WEIGHTS," "SHE PUT STRESS ON A SPECIAL KIND OF CRYSTAL," "TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY." "THE STRENGTH OF THAT CURRENT COULD BE ADJUSTED" "BY THE AMOUNT OF WEIGHT ADDED." "THE APPARATUS COMPARED THE TWO CURRENTS." "WHEN, AT LAST, BOTH WERE EQUAL, IT POINTED TO ZERO." "THAT HAPPENED WHEN THE WEIGHT ON THE CRYSTAL" "GENERATED A TRILLIONTH OF AN AMP," "THE CURRENT THAT MATCHED" "THE URANIUM'S." "THAT MINUTE FIGURE REPRESENTED" "A COLOSSAL ACHIEVEMENT." "CURIE AND HER HUSBAND WONDERED" "IF ANYTHING ELSE WOULD EMIT RAYS LIKE URANIUM." "THEY DECIDED TO TEST PITCHBLENDE," "THE MINERAL FROM WHICH THEIR URANIUM" "HAD BEEN EXTRACTED." "SINCE IT WAS UNREFINED," "THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD GENERATE A MUCH SMALLER CURRENT" "THAN PURE URANIUM." "THEY WERE IN FOR A SURPRISE." "AND WHAT HAPPENS WAS THAT THE CURRENT WAS MUCH HIGHER," "AT LEAST FOUR TIMES HIGHER THAN WITH URANIUM," "WITH THE CORRESPONDING AMOUNT OF URANIUM." "AND THAT WAS INCREDIBLE BECAUSE NONE OF THE IMPURITIES" "OR ELEMENTS PARTICIPATING IN PITCHBLENDE" "HAVE SHOWN ANY SIGN OF HAVING THE SAME PROPERTY." "Narrator:" "BAFFLED, THE CURIES SEPARATED OUT" "THE CHEMICALS IN THE PITCHBLENDE," "AND FOUND THE STRANGE CURRENT" "WAS THE SIGNATURE OF TWO UNKNOWN ELEMENTS." "THEY CALLED THE FIRST POLONIUM, AFTER MARIE'S HOMELAND, POLAND." "THEY DUBBED THE SECOND RADIUM." "BEFORE THE DISCOVERY, THE CURIES HAVE DISCUSSED" "ABOUT THE POSSIBLE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE NEW ELEMENTS." "AND PIERRE CURIE HAS TOLD HER," ""I WISH IT HAVE A BEAUTIFUL COLOR."" "SO WHAT THEY FOUND," "THAT WITH ENOUGH AMOUNT OF RADIUM IT EMITTED LIGHT" "MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN BEING" "JUST A BEAUTIFUL COLOR." "SO SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK IN THE EVENING" "JUST TO SEE THE RADIUM LIGHTING," "AND JUST LOOK AT IT IN THE EVENING." "THIS WAS NOT THE BEST THING TO DO." "Narrator:" "LITTLE DID THE CURIES KNOW" "THE INSIDIOUS DANGER THEIR SPECIMENS HARBORED." "THEIR NEW RADIOACTIVE DISCOVERIES" "WERE ALMOST CERTAINLY THE CAUSE OF MARIE CURIE'S FATAL LEUKEMIA." "Hawking:" "BUT WHILE THE CURIES HAD MANAGED" "TO MEASURE THE RADIATION THAT THESE ELEMENTS GAVE OFF," "THEY WERE NO CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING" "WHAT THE RADIATION ACTUALLY WAS." "THAT WAS LEFT TO A YOUNG NEW ZEALAND SCIENTIST" "CALLED ERNEST RUTHERFORD." "Narrator:" "URANIUM AND RADIUM" "AND THE STRANGE ENERGY THEY RADIATED" "SEEMED TO HOLD CLUES TO THE VERY NATURE OF MATTER." "THE MYSTERY OF THESE ELEMENTS UNKOWN" "FELL TO ONE OF THE GREAT MINDS OF SCIENCE." "TODAY, THE TOOLS OF ERNEST RUTHERFORD'S STUDIES" "ARE TREASURED RELICS AT CANADA'S McGILL UNIVERSITY." "BUT IN THEIR DAY," "HE AND HIS PARTNER, FREDERICK SODDY," "TIRELESSLY WORKED THEIR EQUIPMENT." "THEY EXPLORED THE NATURE OF THE CURIES' MYSTERIOUS RAYS," "AND ROCKED THE WORLD OF SCIENCE TO THE CORE." "THEY SET UP A PHYSICAL EXPERIMENT" "IN WHICH THEY TRIED TO DISCOVER" "THE NATURE OF THIS EMANATION WHICH WAS EMITTED BY RADIUM," "AND MEASURE THE RATE AT WHICH THIS EMANATION WOULD DIFFUSE" "FROM ONE POINT TO ANOTHER." "Narrator:" "PERHAPS THE RAYS WOULD TURN OUT TO BE" "JUST RADIUM IN THE FORM OF A VAPOR," "AS WHEN WATER BECOMES STEAM." "IN THAT CASE, THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF THIS STRANGE GAS" "WOULD BE IDENTICAL TO THAT OF RADIUM." "BUT IT WASN'T." "IN FACT, IT WASN'T RADIUM AT ALL." "THE EMANATION COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE RADIUM" "IN VAPOR FORM IN THE WAY THAT, SAY, MERCURY GIVES OFF A VAPOR." "THEREFORE IT HAD TO BE SOMETHING DIFFERENT." "AND THE ONLY RATIONAL CONCLUSION WAS" "THAT ONE ELEMENT, RADIUM," "WAS SOMEHOW PRODUCING ANOTHER ELEMENT" "WHICH WAS NOT RADIUM VAPOR," "WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ELEMENT" "WITH A DIFFERENT ATOMIC WEIGHT." "Narrator:" "THE IMPOSSIBLE HAD HAPPENED." "ONE ELEMENT, RADIUM, HAD GENERATED ANOTHER, HELIUM." "IT WAS THE MIRACLE THAT ELUDED THE ALCHEMISTS." "Cohen:" "THEY WERE INDEED QUITE WORRIED" "THAT PEOPLE WOULD ACCUSE THEM" "OF RETURNING TO ANCIENT MEDIEVAL ALCHEMY." "AND THEY WERE VERY CAREFUL" "IN THEIR USE OF LANGUAGE IN THE PUBLICATIONS," "TO EMPHASIZE THAT THIS WAS NOT ALCHEMY." "THIS WAS" "A GENUINE TRANSFORMATION THAT WAS TAKING PLACE." "Narrator:" "THE IMPLICATIONS WERE STAGGERING." "IF ONE ELEMENT COULD ARISE FROM ANOTHER," "THEN ALL ELEMENTS, ALL MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE," "COULD WELL HAVE BEEN THE PRODUCT OF A PRIMAL TRANSFORMATION" "OF THEIR OWN." "BUT HOW DID THIS PROCESS WORK?" "AND WHY, IN RADIUM, WAS IT ACCOMPANIED" "BY THE RELEASE OF RADIOACTIVE ENERGY?" "IN FACT, THE ANSWER HAD BEEN FOUND YEARS EARLIER." "IN 1905, AN EXTRAORDINARY REVELATION" "WOULD FOREVER CHANGE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE UNIVERSE." "AMONG THE CLAIMS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN'S" "THEORY OF RELATIVITY" "WAS A SINGLE, ELEGANT EQUATION, E = M C-SQUARED." "Dowker:" "ONE OF THE MAJOR QUESTIONS" "IN COSMOLOGY AND IN ASTROPHYSICS" "IS HOW THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS" "CAME TO BE IN THE UNIVERSE." "Narrator:" "THE "E" STANDS FOR ENERGY," "THE "M" FOR MATTER," ""C" IS THE SPEED OF LIGHT." "ACCORDING TO EINSTEIN," "JUST AS HEAT AND LIGHT ARE DIFFERENT FORMS OF ENERGY," "SO IS MATTER ITSELF." "Dowker:" "SO ENERGY IS NEVER LOST OR IN FACT GAINED." "IT'S JUST TRANSFORMED FROM ONE FORM INTO ANOTHER." "YOU CAN'T ACTUALLY PROVE THAT MASS CAN BE" "COMPLETELY CONVERTED INTO ENERGY USING SPECIAL RELATIVITY." "BUT EINSTEIN MADE THAT CONCEPTUAL LEAP," "AND CONJECTURED THAT THAT WAS IN FACT TRUE." "Narrator:" "EINSTEIN IMAGINED MATTER" "AS SOMETHING LIKE A BATTERY," "A FORM OF STORED ENERGY." "THE CONCEPT WAS POWERFUL, BUT COULD IT BE PROVEN?" "AND WOULD IT EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE?" "RUTHERFORD DECIDED TO DELVE DEEPER BY PEERING WITHIN" "THE BUILDING BLOCK OF MATTER ITSELF, THE ATOM." "Hawking:" "WE NEED TO DISCOVER THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE ATOM" "IF WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND HOW MATTER WAS MADE" "AT THE BEGINNING OF THE UNIVERSE." "I WOULD HAVE TAKEN" "A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM," "BUT RUTHERFORD WAS AN OUT-AND-OUT EXPERIMENTALIST." "HE SIMPLY COLLECTED SOME OLD TUBES AND WIRES," "AND BUILT A MACHINE TO BREAK THE ATOM APART." "Narrator: 60 YEARS LATER, ERNEST RUTHERFORD" "HAS A KINDRED SPIRIT IN A 20-YEAR-OLD STUDENT." "Man:" "IN THE TRUE TRADITION OF PARTICLE PHYSICS," "I HUNG OUT AT JUNKYARDS" "TO COLLECT METAL AND ODD BITS OF ELECTRONICS" "THAT WERE JUST THROWN AWAY BY EVERYONE ELSE," "BUT VERY IMPORTANT TO ME." "Narrator:" "FRED NEILL'S QUEST" "TO FOLLOW IN RUTHERFORD'S ILLUSTRIOUS FOOTSTEPS" "BEGINS IN A SCRAP HEAP NEAR MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE." "HE USED RADIUM WHICH WAS" "A NEWLY DISCOVERED ELEMENT AT THE TIME." "AND HE USED METAL CANS" "AND GLASS TUBES, HUGE AMOUNTS OF WIRE," "AND ALL SORTS OF ECLECTIC BITS" "THAT HE COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS PLACES." "MOST SCRAPYARDS PURCHASE CARS AND CRUSH THEM UP." "THIS SCRAPYARD" "SPECIFICALLY PURCHASES FROM THE UNITED STATES MILITARY" "ALL OF THEIR SURPLUS." "THEY HAVE EVERYTHING FROM BOLTS TO BATTLESHIPS, LITERALLY." "THEY HAVE ELECTRONIC BITS FROM WORLD WAR II." "THEY HAVE PLANES ..." "ANYTHING ..." "ANYTHING IMAGINABLE." "HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT FOR THIS OLD THING?" "A BUCK AND A QUARTER A POUND." "ALL RIGHT." "Narrator:" "NEILL MUST HAGGLE AND TINKER HIS WAY" "TO THE ESSENCE OF MATTER." "AT LEAST HE KNOWS HOW TO FIND WHAT HE'S LOOKING FOR," "THANKS TO HIS MENTOR." "ALL RIGHT, THAT'LL WORK." "GOOD DEAL." "RUTHERFORD KNEW THAT THESE PARTICLES" "WERE COMING OFF OF THE RADIUM WITH A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF SPEED." "SO HE AIMED THE PARTICLES" "THAT WERE COMING OFF OF THE RADIUM" "AT A VERY THIN PIECE OF GOLD FOIL." "AND HE FOUND THAT SOME OF THE PARTICLES" "WERE BOUNCING OFF OF THE GOLD FOIL." "RUTHERFORD WAS QUOTED SAYING" "THAT THIS IS SOMEWHAT LIKE SHOOTING A 15-INCH SHELL" "AT A PIECE OF TISSUE PAPER" "AND HAVING IT BOUNCE BACK AND HIT YOU." "WELL, THIS MEANT THAT THERE WAS SOME SORT OF IMMENSE FORCE" "INSIDE THE ATOM." "Narrator:" "BEFORE RUTHERFORD," "THE WORLD HAD ONLY A VAGUE PICTURE" "OF HOW THE ATOM WORKED." "NOW HE SET OUT TO PRY HIS WAY INTO THE INNER SANCTUM OF MATTER" "BY VENTURING WITHIN ITS FOLD." "FRED NEILL HAS HIS OWN JURY-RIGGED" "PARTICLE ACCELERATOR." "USING RADIUM IN HIS EXPERIMENT" "WOULD NOT MAKE HIM POPULAR WITH THE NEIGHBORS." "HE OPTS FOR A SAFE ALTERNATIVE." "MY MACHINE, JUST LIKE RUTHERFORD'S," "USED ELECTRICAL SIMULATION" "OF THE EMANATIONS FROM THE RADIUM" "BY HEATING UP A PIECE OF METAL ELECTRICALLY." "NOW, IN ORDER TO MAKE THESE MOVE," "I USE ELECTROSTATIC ELECTRICITY." "NOW COULOMB SHOWED THAT PARTICLES THAT HAVE A CHARGE" "ARE ATTRACTED TO THEIR OPPOSITE CHARGE." "SO WHAT I DO IS I BUILD UP A HUGE AMOUNT OF CHARGE" "JUST LIKE A BATTERY." "YOU HOOK ONE END OF THE TUBE UP TO A BATTERY," "AND YOU HOOK UP THE OTHER END OF THE TUBE" "TO THE OPPOSITE POLE OF THE BATTERY," "AND YOU CAN MAKE PARTICLES MOVE." "AND THEY HIT A TARGET RIGHT HERE." "BUT IN ORDER TO DO THAT," "THEY CAN'T BE HAMPERED BY ANYTHING" "ON THEIR JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE TARGET." "SO TO PULL EVERYTHING OUT" "THAT MIGHT SLOW THE PARTICLES DOWN," "I HAVE TO TAKE ALL OF THE AIR OUT" "WITH THIS VACUUM PUMP..." "LIKE SO." "NOW WHAT YOU SEE IS THE PARTICLES" "INTERACTING WITH THE AIR," "WHICH MEANS I HAVEN'T PULLED ENOUGH AIR OUT." "SO AFTER SOME AMOUNT OF TIME I'VE PULLED OUT ALL OF THE AIR," "AND THE PARTICLES BEGIN TO MOVE STRAIGHT TO THE TARGET" "WITHOUT ANY INTERACTION." "Narrator:" "NOW THERE IS VIRTUALLY NOTHING INSIDE THE TUBE" "EXCEPT THE ATOMIC NUCLEI NEILL IS FIRING," "AND THOSE RICOCHETING OFF THE TARGET." "Neill:" "YOU CAN DETECT THEM" "BY USING A TUBE JUST LIKE THIS." "[ CLICKING ]" "I AM ONLY PICKING UP PARTICLES FROM THE TARGET" "BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING ELSE THERE." "THERE'S ONLY PARTICLES COMING" "FROM THE SYNTHESIZED RADIUM EMANATIONS" "AND FROM THE BITS OF THE TARGET." "Narrator:" "THE PARTICLES HIS GEIGER COUNTER IS RECORDING" "ARE BEING DEFLECTED BY A LIKE CHARGE," "TESTAMENT THAT THE ATOM HAS A POSITIVE NUCLEUS." "LIKE RUTHERFORD, HE IS DEFINING THE ATOM'S STRUCTURE." "Neill:" "THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS HAD SAID THAT THE ATOM" "WAS THIS INDIVISIBLE OBJECT" "THAT WAS THE BUILDING BLOCK OF ALL THINGS." "WELL, RUTHERFORD FOUND THAT IT MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT." "THE ATOM HAS BUILDING BLOCKS OF ITS OWN." "HE'D FOUND THAT THERE IS" "SOME HUGE AMOUNT OF ENERGY HELD IN ELECTRIC CHARGES" "THAT WAS SOMEHOW BOUND TOGETHER IN THE CENTER," "AND THAT THERE WAS JUST THIS MYRIAD OF PARTICLES." "IT WAS NEVER KNOWN BEFORE" "THAT THE ATOM WAS MADE UP OF HUGE NUMBERS" "OF THESE BIZARRE, ODD THINGS THAT HAD NEVER BEEN SEEN." "Narrator:" "SCIENTISTS BEGAN TO EXPLORE A NEW HORIZON." "THEY FOUND EVEN SMALLER ATOMIC COMPONENTS" "BY SMASHING THEM AT EVER HIGHER RATES." "Neill:" "THE NEXT ADVANCEMENT, IN ORDER TO MAKE" "PARTICLES GO FASTER AND FASTER," "WAS TO CHANGE THE DIRECTION THE PARTICLES ARE GOING." "SO LIVINGSTON AND LAWRENCE FIGURED" "THAT PERHAPS WE CAN MAKE THEM GO IN A CIRCLE," "BECAUSE WE ALREADY KNOW" "THAT CHARGED PARTICLES MOVE IN A MAGNET." "SO THAT'S WHAT I'VE DONE." "I'VE BUILT A CYCLOTRON JUST LIKE LAWRENCE AND LIVINGSTON DID." "SO I'VE GOT A RATHER LARGE MAGNET." "YOU CAN SEE IT'S RATHER STRONG." "AND I HAVE A CHAMBER WHERE THE PARTICLES GO IN." "THE PARTICLES HAVE TO GO IN A CIRCLE," "SO I HAVE THESE SPECIAL ELECTRODES" "THAT ARE HOLLOWED OUT" "TO ALLOW THE PARTICLES TO GO IN A CIRCLE" "INSIDE THE MAGNETIC FIELD." "I EVACUATE THE CHAMBER," "AND I APPLY AN ELECTROSTATIC FIELD" "JUST LIKE THE LINEAR ACCELERATOR, ONLY THIS TIME," "SINCE THE PARTICLES ARE MOVING IN A CIRCLE," "I HAVE TO HAVE THE ELECTROSTATIC FIELD CHANGE ALSO." "SO THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS PARTICLE ACCELERATOR" "AND THE ONES THAT ARE MANY MILES IN DIAMETER," "JUST LIKE THE ONE IN CERN," "ONE OF THE LARGEST ACCELERATORS IN THE WORLD, IS VERY SIMPLE." "THE PARTICLES ARE MOVING IN A CIRCLE," "AND THEY ARE GOING TO EXTREMELY HIGH SPEEDS," "THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BEING THAT THE LARGER THE ACCELERATOR," "THE LARGER THE ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE" "YOU CAN PUT ON THE PARTICLE." "THUS, THE FASTER THE PARTICLE WILL GO," "AND THE MORE INTERESTING" "NUCLEAR REACTIONS YOU CAN CARRY OUT," "AND THE MORE YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM." "Hawking:" "THE EVIDENCE FROM PARTICLE ACCELERATORS" "REVEALED A NEW WORLD OF SUBATOMIC PHYSICS." "IT WAS NOW THAT THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE" "OF EINSTEIN'S FAMOUS EQUATION, E = M C-SQUARED," "BEGAN TO BE REALIZED." "MATTER AND ENERGY WERE INTERCHANGEABLE." "Narrator:" "EINSTEIN'S CORRELATION WAS PROVEN RIGHT." "THE MORE ENERGY RELEASED WHEN A PARTICLE IS SMASHED," "THE MORE MASS THE PARTICLE LOSES." "BUT A MATHEMATICIAN NAMED PAUL DIRAC" "WENT ONE THEORETICAL STEP FURTHER." "Dowker:" "PAUL DIRAC HELD" "THE LUCASIAN CHAIR OF MATHEMATICS IN CAMBRIDGE" "WHICH WAS ONCE HELD BY NEWTON" "AND IS CURRENTLY HELD BY STEPHEN HAWKING." "Narrator:" "DIRAC'S THEORY WAS ALTOGETHER COUNTER-INTUITIVE." "HE ARGUED THAT FOR EINSTEIN'S THEORY TO BE RIGHT," "ENERGY WOULDN'T JUST PRODUCE MATTER." "IT ALSO HAD TO GENERATE" "A PERFECT MIRROR IMAGE, ANTIMATTER." "EVERY PARTICLE HAS A TWIN, AN ANTI-PARTICLE." "IF EVER THE TWO MET, THEY WOULD UNLEASH A FURY." "Dowker:" "THE SPECIAL QUALITY THAT ANTIMATTER HAS" "IS THAT IT CAN COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE" "WITH MATTER TO FORM ENERGY." "IT'S ONLY WHEN MATTER INTERACTS WITH ANTIMATTER" "THAT ALL THE MASS CAN COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE" "AND YOU CAN BE LEFT" "WITH ONLY PURE ENERGY." "Narrator:" "AT FIRST, ANTIMATTER WAS NOTHING MORE THAN THEORY," "A MATHEMATICAL ABSTRACTION" "THAT DEFIED COMMON SENSE." "BUT PHYSICISTS HAD ALREADY SHOWN THAT THERE ARE UNTOLD REALITIES" "WELL BEYOND THE WORLD WE EXPERIENCE." "ONE WAY OF THINKING ABOUT MATTER AND ANTIMATTER" "IS TO THINK THAT WE HAVE TWO WORLDS" "WHICH ARE MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER." "THE QUESTION IS," "WHAT IS THIS ANTIMATTER?" "IT SOUNDS VERY SCIENCE FICTION-LIKE," "SOUNDS VERY FANCIFUL." "AND IT TURNS OUT" "THAT THERE IS A VERY BORING ASPECT TO ANTIMATTER," "AND THERE IS A VERY EXCITING ASPECT TO ANTIMATTER." "SO STARTING WITH THE BORING ONE," "THE BORING ONE IS THAT ANTIMATTER" "IS VERY MUCH LIKE MATTER." "IT REALLY IS BASICALLY THE SAME THING." "ANTIMATTER DOES NOT GO UP WITH GRAVITY." "IT GOES DOWN WITH GRAVITY JUST LIKE MATTER DOES." "THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MATTER AND ANTIMATTER" "IS THE ELECTRIC CHARGE." "SO IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE PARTICLE OF MATTER" "SUCH AS AN ELECTRON," "ITS ANTIMATTER PARTICLE, IT'S GOING TO BE A POSITRON," "WHICH WILL HAVE A POSITIVE CHARGE." "AND SO TO EACH PARTICLE OF MATTER," "THERE'S GOING TO BE A PARTICLE OF ANTIMATTER" "WITH OPPOSITE ELECTRIC CHARGE." "THE MOST EXCITING PART IS" "THAT WHEN MATTER AND ANTIMATTER COME TOGETHER" "THEY DISAPPEAR." "THEY BECOME SOMETHING NEW." "THEY BECOME SOMETHING THEY WEREN'T BEFORE." "AND WHAT THEY BECAME IS JUST PURE ENERGY." "ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CONSEQUENCES" "OF THIS WHOLE PROCESS OF MATTER AND ANTIMATTER" "DISINTEGRATING INTO ENERGY" "IS THAT YOU COULD ALSO OUT OF ENERGY" "CREATE MATTER AND ANTIMATTER." "SO THE PROCESS IS PERFECTLY REVERSIBLE." "YOU CAN GO BOTH WAYS." "Narrator:" "STILL, IF ENERGY" "COULD BE CONVERTED INTO MATTER AND ANTIMATTER," "THEY WOULD BOTH BE INSTANTLY ANNIHILATED," "TURNING BACK INTO ENERGY." "COULD ANTIMATTER EVER ACTUALLY BE DETECTED?" "Hawking:" "IT SEEMED THERE COULD BE" "WHOLE ANTI-WORLDS AND ANTI-PEOPLE" "MADE OF ANTIMATTER." "IF YOU MEET YOUR ANTI-PARTNER, DON'T KISS OR SHAKE HANDS." "YOU WOULD BOTH DISAPPEAR IN A TREMENDOUS FLASH OF LIGHT." "COULD THE REVERSE PROCESS," "OF ENERGY TURNING INTO MATTER AND ANTIMATTER," "HAVE HAPPENED IN THE BIG BANG?" "WAS THAT WHERE ALL OF THE MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE CAME FROM?" "DIRAC'S THEORY HAD TO BE CONFIRMED." "ANTIMATTER HAD TO BE FOUND SOMEWHERE," "IF ONLY FOR AN INSTANT," "BEFORE IT WAS ANNIHILATED BY MATTER." "Narrator:" "THE SEARCH TURNED SKYWARD." "IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT A STRANGE RADIATION FROM SPACE" "WAS BOMBARDING THE EARTH." "PERHAPS COSMIC RAYS COULD REVEAL" "HINTS OF ANTIMATTER." "Woman:" "PEOPLE DIDN'T GO OUT LOOKING FOR COSMIC RAYS." "THEY FOUND THEM BY PURE ACCIDENT." "WHAT THEY WERE DOING WAS TRYING TO FIND OUT" "MORE ABOUT RADIOACTIVITY," "AND SO THEY TOOK THEIR VARIOUS DEVICES" "LIKE ELECTROSCOPES AND SO FORTH AT DIFFERENT ALTITUDES." "THERE WAS ACTUALLY A PRIEST ..." "WENT UP IN THE EIFFEL TOWER" "AND SUGGESTED THAT OTHER PEOPLE ..." "NOT HIM BUT OTHER PEOPLE ..." "GO UP IN BALLOONS." "AND WHEN THEY DID THESE EXPERIMENTS," "THEY KEPT FINDING THAT THEY WERE GETTING" "MORE RADIATION THAN THEY EXPECTED," "SO THEY DECIDED THERE WAS SOMETHING COMING FROM ABOVE," "AND THIS IS WHAT'S NOW CALLED COSMIC RADIATION." "THEY WENT TO MOUNTAINTOPS" "BECAUSE THEY WERE TRYING TO GET AS HIGH UP AS POSSIBLE" "SO THAT THEY GOT THE COSMIC RAYS" "BEFORE IT INTERACTED WITH THE ATMOSPHERE." "COSMIC RAYS COME FROM ANYWHERE WE KNOW IN THE GALAXY." "AND THERE ARE CERTAIN PLACES I THINK THAT THEY ARE COMING" "FROM MAYBE OTHER GALAXIES OUTSIDE," "AND WE ARE NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF THE UNIVERSE" "THEY ARE COMING FROM." "Narrator:" "SCIENTISTS DEVISED AN APPARATUS" "THAT COULD CAPTURE THE IMPRINT" "OF COSMIC RAYS PASSING THROUGH IT." "IN A CLOUD CHAMBER, PARTICLES ARE BETRAYED" "BY THEIR MOVEMENT." "Erzberger:" "ALL YOU HAVE TO HAVE FOR A CLOUD CHAMBER" "IS SOMETHING YOU CAN SEE THROUGH." "AND THEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING LIKE ALCOHOL" "THAT EVAPORATES EASILY." "YOU PUT IT ON DRY ICE" "WHICH MAKES IT REALLY COLD IN THE BOTTOM" "SO IT BECOMES SUPERSATURATED, SO IT'S READY TO FORM A CLOUD" "WHENEVER SOME PARTICLE GOES THROUGH THERE," "AND THAT MAKES A LITTLE TRAIL OF DROPLETS." "THAT'S THE SAME KIND OF THING THAT HAPPENS" "WHEN AN AIRPLANE GOES THROUGH THE SKY," "THAT YOU SEE THE WATER VAPOR TRAIL" "AFTER THE EXHAUST OF THE AIRPLANE." "THEY ARE VERY TEMPORARY TRAILS" "THAT ARE FORMED BY COSMIC RAYS OR EVEN RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES" "BECAUSE THE LITTLE DROPLETS WILL FORM," "AND THEY FALL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAMBER" "DUE TO GRAVITY," "AND SO IT JUST SORT OF WISPS PAST THERE." "SUPPOSEDLY ON TOP OF VERY HIGH MOUNTAINS" "YOU SEE ABOUT ONE COSMIC RAY" "PER SQUARE CENTIMETER EVERY SECOND." "NEAR SEA LEVEL YOU SEE FAR FEWER THAN THAT," "MAYBE A FEW A MINUTE." "Narrator:" "IN 1932, AN AMERICAN PHYSICIST," "CARL ANDERSON," "DESIGNED AN INGENIOUS WAY TO TEST IF ANY OF THE PARTICLES" "PASSING THROUGH A CLOUD CHAMBER WERE FROM THE ANTIMATTER WORLD." "MAGNETS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE CHAMBER" "WOULD PULL EACH PARTICLE" "IN A PREDICTABLE DIRECTION." "TO SLOW THE PARTICLE DOWN," "HE PUT A LEAD BAR ACROSS ITS PATH," "MAKING ITS TRACK MORE PRONOUNCED." "BUT WHAT HE FOUND WERE PARTICLES THAT ARCED IN A DIRECTION" "THAT RAN COUNTER TO THE MAGNET'S PULL." "THESE WERE ANTI-PARTICLES." "WHAT DIRAC HAD PREDICTED, ANDERSON DISCOVERED." "ANTIMATTER HAD LEFT AN UNMISTAKEABLE MARK." "Erzberger:" "WHEN ANDERSON SAW THE FIRST TRACKS," "THIS WAS REALLY EXCITING," "AND IT JUST SORT OF BLEW PEOPLE'S MINDS" "BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT EVER SEEN ANTIMATTER BEFORE." "THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE FOR IT," "AND ALSO THIS WAS THE FIRST PARTICLE THEY HAD EVER SEEN" "THAT WAS NOT FOUND IN AN ATOM." "SO EVEN THOUGH PAUL DIRAC HAD PREDICTED" "THERE MUST BE SOME KIND OF A PARTICLE" "THAT WAS THE OPPOSITE OF AN ELECTRON," "NOBODY HAD REALLY BELIEVED IT OR THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE" "UNTIL THEY ACTUALLY HAD TRACKS." "Narrator:" "TODAY, IN COLOSSAL SUBTERRANEAN ACCELERATORS," "THE VIOLENT BIRTH OF MATTER AND ANTIMATTER" "REVEALS THE VERY TRACES OF CREATION." "Glaiser:" "YOU MAY THINK THAT THIS IS SOME SORT OF BEAUTIFUL ART," "AND IT IS IN A SENSE ART," "BUT IT'S AN ART MADE BY PHYSICISTS." "WHAT YOU HAVE IS A BIG SNAPSHOT THAT CAPTURES IN ONE MOMENT" "ALL THIS DANCE OF PARTICLES BEING CREATED AND DESTROYED" "INSIDE PARTICLE ACCELERATORS." "SO IT MAY LOOK LIKE JACKSON POLLOCK," "BUT IT IS ACTUALLY A COMPUTER-ENHANCED PICTURE" "OF A PARTICLE COLLISION WITHIN A DETECTOR." "EACH ONE OF THESE PARTICLES IN A SENSE TELLS THE STORY" "OR A POSSIBLE STORY" "OF HOW THE UNIVERSE WAS A LONG, LONG TIME AGO." "Narrator:" "THE CRYPTIC PATTERNS OF CRASHING PARTICLES" "IS NATURE'S OWN CALLIGRAPHY." "THEY ARE A SCRIPTED CHRONICLE FOR HOW MATTER WAS FORMED" "IN THE BIG BANG." "Glaiser:" "HERE YOU HAVE A DETAIL OF WHAT PEOPLE WOULD SEE" "IN A DETECTOR IN WHICH YOU HAVE" "THE DEBRIS OF A LITTLE BANG CREATING MATTER AND ANTIMATTER" "OUT OF ENERGY." "AND THIS IS A PHOTON." "AND A PHOTON IS A LITTLE BUNDLE OF ENERGY" "THAT DOESN'T LEAVE A TRACK" "BECAUSE IT DOESN'T HAVE AN ELECTRIC CHARGE." "SO IT MOVES UP HERE, IT COLLIDES WITH A PARTICLE," "AND OUT OF THE STRENGTH OF THIS COLLISION" "YOU HAVE THESE TWO SPIRALS COMING OUT," "ONE OF THEM BEING A PARTICLE WHICH IS MATTER," "AND THE OTHER ONE BEING ITS ANTIMATTER COUSIN," "ITS ANTI-PARTICLE." "AND OUT OF THIS COLLISION YOU HAVE TWO TRACKS ..." "THIS ONE THAT YOU CAN SEE," "AND THEN YOU HAVE ANOTHER ONE WHICH IS AN INVISIBLE ONE," "WHICH IS ANOTHER PHOTON, A BUNDLE OF ENERGY." "AND YOU CAN SEE PRECISELY THAT THIS BUNDLE OF ENERGY" "WILL EVENTUALLY CREATE MATTER AND ANTIMATTER." "AND THIS HAPPENS AT THIS POINT QUITE SUDDENLY," "WHEN THIS PHOTON GIVES BIRTH IN A SENSE" "TO AN ELECTRON AND A POSITRON." "AND THAT IS A BEAUTIFUL MANIFESTATION" "OF MATTER BEING CREATED OUT OF ENERGY." "WELL, IF MATTER AND ANTIMATTER ARE ESSENTIALLY THE SAME," "WITH OPPOSITE ELECTRIC CHARGES, WHERE IS THE ANTIMATTER?" "HOW COME THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OF MATTER?" "WE GO BACK TO THE LAWS THAT CONTROL" "HOW PARTICLES AND ANTI-PARTICLES INTERACT," "AND THOSE LAWS SHOW THAT THE UNIVERSE" "IS NOT PERFECTLY SYMMETRIC BETWEEN MATTER AND ANTIMATTER." "OF COURSE ALL THESE PICTURES THAT WE SCIENTISTS BUILD" "ARE VERY MUCH DEPENDENT" "ON OUR TRUST OF THE LAWS OF PHYSICS." "I MEAN, WHY SHOULD THE PICTURES" "THAT WE BUILD OF THE UNIVERSE" "REALLY CORRESPOND TO REALITY OR NOT?" "HOW COULD WE TRUST THOSE PICTURES?" "WELL, I THINK THE BEST WAY TO EXPLAIN THAT" "IS JUST TO LOOK AT TECHNOLOGY." "IN A SENSE, A LOT OF WHAT WE HAVE" "IS VERY MUCH DEPENDENT ON THE LAWS OF PHYSICS." "WE WOULDN'T HAVE COMPUTERS, WE WOULDN'T HAVE TV SETS" "IF WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND HOW ATOMS FUNCTIONED," "HOW ELECTRONS ORBIT AROUND NUCLEI," "HOW QUANTUM MECHANICS ..." "WHICH IS THE PART OF PHYSICS THAT EXPLAINS" "HOW THE LITTLE PARTICLES BEHAVE ..." "OPERATES." "AND WE WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND HOW PLANETS GO AROUND THE SUN" "IF WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE LAWS OF GRAVITY FOR EXAMPLE," "OF HOW GRAVITY BEHAVES AND ACTUALLY CONTROLS" "THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE." "NOW WE HAVE CERTAIN CLUES" "ABOUT HOW THE UNIVERSE BEHAVED IN THE BEGINNING." "THE UNIVERSE THAT WE KNOW EXISTED THEN" "WAS VERY RICH." "THERE WAS A LOT OF ENERGY." "THERE WAS A LOT OF POTENTIALITY FOR THAT ENERGY" "TO BE TRANSLATED INTO PARTICLES AND ANTI-PARTICLES." "THEN WHAT WE HAVE IS A PICTURE OF THE UNIVERSE" "OF MANY, MANY PARTICLES ..." "THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES" "THAT ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER," "WHICH ARE COLLIDING WITH EACH OTHER AT A FRANTIC RATE," "AND THEY DON'T REALLY BIND." "ALL YOU HAVE IS A DANCE OF PARTICLES" "MOVING AROUND AT TREMENDOUS ENERGIES," "COLLIDING WITH EACH OTHER," "AND HENCE CREATING MORE PARTICLES" "AND MORE ENERGY OUT OF PARTICLES" "IN THIS CREATION-DESTRUCTION DANCE." "AS THE UNIVERSE COOLS AND EXPANDS," "THE PARTICLES STOP COLLIDING" "SO STRONGLY AND SO ENERGETICALLY," "AND THEY HAVE MORE TIME TO LOOK AT EACH OTHER" "AND PERHAPS BIND AND DO SOMETHING." "SO AT ABOUT ONE SECOND OF LIFE," "THE UNIVERSE STARTED TO MAKE NUCLEI." "THAT IS, PROTONS AND NEUTRONS STARTED TO BIND." "AT ABOUT 300,000 YEARS OR SO, ATOMS FORMED," "WHICH MEANS THAT THE NUCLEI BIND WITH ELECTRONS" "TO FORM THE ATOMS." "MOST OF THEM ..." "OVERWHELMING MAJORITY, HYDROGEN." "FROM THOSE HYDROGEN ATOMS," "THEY, BECAUSE OF GRAVITY, FORM CLOUDS." "THOSE CLOUDS START CONDENSING." "THEY GET DENSER AND DENSER AND HOTTER AND HOTTER." "AND AS THAT HAPPENS," "THOSE CLOUDS START FORMING GALAXIES" "AND STARS WITHIN THESE GALAXIES" "WHICH ARE BASICALLY 99% OF HYDROGEN BURNING." "AND EVENTUALLY THOSE STARS ARE GOING TO HAVE" "SOLAR SYSTEMS ATTACHED TO THEM." "THAT IS, THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE PLANETS ORBITING AROUND THEM," "AND MAYBE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A PLANET" "WHICH IS CLOSE ENOUGH SO THAT IT IS HOT," "BUT NOT TOO FAR ENOUGH SO IT'S NOT TOO COLD," "THAT LIFE AS WE UNDERSTAND IT HERE ON EARTH COULD DEVELOP." "AND THEN WE COULD COME BACK HERE AND TELL THE STORY" "ABOUT THE LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE FROM SCRATCH TO THE END." "IF THE UNIVERSE WAS PERFECTLY SYMMETRIC" "BETWEEN MATTER AND ANTIMATTER, WE WOULDN'T BE HERE," "BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE WOULD JUST BE A BIG SEA OF ENERGY." "SO THE FACT THAT THE UNIVERSE IS NOT PERFECTLY SYMMETRIC" "IS THE ULTIMATE REASON FOR US TO BE HERE." "Hawking:" "FROM A WHITE-HOT BIG BANG" "TO PLANETS AND PEOPLE" "IS A LONG AND EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY." "FROM ENERGY TO PARTICLES, FROM PARTICLES TO ATOMS," "AND FROM ATOMS TO EVERYTHING WE SEE," "IT IS A REMARKABLE STORY." "IT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE" "THAT ALL OF THE MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE" "CAME FROM JUST ENERGY," "BUT THAT IS THE WAY THE UNIVERSE SEEMS TO BE." "Stephen Hawking:" "PERSONALLY, I AM SURE" "THAT THE UNIVERSE BEGAN" "WITH A HOT BIG BANG, BUT WILL IT GO ON FOREVER?" "AND IF NOT," "HOW WILL IT END?" "I AM MUCH LESS CERTAIN ABOUT THAT." "THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE SPREADS EVERYTHING OUT," "BUT GRAVITY TRIES TO PULL IT ALL BACK TOGETHER AGAIN." "OUR DESTINY DEPENDS ON WHICH FORCE WILL WIN." "AND THE INFLUENCE OF GRAVITY IN TURN DEPENDS" "ON WHAT THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OF," "AND JUST HOW MUCH OF IT THERE IS." "IT WON'T BE EASY TO FIND OUT IF, AS WE SUSPECT," "MOST OF IT IS DARK MATTER, STUFF WE CAN'T EVEN SEE." "Narrator:" "IN OUR AGE-OLD ATTEMPTS" "TO GIVE THE UNIVERSE DEFINITION," "WE'VE OFTEN GRAPPLED WITH PHENOMENA WE COULD NOT SEE." "PRIYA NATARAJAN IS AN ASTROPHYSICIST" "STUDYING SOMETHING THAT MAY BE BEYOND OUR IMAGINATION." "BUT WORKING WITH THE UNSEEN MAY BE EASIER FOR HER THAN MANY," "FOR SHE ONCE ASPIRED TO BE A POET." "Natarajan:" "THERE IS THIS IMPRESSION THAT EVERYTHING" "THE SCIENTISTS DO IS VERY CIRCUMSCRIBED," "WHEREAS IT IS NOT, BECAUSE WE ARE BRINGING" "THE WAYS IN WHICH" "WE PERFORM A MODEL," "THE WAYS ..." "THE INGREDIENTS THAT WE PUT IN." "AND THE WAYS IN WHICH WE CHOOSE" "TO MIX THE INGREDIENTS" "HAS A LOT TO DO WITH OUR INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY" "AND OUR FEELINGS AND OUR SENSE AND INTUITION" "OF HOW THINGS OUGHT TO BE." "SO IT'S ALMOST LIKE WRITING POETRY," "WHERE YOU PICK A PARTICULAR POETIC FORM." "FOR INSTANCE, YOU COULD PICK THE SONNET" "OR YOU COULD PICK THE JAPANESE HAIKU," "WHICH, EACH OF THESE FORMS HAS A SET OF RULES," "SO YOU OPERATE WITHIN A SET OF RULES," "WHICH IS VERY MUCH LIKE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS" "THAT YOU OPERATE WITHIN IN A MODEL." "BUT, THEN, INSIDE THE FORM OR INSIDE THE MODEL," "THERE'S A LOT OF FREEDOM," "THERE'S A LOT OF CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE." "Narrator:" "NATARAJAN GREW UP IN INDIA." "HER LIFE CHANGED WHEN SHE WAS AWARDED A SCHOLARSHIP" "TO CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY IN BRITAIN." "HERE SHE'S TAKEN ON A QUEST," "AS SPIRITUAL AS IT IS SCIENTIFIC." "SHE PONDERS THE ULTIMATE DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE." "Natarajan:" "WE SEE THE STARS THAT SHINE IN THE GALAXY," "AND WE ALSO HAVE EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS SOME GAS IN THE GALAXY," "BECAUSE WE CAN SEE THE LIGHT THAT'S SCATTERED OFF THE GAS." "BUT AS IT TURNS OUT," "GALAXIES CONTAIN A LOT MORE THAN JUST THAT." "Narrator:" "NATARAJAN OWES HER INSPIRATION" "TO A MAVERICK ASTRONOMER NAMED VERA RUBIN," "WHO, IN THE LATE 1960s," "DARED QUESTION A BASIC PREMISE OF ASTRONOMY." "Natarajan:" "WHAT VERA RUBIN DID IN HER WORK" "WAS MAP THE SPEEDS OF STARS AT DIFFERENT DISTANCES" "FROM THE CENTER OF A HUGE SPIRAL GALAXY." "Narrator:" "VERA RUBIN NOTICED SOMETHING" "WHICH DEFIED ACCEPTED WISDOM." "STARS SPINNING AROUND THE CENTER OF GALAXIES" "WERE SUPPOSED TO BEHAVE LIKE THE PLANETS" "THAT ORBIT THE SUN." "THEY DON'T." "Natarajan:" "WITH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM," "YOU HAVE THE SUN IN THE CENTER" "AND YOU HAVE SORT OF THE PLANETS ORBITING AROUND." "AND SINCE THE DOMINANT GRAVITY IS THAT OF THE SUN," "THE PLANETS THAT ARE THE OUTER PLANETS," "THEY MOVE MUCH SLOWER THAN THE PLANETS ON THE INSIDE." "SO NATURALLY WHAT PEOPLE EXPECTED TO FIND" "WAS SIMILARLY IN A GALAXY," "IF YOU MEASURE THE SPEED OF THE STARS" "AWAY FROM THE CENTER TOWARDS THE EDGE," "YOU EXPECT IT TO FALL OFF." "AND WHAT VERA RUBIN FOUND, INSTEAD," "WHEN SHE ACTUALLY MEASURED THAT FOR A SPIRAL GALAXY," "WAS THAT THE SPEED STAYED THE SAME." "AS SHE SORT OF MAPPED THE SPEED OF THE STARS" "FROM THE INSIDE OUT, ALL THE WAY OUT TO THE EDGE," "THEY STAYED THE SAME." "Narrator:" "RUBIN WAS THE FIRST TO POSE A QUESTION" "THAT HAS BAFFLED SCIENTISTS EVER SINCE." "IF ALL THE STARS IN A GALAXY MOVE AT THE SAME SPEED," "REGARDLESS OF THEIR DISTANCE FROM THE CENTER," "THEN THE CENTER COULDN'T BE" "THE ONLY SOURCE OF GRAVITY AFFECTING THEM." "SOMETHING ELSE WOULD HAVE TO BE EXERTING A POWERFUL FORCE," "SOMETHING WE SIMPLY CAN'T SEE." "WHAT SHE FOUND WAS" "THAT IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN THE SPEEDS THAT SHE OBSERVED," "SHE NEEDED TO HAVE A LOT MORE STUFF" "IN THE GALAXY THAN WE SEE," "AND SINCE THE STUFF IS NOT VISIBLE" "AND IT'S NOT EMITTING ANY LIGHT," "SHE COINED THE TERM "DARK MATTER"" "TO REFER TO THAT." "Narrator:" "RUBIN HAD EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE" "HER DISCOVERY WOULD BE MET WITH GREAT EXCITEMENT." "IT WAS, THOUGH NOT THE KIND SHE MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED." "Natarajan:" "HER ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THERE WAS DARK MATTER" "ASSOCIATED WITH EVERY INDIVIDUAL GALAXY" "WAS RECEIVED WITH MUCH SKEPTICISM," "BECAUSE OF THE FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS IT HAD," "AND BECAUSE, ALSO," "OF THE INFERRED PERCENTAGE OF DARK MATTER." "FROM HER WORK, SHE INFERRED THAT ALMOST 90% OF THE MASS" "IN A SPIRAL GALAXY HAD TO BE DARK." "Narrator:" "RUBIN'S FINDINGS SUGGESTED" "THAT THE DESTINY OF GALAXIES" "IS GOVERNED BY A VAST AND INSCRUTABLE NETWORK." "EVERY GALAXY IS ENVELOPED IN DARK MATTER," "INVISIBLY LOCKING ALL THE STARS IN ITS EMBRACE" "WITH THE GRAVITY IT EXERTS." "THE BLACK EMPTINESS OF SPACE," "IT SEEMS, ISN'T THAT EMPTY AFTER ALL." "99% OF THE UNIVERSE COULD WELL BE MADE UP" "OF DARK MATTER," "A SPRAWLING, COSMIC WEB." "FOR COSMOLOGISTS LIKE MYSELF," "IT'S CRUCIAL TO KNOW PRECISELY HOW MUCH DARK MATTER THERE IS" "IN ORDER TO KNOW" "WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE UNIVERSE EVENTUALLY." "Natarajan:" "THE TOTAL MASS OF OUR UNIVERSE IS WHAT DECIDES" "THE FATE OF OUR UNIVERSE, WHETHER WE CONTINUE EXPANDING," "OR WHETHER WE STOP AND DECELERATE," "OR WE TURN AROUND BACK ON OURSELVES." "SO THE ULTIMATE FATE OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO US" "DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE HAVE MADE AN INVENTORY" "OF THE MASS IN THE UNIVERSE." "AND THEREFORE, IF SUCH A LARGE FRACTION IS INDEED DARK," "THAT HAS VERY IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES." "Hawking:" "FEW PEOPLE NOW DOUBT THAT VERA RUBIN WAS RIGHT." "DARK MATTER DETERMINES THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSE." "TO KNOW OUR ULTIMATE FATE," "WE NEED TO BE SURE THAT DARK MATTER EXISTS," "AND HOW MUCH OF IT THERE IS." "SEARCHING FOR THE INVISIBLE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED." "WHEN CHRIS STUBBS FIRST TOLD HIS COLLEAGUES" "HE WANTED TO LOOK FOR DARK MATTER," "THEY TOLD HIM HE WAS OUT OF HIS MIND." "THAT WASN'T THE WAY TO A SAFE JOB." "THERE'S AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF SCIENCE TO DO," "AND I THINK THE TRICK IS TO CHOOSE CAREFULLY" "WHAT YOU SPEND YOUR TIME DOING." "AND MY TASTE, FOR A LONG TIME," "HAS RUN TOWARDS FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS" "THAT MAY BE VERY DIFFICULT TO ADDRESS EXPERIMENTALLY," "BUT WHICH HAVE A VERY LARGE IMPACT" "ON OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE." "Narrator:" "CHRIS STUBBS HAS MADE A CAREER" "OF SHOOTING IN THE DARK." "HE'S PART OF AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM" "OF 18 SCIENTISTS AND 3 INSTITUTIONS," "ALL WITH ONE IMPROBABLE GOAL." "Stubbs:" "WE'RE CARRYING OUT" "AN EXPERIMENT TO LOOK" "FOR A PARTICULAR KIND OF DARK MATTER," "WHICH WE CALL "MACHOS," WHICH IS A SHORTHAND" "THAT STANDS FOR "MASSIVE COMPACT HALO OBJECTS."" "THE IDEA IS THAT OUR GALAXY" "HAS A BIG HALO OF DARK MATTER AROUND IT" "THAT'S MADE OUT OF ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS" "THAT, FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER," "DON'T SHINE LIKE THE STARS THAT WE SEE." "Narrator:" "STUBBS BELIEVES THESE STRANGE VESTIGES OF STARS," "THEIR COMPRESSED CORPSES," "LITTER THE UNIVERSE." "MACHOS RANGE FROM THE SIZE OF THE EARTH" "TO 10 TIMES THAT OF THE SUN." "IF THEY ARE THE SECRET PHANTOMS THAT GOVERN THE MOTION OF STARS," "THEY WOULD BE MOST NUMEROUS ON THE FRINGES OF GALAXIES." "Hawking:" "IT WAS THE RIGHT PLACE TO SEARCH," "BUT FINDING THEM WOULD BE LIKE" "LOOKING FOR A BLACK BAT ON A DARK NIGHT." "THE ONE THING THAT HE KNEW WAS THAT HIS SUBJECTS" "WERE FAIRLY HEAVY." "AND IF THEY WERE HEAVY," "THEY WOULD HAVE A GRAVITATIONAL EFFECT" "ON LIGHT PASSING NEARBY." "THE MACHO-HUNTER TURNED" "TO EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY" "TO TELL HIM HOW GRAVITY AFFECTS LIGHT." "Narrator:" "STUBBS SET OUT TO FIND STEALTH STARS" "IN THE DARK REACHES OF SPACE." "BY SHEDDING A LITTLE EINSTEINIAN LIGHT ON THEM." "ACCORDING TO RELATIVITY," "SPACE AND TIME CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS ONE." "AN OBJECT MARKS ITS PLACE IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE-TIME" "WITH A DENT, A POCKET INTO WHICH OTHER OBJECTS" "THAT PASS WITHIN ITS SPHERE MUST FALL." "THIS IS HOW GRAVITY WORKS," "AND NOTHING IS IMMUNE TO ITS POWER," "NOT EVEN LIGHT." "WE'RE USED TO THE IDEA THAT LIGHT TRAVELS IN STRAIGHT LINES," "AND WHEN SPACE-TIME ITSELF" "IS CURVED, LIGHT STILL TRIES" "TO TRAVEL IN A STRAIGHT LINE," "BUT IT CAN'T," "BECAUSE SPACE-TIME ITSELF" "ACTUALLY HAS SHAPE AND DENTS AND WARPS IN IT." "SO JUST LIKE MATTER," "LIGHT WHICH IS TRAVELING IN A SPACE-TIME" "WHERE THERE'S SOME LARGE MASSIVE OBJECT" "WILL ACTUALLY BE ATTRACTED TO THE OBJECT," "AND ITS PATH WILL BE BENT TOWARDS IT." "THIS EFFECT OF THE BENDING OF LIGHT" "IS WHAT IS USED BY ASTRONOMERS" "IN THEIR SEARCH FOR MACHOS IN THE HALO OF OUR GALAXY." "Stubbs:" "EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY TELLS US" "THAT LIGHT PASSING CLOSE TO AN OBJECT," "LIKE THE SUN OR A LUMP OF DARK MATTER," "IS DEFLECTED ..." "IT GETS BENT." "AND THE EFFECT THAT A MASS HAS" "ON THE LIGHT COMING FROM A DISTANT STAR OR GALAXY" "IS JUST LIKE PUTTING A LENS IN FRONT OF THE STAR." "IT DISTORTS THE IMAGE, AND IT MAKES IT APPEAR BRIGHTER." "Narrator:" "IF A MACHO PASSES BETWEEN US" "AND A DISTANT GROUP OF STARS," "THEY WOULD BRIGHTEN, THEN FADE BACK TO NORMAL," "A TELLTALE SIGN OF THE MACHO'S PRESENCE." "STUBBS USED THE STARS AS A MILLION COSMIC SPOTLIGHTS," "HOPING ONE MIGHT FLARE," "MAGNIFIED BY THE CHANCE SWEEP OF A STRAY MACHO." "IT WAS A PAINSTAKING HUNT FOR A FAINT GLIMMER" "FROM SOMETHING THAT MAY NOT EVEN EXIST." "THIS IS JUST BEFORE PEAK BRIGHTNESS." "IT STILL STANDS OUT FROM THE REST OF THE STARS." "Stubbs:" "OUR EXPERIMENT HAS MADE MORE MEASUREMENTS" "OF THE BRIGHTNESS OF INDIVIDUAL STARS" "THAN THE ENTIRE CUMULATIVE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY COMBINED," "AND WE THEN SIFT THROUGH ALL OF THESE RECORDS" "IN ORDER TO FIND THE ONE TIME IN A MILLION" "WHEN A STAR GETS BRIGHTER" "AS A RESULT OF A MACHO" "TRAVELING CLOSE TO THE LINE OF SIGHT" "BETWEEN US AND THE STAR." "Narrator:" "HOURS OF PATIENT OBSERVATION," "MONTHS OF MARSHALING DATA ..." "A LOT WAS RIDING ON LITTLE MORE THAN A GOOD GUESS." "Stubbs:" "TWO YEARS AFTER WE STARTED THE EXPERIMENT," "WE WERE LOOKING THROUGH THE DATA," "TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO ANALYZE IT," "AND MUCH TO OUR SURPRISE" "FOUND EXACTLY WHAT WE THOUGHT WE WERE LOOKING FOR," "IN THAT WE SAW A STAR GET BRIGHTER" "AND THEN FAINTER AGAIN WITH EXACTLY THE SIGNATURE" "THAT'S PREDICTED BY GENERAL RELATIVITY." "OKAY, THIS LOOKS LIKE IT DEFINITELY" "FITS PRETTY WELL." "IT'S EASY TO DRAW A NICE CURVE." "Stubbs:" "OUR EXPERIMENT HAS DETECTED" "A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN COMPONENT OF THIS GALAXY." "IT'S A STUNNING RESULT." "Narrator:" "CHRIS STUBBS CLINCHED IT." "DARK MATTER IS NO FANTASY." "IT'S ACTUALLY OUT THERE." "BUT A MYSTERY LINGERS." "TO POWER THE FAST ROTATION OF STARS" "VERA RUBIN HAD DETECTED WOULD TAKE A LOT OF DARK MATTER." "IT SEEMS THERE ARE JUST NOT ENOUGH MACHOS" "TO ACCOUNT FOR THAT KIND OF COLOSSAL GRAVITATIONAL PULL." "Stubbs:" "THE SIMPLEST POINT OF VIEW" "IS THAT THE MACHOS ARE ORDINARY MATTER" "MADE UP OF THE SAME MATERIAL THAT EXISTS IN STARS." "IT JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN TO END UP IN STARS." "AND WE THINK WE KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH ..." "WE THINK WE KNOW HOW MUCH ORDINARY MATTER" "THERE IS IN THE UNIVERSE, AND IT JUST ISN'T ENOUGH" "TO SOLVE THE DARK MATTER PROBLEM OF THE UNIVERSE." "WE NEED TO FIND SOMETHING ELSE" "TO ACCOUNT FOR MORE OF THE DARK MATTER." "MACHOS WERE BIG, SO WHY NOT TRY SOMETHING TINY?" "ONE CANDIDATE WAS A WELL-KNOWN PARTICLE," "THE NEUTRINO." "THIS IS PRODUCED IN ATOMIC BOMB EXPLOSIONS," "SO IT WOULD ALSO HAVE BEEN PRODUCED" "IN THE BIG BANG EXPLOSION." "IF IT HAD A TINY MASS OF ITS OWN," "IT COULD BE THE DARK MATTER," "OR IT COULD BE ONE OF THE SO-CALLED EXOTIC PARTICLES" "WHOSE EXISTENCE WAS PREDICTED BY THEORY," "BUT WHICH WERE VERY HARD TO DETECT IN REALITY." "PERHAPS THEY ARE ACTUALLY OUT THERE," "SILENTLY SHAPING THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE." "Narrator:" "PROFESSOR CARLOS FRENK" "BELIEVES SMALL THINGS CAN HAVE A POWERFUL INFLUENCE," "IN THE CASE OF NEUTRINOS AND IN THE CASE OF HIS SON DAVID." "Frenk:" "I THINK THERE IS A GREAT PARALLEL" "BETWEEN THE EVOLUTION" "OF THE LARGEST SYSTEM THAT WE KNOW OF," "WHICH IS THE UNIVERSE," "AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM," "LIKE A PERSON OR LIKE MY SON." "I OFTEN WONDER WHAT ARE THE FACTORS" "THAT ARE GOING TO INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY SON," "WHETHER HE WILL BE A PHYSICIST OR A SCIENTIST," "WHETHER HE WILL BE A MUSICIAN," "OR WHETHER HE WILL BE ANYTHING ELSE." "I DON'T QUITE UNDERSTAND WHAT ARE THE FORCES" "THAT ARE GOING TO DRIVE HIM IN ONE DIRECTION OR THE OTHER." "THE UNIVERSE, HOWEVER, IS SIMPLER," "BECAUSE WE HAVE A MUCH GREATER MASTERY" "OVER THE LAWS THAT GOVERN THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE." "Narrator:" "FRENK IS DETERMINED TO RECONSTRUCT THE WAY" "THE YOUNG UNIVERSE EVOLVED INTO THE UNIVERSE WE KNOW TODAY." "THE MOST CRUCIAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE" "IS THE MOST ELUSIVE ..." "THE ROLE PLAYED BY DARK MATTER." "DAVID'S SCIENCE CLASS RELIES ON MODELS." "IT IS THE LOT OF THE PROBING MIND" "TO REQUIRE THE CONCRETE" "TO ENVISION CONCEPTS BEYOND OUR GRASP." "SO IT IS, FOR DAVID'S FATHER." "FRENK EXPERIMENTS WITH COMPUTERIZED REPRESENTATIONS" "OF A UNIVERSE LARGELY UNSEEN," "FROM ITS ELEMENTAL BIRTH" "TO THE RICH COMPLEXITY WE KNOW TODAY." "BUT HIS MODEL WILL ONLY WORK IF HE PROGRAMS IN" "THE PRECISE CHARACTERISTICS FOR DARK MATTER." "HE STARTS EACH RECREATION JUST A SECOND AFTER THE BIG BANG." "Frenk:" "PRIOR TO THAT TIME," "THE UNIVERSE WAS MADE UP OF A COSMIC SOUP" "OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND RADIATION." "NOTHING ELSE COULD EXIST" "IN THE MIDST OF THIS TREMENDOUS HEAT." "BUT THEN, AFTER ABOUT 100 SECONDS," "THE UNIVERSE HAD COOLED DOWN A LITTLE BIT" "TO A MERE 10 BILLION DEGREES," "BUT THIS TEMPERATURE IS NOW LOW ENOUGH" "THAT THE FIRST THERMONUCLEAR FUSION REACTIONS CAN TAKE PLACE." "Narrator:" "AT THAT CRITICAL INSTANT," "ACCORDING TO FRENK'S SCENARIO," "A MYSTERIOUS GROUP OF PARTICLES BROKE FREE FROM THE PACK." "LONG BEFORE THE APPEARANCE OF STARS AND GALAXIES," "THEY SWARMED INTO GREAT CLUSTERS OF DARK MATTER." "THESE VAST AGGREGATES EXERTED A POWERFUL GRAVITATIONAL PULL" "ON THE REMAINING ORDINARY MATTER." "AS THE DARK EMPIRE GREW" "IN TANDEM WITH THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE," "IT REINED IN MORE AND MORE ORDINARY MATTER," "ULTIMATELY GIVING RISE TO THE STARS." "EVENTUALLY, ONE BILLION YEARS AFTER THE BIG BANG," "CONGREGATIONS OF STARS DREW TOGETHER" "TO FROM THE EARLIEST GALAXIES." "FRENK'S TALE WAS AN EPIC ONE." "HE HAD ITS FRAMEWORK BY THE EARLY 1980s," "BUT IT WAS MISSING ONE CRUCIAL INGREDIENT." "WHAT WAS THE DARK MATTER?" "THE IDEA THAT WAS AROUND AT THE TIME" "WAS THAT THE DARK MATTER COULD CONSIST" "OF SMALL ELEMENTARY PARTICLES CALLED NEUTRINOS." "Narrator:" "COULD THIS MINUTE SHRAPNEL FROM THE BIG BANG" "WORK AS THE DARK MATTER IN HIS MODEL?" "Frenk:" "THAT WAS A VERY TRENDY," "FASHIONABLE IDEA, IF YOU LIKE, IN THOSE DAYS," "AND IT WAS THE FIRST CONCRETE PROPOSAL WE HAD" "FOR WHAT THE DARK MATTER COULD BE," "AND THIS WAS VERY SIGNIFICANT." "AND SOME PEOPLE WOULD SAY ..." "A VERY SIGNIFICANT IDEA," "AND SO PEOPLE WOULD SAY IT SIGNALLED" "THE BEGINNING OF A REVOLUTION IN THE WAY" "IN WHICH WE STUDY THE UNIVERSE," "BECAUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE NEUTRINO HYPOTHESIS" "PROVIDED A CONCRETE STARTING POINT" "THAT WE COULD EXPLORE IN AN UNAMBIGUOUS FASHION" "USING THE TOOLS OF EVOLUTIONARY COSMOLOGY." "Narrator:" "NEUTRINOS STREAM THROUGH THE UNIVERSE" "AT VIRTUALLY THE SPEED OF LIGHT." "EVERY SECOND, ABOUT 100 TRILLION" "SHOOT STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR BODY." "THESE TINY PARTICLES SUFFUSE THE UNIVERSE," "THEY ARE EVERYWHERE," "YET THEY WILL SLIP THROUGH ANY BARRIER," "SO THEY'RE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO NAB." "FOR PARTICLE PHYSICISTS, NO CATCH IS MORE CHALLENGING." "THEIR GOAL IS TO FIND OUT IF NEUTRINOS HAVE MASS." "WITHOUT MASS, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE A GRAVITATIONAL EFFECT," "AND THEY WOULDN'T BE A CANDIDATE FOR DARK MATTER." "IN NORTHERN FRANCE," "YVES DECLAIS IS LEADING AN AMBITIOUS EFFORT" "TO REEL IN NEUTRINOS." "Declais:" "WHEN YOU PREPARE YOUR BAIT," "WHEN YOU HAVE PREPARED YOUR DETECTOR," "WHEN YOU HAVE PREPARED YOUR TRAP," "YOU HAVE TO INSTALL IT AT THE RIGHT PLACE," "AND SO YOU HAVE TO GO" "WHERE YOU THINK YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DETECT NEUTRINO," "WHERE YOU WILL BE RIGHT TO GET OUT SOME FISH" "OUT FROM THE RIVER." "AND AFTER THAT," "YOU HAVE NOT ONLY TO WAIT, BUT YOU HAVE TO WORK," "AND YOU WILL SEE WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT." "YOU WILL SEE HOW MANY NEUTRINO, HOW MANY FISH" "YOU WILL GET OUT FROM THE RIVER." "Narrator:" "THE BEST PLACE TO CAST A LINE IS ALREADY KNOWN." "NEUTRINOS ARE PRODUCED WHERE THERE'S RADIOACTIVE DECAY." "BOTH ARE GOVERNED BY THE PHYSICS OF NUCLEAR REACTIONS." "FRED REINES WORKED ON THE ATOMIC BOMB," "THEN BECAME THE FIRST NEUTRINO HUNTER." "Declais:" "HE THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE TO SEE" "THE FLASH OF LIGHT PRODUCED" "BY THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEUTRINO" "INTO SOME WATER DETECTOR," "WHEN YOU HAVE THE EXPLOSION OF THE BOMB," "AND IN ORDER TO DETECT THIS FLASH" "WITH RESPECT TO THE NATURAL BACKGROUND AROUND." "BUT IT WAS QUITE DIFFICULT TO INSTALL SUCH AN EXPERIMENT" "NEAR AN ATOMIC BOMB." "Narrator:" "EVENTUALLY, REINES SHIFTED HIS EXPERIMENTS" "TO A SAFER SOURCE OF NEUTRINOS, A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT." "IN 1956, HE BECAME THE FIRST TO TRAP A NEUTRINO." "THE ACHIEVEMENT WON HIM THE NOBEL PRIZE." "BUT REINES WASN'T ABLE TO LEARN IF THE NEUTRINO HAD ANY MASS." "THAT CHALLENGE NOW FALLS TO YVES DECLAIS." "LIKE REINES, HE WILL STALK HIS TINY QUARRY" "IN THE BOWELS OF A COLOSSAL FURNACE." "BESIDE A NUCLEAR POWER STATION IS AN UNDERGROUND BUNKER," "SHIELDED BY THE EARTH FROM THE INTERFERENCE OF COSMIC RAYS." "Declais:" "YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE," "VERY STRONG NEUTRINO SOURCE IN ORDER TO BE ABLE" "TO SEE SOME INTERACTION OF THESE NEUTRINO." "AND YOU HAVE, ALSO," "TO PROTECT YOUR DETECTOR AGAINST THE BACKGROUND." "AND WHEN YOU DETECT LOW-ENERGY NEUTRINOS," "THE MAIN BACKGROUND COMES FROM THE SKY," "COMES FROM COSMIC RAYS," "SO YOU HAVE TO INSTALL YOUR DETECTOR" "AS DEEP AS POSSIBLE UNDERGROUND." "IN THIS EXPERIMENT WE WANT TO SEE" "IF THE NATURE OF THE NEUTRINO" "CHANGE BETWEEN THE SOURCE OF THE NEUTRINO" "AND THE DETECTOR ONE KILOMETER AWAY." "AND IF THE NATURE OF THE NEUTRINO CHANGE" "DURING THIS PATH OF ONE KILOMETER," "WE CAN DEMONSTRATE," "WE CAN PROVE THAT THIS IS RELATED" "TO THE EXISTENCE OF A MASS FOR THE NEUTRINO." "IT IS A LITTLE BIT COMPLICATED TO COMPUTE," "BUT IT IS A VERY, VERY SIMPLE SYSTEM." "Narrator:" "NEUTRINOS, BY DEFINITION," "MUST HAVE MASS IF THEY UNDERGO" "A SUBTLE DISTINGUISHABLE TRANSFORMATION." "DECLAIS AND HIS TEAM HAVE ALREADY CONDUCTED" "A NEUTRINO CENSUS NEARBY THE REACTOR." "NOW THEY WANT TO TAKE A COMPARATIVE TALLY HERE," "TWO-THIRDS OF A MILE AWAY." "YOU CAN SEE YOURS ..." "NO, PASSED TOO QUICKLY." "TWO EVENTS VERY FAR APART." "Narrator:" "THEY WANT TO SEE IF THERE ARE FEWER" "OF THE KIND OF NEUTRINOS THEY CLOCKED" "CLOSER TO THE REACTOR." "THE REST, THEN, WOULD HAVE UNDERGONE" "THE TELLTALE TRANSFORMATION" "BY THE TIME THEY TRAVELED THIS DISTANCE," "PROVING THE PARTICLES HAVE MASS." "IT MAY TAKE YEARS, BUT YVES IS PERSISTENT." "Declais:" "THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT" "FOR PARTICLE PHYSICS" "AND ALSO FOR COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPHYSICS." "ONE OF THE BEST CANDIDATES FOR THE DARK MATTER," "FOR THE MISSING MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE," "IS THE NEUTRINO, IF THE NEUTRINO HAS A MASS." "EVEN IF THE MASS OF THE NEUTRINO CAN BE VERY TINY ..." "VERY, VERY, VERY SMALL ..." "BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE IS COMPLETELY FILLED" "BY A LOT OF NEUTRINO COMING FROM THE EARLY UNIVERSE," "FROM THE FIRST THREE SECONDS OF THE UNIVERSE." "Narrator:" "MEANWHILE, CARLOS FRENK" "WASN'T WAITING FOR WORD." "HE KEPT HAMMERING AWAY AT HIS DIGITAL REENACTMENT OF CREATION." "HIS APPROACH WAS TO ASSUME NEUTRINOS HAVE MASS," "AND SEE WHAT KIND OF UNIVERSE WOULD RESULT." "Frenk:" "SO WE PROGRAMMED OUR COMPUTER" "TO FOLLOW THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE" "IN WHICH THE DARK MATTER WAS MADE UP OF MASSIVE NEUTRINOS," "AND THAT THE AIM WAS TO PRODUCE IN THE COMPUTER" "A SYNTHETIC UNIVERSE" "THAT WE COULD THEN COMPARE WITH THE REAL THING." "SO WE PROGRAMMED OUR COMPUTER UP IN THIS FASHION," "AND LET IT CHURN AWAY OVER CHRISTMAS," "AND WHEN WE CAME BACK, WE SAW THE FIRST MAPS" "BEING GENERATED BY THE COMPUTER." "HERE WE HAVE A RECOGNIZABLE UNIVERSE," "A CREDIBLE UNIVERSE, SOMETHING THAT'S MADE GALAXIES," "SOMETHING THAT'S MADE GALAXY CLUSTERS," "SOMETHING THAT IS COMPETITIVE VIS-A-VIS THE REAL UNIVERSE." "THERE WAS A GREAT SENSE OF ELATION," "AND THE THOUGHT THAT WE MIGHT HAVE SOLVED" "WHAT WAS ALREADY, CLEARLY THEN, AND SADLY STILL IS TODAY," "THE MAIN UNSOLVED PROBLEM IN COSMOLOGY." "IT WAS ONE OF THOSE FEELINGS YOU HAVE ONCE IN A LIFETIME," "WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE REALLY STUMBLED UPON SOMETHING MAJOR." "NOW, THAT WAS OUR FIRST IMPRESSION." "Narrator:" "THE IMPRESSION WAS FLEETING." "FRENK WAS SO ELATED" "TO HAVE CONCOCTED HIS OWN DIGITAL UNIVERSE," "AT FIRST HE DIDN'T NOTICE A FATAL FLAW." "ON CLOSER INSPECTION, HIS MODEL FOR CREATION" "DIDN'T QUITE LOOK LIKE THE REAL THING." "AND THAT WAS VERY DEPRESSING." "WE THOUGHT FOR A WHILE, FOR A FEW WEEKS, PERHAPS," "THAT WE REALLY HAD FOUND THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE," "AND THAT KEY EVAPORATED," "AND IT WAS A TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING PERIOD." "Narrator:" "IN FAILURE, THERE CAN BE LESSONS." "IN PERSEVERANCE THERE CAN BE RESULTS." "FRENK WASN'T ABOUT TO GIVE UP." "Frenk:" "IT IS PARADOXICAL THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE" "BETTER THAN WE CAN UNDERSTAND A TINY LITTLE PART." "MY SON IS AN INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE SPECK" "IN THIS GIGANTIC UNIVERSE," "AND YET I CAN UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE BETTER" "THAN I CAN UNDERSTAND MY SON." "AND SO OFTEN I REGARD MYSELF AS BEING VERY LUCKY" "THAT I AM A PHYSICIST," "RATHER THAN A BIOLOGIST OR A PSYCHOLOGIST." "THEY HAVE A MUCH TOUGHER TIME THAN WE DO," "BECAUSE WE DEAL WITH SYSTEMS THAT ARE INTRINSICALLY SIMPLE." "BIOLOGISTS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS" "DEAL WITH THIS MUCH MORE COMPLEX," "AND IN SOME WAYS MAGICAL WORLD OF HUMANS," "WHO ARE ESSENTIALLY UNPREDICTABLE." "Narrator:" "PARTICLE PHYSICISTS URGED A STARTLING ALTERNATIVE," "TO REPLACE THE NEUTRINO" "WITH AN ENTIRELY HYPOTHETICAL COMPONENT." "FRENK DUBBED IT "COLD DARK MATTER."" "HIS LONG STRUGGLE WITH NEUTRINOS HADN'T WORKED," "BUT HE HAD LEARNED MUCH IN THE PROCESS." "NOW, MAYBE, PRACTICE WOULD MAKE HIS MODEL PERFECT." "Frenk:" "OUR NEXT STEP, THEN," "WAS TO CHANGE OUR STARTING ASSUMPTION," "AND NOW TAKE THE DARK MATTER TO BE COMPOSED" "OF COLD DARK MATTER." "[ PLAYS SCHUMANN'S "MELODY" ]" "[ PLAYS WRONG NOTES ]" "Frenk:" "I MUST SAY, WE WERE VERY SKEPTICAL" "WHEN WE STARTED THIS NEW PROJECT." "BY THEN WE HAD GOT SLIGHTLY FED UP" "WITH PARTICLE PHYSICISTS TRYING TO TELL US ASTRONOMERS" "WHAT OUR UNIVERSE WAS MADE OF." "PARTICLE PHYSICISTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING ON SOMETHING ELSE," "AND THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO COME AND TELL US ASTRONOMERS" "WHAT OUR UNIVERSE IS MADE OF." "SO OUR APPROACH AT FIRST WAS REALLY, FRANKLY, CYNICAL ..." "WE STARTED OFF SAYING, RIGHT, LET'S GO AND PUT" "THESE PARTICLE PHYSICISTS RIGHT." "WE RULED OUT NEUTRINOS." "NOW LET'S GO RULE OUT COLD DARK MATTER AS WELL," "AND GET THOSE GUYS OFF OUR BACKS SO THEY CAN" "GO AND DO THEIR OWN THING WITH ACCELERATORS" "AND WE CAN KEEP ON TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW GALAXIES FORM." "[ PLAYING SCHUMANN'S "MELODY" ]" "Frenk:" "WHAT HAPPENED WAS THAT," "THESE COLD DARK MATTER UNIVERSES TURNED OUT TO BE" "FAR RICHER AND FAR MORE INTERESTING" "THAN WE EVER HAD ANY RIGHT TO EXPECT." "Narrator:" "FRENK'S NEW MODEL WORKS AT LAST," "BUT THERE'S A CATCH." "IT RELIES ON AN INVENTED PARTICLE," "A SYMBOL TAPPED OUT ON A KEYBOARD." "DOES COLD DARK MATTER EXIST?" "THE BURDEN OF PROOF IS ON THE EXPERIMENTALISTS" "WHO NOW HAVE TO GO AND DETECT THESE PARTICLES." "AND UNTIL THAT HAPPENS," "THEN WE CANNOT BE BY ANY MEANS CERTAIN" "THAT THIS IS A CORRECT THEORY." "BUT IF THEY DO SUCCEED," "THIS REALLY WILL BE AN OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT," "AND I THINK IT'S NOT AN EXAGGERATION" "TO SAY THAT IF THE DARK MATTER" "TURNS OUT TO BE AN EXOTIC ELEMENTARY PARTICLE," "THIS REALLY WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY" "AS ONE OF THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES EVER." "Hawking:" "THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT MOST OF THE UNIVERSE" "IS MADE UP OF SOMETHING NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN." "BY ITS VERY NATURE," "COLD DARK MATTER HAS TO BE HARD TO DETECT." "FINDING A WAY TO DO SO" "IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT TASKS IN PHYSICS TODAY." "Narrator:" "NOW, IN SEARCH OF A PARTICLE" "THAT CAN'T BE SEEN," "ONE THAT HAS ONLY PURE CONJECTURE" "TO VOUCH FOR ITS EXISTENCE," "A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS HAS COME" "TO THE MINING COUNTRY OF NORTHERN ENGLAND." "LEADING THEM IS NEIL SPOONER." "Spooner:" "IT'S FAIRLY ASTOUNDING" "THAT AT THE END OF THE 20th CENTURY," "WE ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW" "WHAT MOST OF THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OF ..." "NOT 90%, MAYBE EVEN 99% ..." "AND THAT IT SORT OF" "PUTS ONE IN, AS A HUMAN BEING ..." "INTO SOME PERSPECTIVE THAT WE ..." "THE EARTH IS NOT THE CENTER" "OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, ET CETERA," "AND MAYBE WE'RE NOT EVEN" "THE ONLY LIFE NOW." "AND WE'RE NOT EVEN MADE" "OF PARTICULARLY COMMON MATTER," "IN THAT WE'RE NOT THE TYPICAL" "MATTER THAT'S AROUND, BECAUSE" "MOST OF IT'S DARK MATTER," "WHICH WE DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS." "Narrator:" "SPOONER'S FIRST CHALLENGE" "WAS FINDING A WAY TO GLIMPSE THE PARTICLES HE WAS AFTER." "AS WITH NEUTRINOS," "THE SEARCH FOR COLD DARK MATTER MUST BE CONDUCTED UNDERGROUND," "BEYOND THE REACH OF COSMIC RAYS." "HIS TEAM IS GOING TO GREAT LENGTHS TO FIND DARK MATTER," "AND GREAT DEPTHS." "Spooner:" "IT JUST HAPPENS" "THAT MY FATHER IS A MINING ENGINEER BY PROFESSION." "SO I JUST ASKED HIM WHAT WAS THE DEEPEST MINE IN BRITAIN," "NAIVELY THINKING IT WOULD BE A COAL MINE, WHICH WOULD BE" "USELESS FOR US BECAUSE IT WOULD BE QUITE DIFFICULT" "TO WORK IN THE COAL MINE," "BECAUSE OF THE SAFETY ASPECT OF IT." "BUT IT TURNED OUT THAT HE LOOKED IT UP," "AND IT WAS BOULBY, WHICH IS A SALT MINE," "WHICH IS IDEAL FOR US." "Narrator:" "BOULBY MINE IS NOT ONLY THE DEEPEST IN BRITAIN," "BUT IN ALL EUROPE." "THE ELEVATOR BORES INTO THE GROUND" "FOR FIVE LONG MINUTES," "PLUMMETING A MILE BELOW THE SURFACE." "AT THIS DEPTH, THE AIR IS 18 DEGREES HOTTER" "THAN AT THE SURFACE, AND CHOKED WITH DUST." "BUILDING DELICATE INSTRUMENTS" "THAT CAN STAND UP TO THESE CORROSIVE CONDITIONS" "WAS A DAUNTING PROSPECT." "Spooner:" "IT'S A TECHNOLOGICAL FIGHT," "TRYING TO WORK DEEP UNDERGROUND" "IN THE SALT MINE, WHICH IS AN ENVIRONMENT WHICH," "WELL, WE'RE DEALING WITH FAIRLY INTRICATE ELECTRONICS," "AND WE'RE TRYING TO BE CLEAN." "AND TRYING TO DO THAT IN A MINE IS SORT OF VERY, VERY DIFFICULT." "Narrator:" "DEEP IN THE EARTH, IT'S HARD TO TELL THE LOCALS," "WORKING THEIR PICKS AND SHOVELS," "FROM THE PARTICLE PHYSICISTS MINING FOR MATTER." "Spooner:" "THEY ALL SAY, "HAVE YOU FOUND IT YET?"" "WE USUALLY SAY, "NOT YET, BUT WE'RE WORKING ON IT."" "Narrator:" "EVEN THOUGH DARK MATTER MAY OCCUPY 99% OF THE UNIVERSE," "THE PARTICLES SPOONER AND HIS TEAM ARE AFTER ARE ELUSIVE." "THEY AREN'T KNOWN AS "WEAKLY INTERACTING MASSIVE PARTICLES,"" "OR "WIMPS," FOR NOTHING." "THEY MEEKLY SHUN CONTACT WITH ANYTHING ELSE." "Spooner:" "THESE PARTICLES ARE NEUTRAL." "THEY'RE NOT CHARGED." "THEIR INTERACTION IS LIKE A SORT OF A BILLIARD-BALL EFFECT" "IF THEY INTERACT, WHICH MAINLY THEY DON'T." "BUT WHEN THEY DO, THEY JUST WILL STRIKE AN ATOM" "WHICH WILL RECOIL." "SO WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR IS THESE LITTLE RECOILS OF ATOMS." "I'M TALKING ABOUT VERY SMALL DISTANCES ..." "THOUSANDTHS OF A MILLIMETER OR SO." "AND AS THIS ATOM RECOILS, IT GIVES OFF SOME ENERGY," "IN OUR CASE, LIGHT." "AND YOU TRY AND DETECT THIS LIGHT." "Narrator:" "THAT GLINT WOULD BE SO FAINT AND EVANESCENT" "THAT EVEN SLIGHT RADIATION FROM SURROUNDING ROCKS MIGHT MASK IT." "SO THE DETECTOR IS FURTHER INSULATED" "WITHIN 200 TONS OF DISTILLED WATER." "Spooner:" "WE'RE OVER A KILOMETER UNDERGROUND," "SO WE'VE GOT RID OF THE COSMIC RAYS," "AND THEN WE'RE IN THE WATER," "SO WE CAN SCREEN OFF THE STUFF COMING FROM THE WALLS," "AND THEN WE'VE GOT OUR DETECTOR IN THE MIDDLE," "SITTING THERE WAITING FOR A WIMP." "OUR DETECTOR WAS A SIMPLE CRYSTAL," "WHICH GIVES OFF LITTLE BURSTS OF LIGHT" "WHEN STRUCK BY THE PARTICLE." "WE HAVE TO REALLY AMPLIFY THIS LIGHT," "BECAUSE IT'S VERY LOW LEVEL." "SEEMS TO BE OKAY." "Spooner:" "WE USE THIS DEVICE CALLED A PHOTOMULTIPLIER" "TO CONVERT LIGHT INTO ELECTRONS." "THESE ARE THEN MULTIPLIED," "AND YOU GET ..." "FOR EVERY ONE THAT COMES IN," "YOU GET ABOUT A MILLION COMING OUT." "AND THAT PROVIDES A NICE, BIG SIGNAL," "WHICH YOU CAN THEN MEASURE AND RECORD." "IN THE LAST YEAR OR TWO," "WE HAVE MADE FAIRLY SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS." "WE'VE IMPROVED OUR DETECTORS" "SUCH THAT WE'RE NOW ABOUT 50 TIMES MORE SENSITIVE" "THAN ANYONE ELSE WAS PREVIOUSLY." "BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET" "PROBABLY ANOTHER 100 TIMES BETTER." "IF WE DO THAT," "THEN WE SHOULD SEE THEM" "OR WE SHOULD NOT SEE THEM." "IF WE SEE THEM, THEN OBVIOUSLY" "THAT'S VERY EXCITING," "AND MAYBE WE'VE DISCOVERED" "WHAT DARK MATTER IS, OR WHAT" "MOST OF THE DARK MATTER IS." "IF WE DON'T SEE THEM, THAT'S ALSO PRETTY EXCITING," "BECAUSE IT'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING," "AND IF IT'S NOT WIMPS, MAYBE IT'S NOT MACHOS," "AND MAYBE NEUTRINOS DON'T HAVE MASS." "WE DON'T KNOW, BUT IT'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING." "SO THAT WOULD DEEPEN THE MYSTERY." "Frenk:" "IF AND WHEN THE DARK MATTER ..." "OR I SHOULD SAY, WHEN THE DARK MATTER IS DISCOVERED," "BECAUSE IT'S NOT A QUESTION" "THAT DARK MATTER IS THERE TO BE DISCOVERED" "AND IT WILL BE DISCOVERED." "I CAN SAY THAT WITH COMPLETE CERTAINTY ..." "WELL, AS COMPLETE AS A SCIENTIST CAN EVER DO." "BUT WHEN THE DARK MATTER IS DISCOVERED," "I THINK THE WHOLE JIGSAW OF OUR UNIVERSE" "WILL FALL INTO PLACE." "WE WILL UNDERSTAND NOT ONLY" "WHY OUR UNIVERSE LOOKS THE WAY IT DOES," "WE WILL UNDERSTAND WHY THERE ARE GALAXIES," "HOW THEY CAME TO BE, WHY THERE ARE PLANETS," "WHY THERE ARE STARS, BUT WE WOULD ALSO UNDERSTAND" "WHAT THE ULTIMATE FATE OF OUR UNIVERSE WILL BE." "THERE ARE TWO POSSIBILITIES." "IF THERE'S ONLY A FAIRLY SMALL AMOUNT OF DARK MATTER," "THE UNIVERSE WILL CONTINUE TO EXPAND FOREVER," "GETTING COLDER AND COLDER, AND MORE AND MORE EMPTY." "ON THE OTHER HAND, IF THERE'S A LOT OF DARK MATTER," "GRAVITY WILL SLOW DOWN THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE" "AND STOP IT EVENTUALLY." "THEN THE UNIVERSE WILL BEGIN TO CONTRACT," "AND WILL END UP IN A BIG CRUNCH, LIKE THE BIG BANG IN REVERSE." "FROM WHAT WE KNOW NOW, IT COULD GO EITHER WAY." "IF I PLACED A BET," "I THINK I KNOW WHICH FATE I'D BACK." "BUT HOW WOULD I COLLECT AFTER THE BIG CRUNCH?" "WHICHEVER WAY THE UNIVERSE EVENTUALLY GOES," "ITS EVOLUTION IS BEING AFFECTED BY DARK MATTER RIGHT NOW." "BEFORE WE HAVE EVEN DISCOVERED WHAT IT'S MADE OF," "SOME ASTRONOMERS HAVE BEGUN MAPPING ITS EFFECTS." "Woman:" "THE CHALLENGE OF MAPPING THE UNIVERSE" "IS THAT YOU HAVE TO DO IT IN THREE DIMENSIONS." "AND HUMAN BEINGS ARE VERY GOOD AT MAKING TWO-DIMENSIONAL MAPS." "IT'S THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING THAT THIRD DIMENSION" "AND PUTTING IT IN YOUR HEAD, BEING ABLE TO CLOSE YOUR EYES" "AND SEE IN 3-D WHAT'S AROUND YOU." "IT'S A CHALLENGE, BUT IT'S FUN." "SO I THINK WE'LL LAY THINGS OUT" "WITH THE EQUATOR DOWN HERE." "Faber:" "WHEN WE FIRST STARTED THIS MAPPING BUSINESS," "IT WAS VERY, VERY PRIMITIVE," "AND PEOPLE KNEW THAT THERE WERE CLUSTERS OVER THERE" "AND A FEW OVER THERE AND SO ON." "IT WAS A LITTLE BIT LIKE STANLEY" "GOING TO DARKEST AFRICA." "HE KNEW WHERE THE CONGO RIVER WAS, AND THE NILE MAYBE," "BUT NOT MUCH ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE." "LOOKS LIKE IT'S OVER THERE." "Narrator:" "EXPLORING A DARK CONTINENT OF HER OWN," "SANDRA FABER HAS SPENT YEARS CHARTING UNKNOWN TERRAIN." "HER MAPPING TECHNIQUES HAVE REVOLUTIONIZED" "THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE UNIVERSE AND CONTEMPLATE ITS FUTURE." "Faber:" "WHAT WE'RE GOING TO SEE HERE" "IS THREE SLICES OF THE UNIVERSE." "AND EARTH IS DOWN HERE IN THIS DIAGRAM," "RIGHT HERE AT THE POINT." "AND NOW WE SEE THE FIRST SLICE" "BEING DISPLAYED LIKE THIS." "EACH LITTLE BLACK DOT IS A GALAXY." "THIS WAS TAKEN FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE," "AND NOW WE SEE FINALLY THE THIRD SLICE IS COMING UP HERE." "WHAT'S INTERESTING ABOUT THESE MAPS" "IS THAT THE GALAXIES ARE NOT UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED IN SPACE." "INSTEAD, WHAT WE SEE IS THAT THEY TEND TO PILE UP" "ALONG THESE WALLS." "SOME PEOPLE HAVE CALLED THEM SOAP BUBBLES." "AND THEN THE INSIDES OF THESE SPACES ARE CALLED VOIDS." "THEY'RE RELATIVELY EMPTY OF GALAXIES." "AND, OF COURSE, THIS WHOLE STRUCTURE" "IS EXPANDING AS THE UNIVERSE EXPANDS." "NOW, THE QUESTION IS, OF COURSE," "WHY DO THE GALAXIES TRACE" "THIS BEAUTIFUL LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE?" "Narrator:" "SANDRA'S HUNCH WAS THAT THIS STRUCTURE" "WAS CREATED BY THE UNSEEN INFLUENCE OF DARK MATTER." "SHE SET OUT TO PROVE IT" "WITH THE MOST ADVANCED TELESCOPES IN THE WORLD." "OBSERVING IS ALMOST MYSTICAL." "IT'S THE ACT THAT REALLY PUTS ME IN CONTACT" "WITH THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE." "SITTING THERE AND ACCEPTING THESE PHOTONS," "I IMAGINE PROJECTING MYSELF BACK ALONG THAT SAME PATH," "AND IN SOME WAY, I KNOW THIS SOUNDS RIDICULOUS," "BEING IN COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNION" "WITH WHERE THEY CAME FROM." "I OFTEN THINK IF SOMEBODY'S LOOKING BACK AT ME," "I WONDER IF THEIR TELESCOPE IS BIGGER THAN MINE." "Narrator:" "EVEN THROUGH THE MOST POWERFUL INSTRUMENTS," "GALAXIES MILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY" "APPEAR AS TINY SPECKS." "YET FABER'S WORK DEMANDS THE MOST EXACTING MEASUREMENTS," "EVEN OF THESE FAR-FLUNG GALAXIES." "SO SENSITIVE ARE THE TELESCOPE'S DETECTORS" "THAT BEFORE EACH RUN THEY MUST BE COOLED" "WITH LIQUID NITROGEN." "AT OVER 300 DEGREES BELOW ZERO," "THEIR VERY ATOMS ARE STILLED." "Faber:" "HAVING CHECKED EVERYTHING OUT," "WE THEN WALK INTO THE CONTROL ROOM OFF THE DOME." "GONE ARE THE DAYS OF STANDING IN THE COLD." "WE DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE." "WE AIM THE TELESCOPE" "AND WE SIT THERE AND WE WAIT, WE EXPOSE." "AH!" "SO THIS IS OUR NEXT OBSERVATION." "WHAT WAS THIS GALAXY?" "THIS WAS NGC-5813." "5813, OKAY." "Narrator:" "SANDRA AND HER COLLEAGUES" "DEVELOPED THEIR MAPPING TECHNIQUE" "TO FATHOM THE ROLE DARK MATTER PLAYS" "IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNIVERSE." "THIS LOOKS DIFFERENT FROM OUR PREVIOUS SPECTRUM." "Narrator:" "THAT DARK MATTER GOVERNS" "THE MOTION OF INDIVIDUAL STARS, THERE'S NO QUESTION." "AT STAKE IS HOW IT GUIDES THE PATHS OF ENTIRE GALAXIES" "AS THEY DRIFT THROUGH SPACE." "BIT BY BIT, THE DATA" "IS FALLING TOGETHER" "INTO AN AWESOME PORTENT OF OUR GALAXY'S FATE." "Faber:" "SUDDENLY IT CAME TO US" "THAT IF WE PLOTTED ALL OF THESE MOTIONS OF GALAXIES," "THAT AN ENORMOUS REGION OF SPACE, INCLUDING US," "WAS MOVING ROUGHLY IN PARALLEL, LIKE A BIG RIVER OF GALAXIES," "AT THE BREAK-NECK SPEED" "OF 600 KILOMETERS PER SECOND," "AND THAT WAS A DEFINITELY NEW THOUGHT FOR US." "THAT REALLY STRUCK US VERY STRONGLY." "WE SAID, WHAT HAVE WE DISCOVERED?" "THIS IS TRULY REMARKABLE." "THEN WE BEGAN TO LOOK AT OUR SURVEY" "IN MORE DETAIL, AND WE SAW" "THAT, IN FACT, OFF IN THE DISTANCE THERE," "TOWARDS WHICH THIS GREAT RIVER WAS FLOWING," "WAS A VERY LARGE STRUCTURE, WHICH ONE OF US LATER NAMED" ""THE GREAT ATTRACTOR,"" "AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY, VERY BIG SUPERCLUSTER," "A SUPER-SUPERCLUSTER OF GALAXIES," "AND OUR MOTION TOWARDS THAT IS DUE TO ITS GRAVITY." "IT'S PULLING ALL OF US IN." "AND AT SOMETHING LIKE 50 TO 100 BILLION YEARS FROM NOW," "OUR GALAXY WILL BE ONE OF SEVERAL THOUSAND ON AN ORBIT" "IN THE GREAT SUPERCLUSTER CALLED THE GREAT ATTRACTOR." "Narrator:" "A STAGGERING FORCE," "EMANATING FROM A HUGE CONCENTRATION OF MATTER," "KNOWN AND UNKNOWN," "IS RELENTLESSLY REELING US IN ACROSS INTERGALACTIC SPACE." "THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE" "IS SHAPED BY A VAST SPRAWL OF DARK MATTER," "BY A COSMIC SPECTER DRAWING THE GALAXIES TOGETHER" "INTO CLUSTERS AND SUPERCLUSTERS," "TURNING GREAT PATCHES OF SKY INTO EMPTY VOIDS." "Faber:" "THE WAY THE DARK MATTER CLUSTERS" "WILL AFFECT EXACTLY HOW GALAXIES FORM" "AND HOW SUPERCLUSTERS, VOIDS, WALLS, AND SO ON FORM." "DARK MATTER IS KEY." "IT IS CONTROLLING THE MOTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE." "IT'S MAKING THE GALAXIES FORM." "IT'S MAKING THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE FORM." "IT'S IN CHARGE." "Narrator:" "WE CAN STILL ONLY GUESS" "WHAT DARK MATTER HOLDS IN STORE FOR US." "AND IT SEEMS NOT ALL GREAT MINDS GUESS ALIKE." "Faber:" "WELL, CURRENTLY, IT LOOKS AS THOUGH" "THERE'S NOT ENOUGH MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE, QUITE," "TO RETARD THE EXPANSION." "IF WE HAD TO BET RIGHT NOW, WE'D PROBABLY BET" "THAT THE UNIVERSE WILL EXPAND FOREVER." "IT'S A FASCINATING IDEA." "IF THE UNIVERSE EXPANDS FOREVER," "WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO IT AS IT COOLS OFF?" "STARS ARE GRADUALLY CONSUMING ALL THE GAS IN GALAXIES." "OVER TIME, IT WILL ALL BE USED UP." "THOSE STARS WILL BURN AND USE UP THEIR FUEL AND DIE," "BECOME COLD, DEAD REMNANTS, WHITE DWARVES," "MAYBE SOME BLACK HOLES IN THERE." "GALAXIES ARE EVER MERGING TO MAKE YET LARGER STRUCTURES," "BUT WILL BECOME EVER DIMMER AS THE STARS IN THEM DIE OUT." "AND ULTIMATELY," "EVEN THE VERY STUFF OF WHICH STARS ARE MADE ..." "THE PROTONS, NEUTRONS, AND SO ON ..." "WILL DECAY." "AND IT MAY BE THAT THE ULTIMATE STATE OF THE UNIVERSE" "IS TO HAVE NO MATTER AT ALL ..." "A SEA OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES," "DEAD PHOTONS, AND NOTHING ELSE." "Hawking:" "AND THE ALTERNATIVE OF A BIG CRUNCH" "IS NOT MUCH BETTER." "A FEW YEARS AGO, WHEN I WAS GIVING A LECTURE," "I WAS ASKED NOT TO MENTION THE END OF THE UNIVERSE," "IN CASE IT DEPRESSED THE STOCK MARKET." "BUT I CAN REASSURE WORRIED INVESTORS," "EITHER WAY, THE UNIVERSE IS GOOD" "FOR MANY BILLIONS OF YEARS MORE." "THE END MAY BE COMING, BUT NOT JUST YET."