The Birth, Life and Death of the Universe

1
The Birth, Life and Death of the Universe and The
Strange and Terrible Accident of Human
Consciousness
Patrick Gaydecki School of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering University of
Manchester PO Box 88 Manchester M60 1QD United
Kingdom Tel UK-44 (0) 161 306
4906 patrick.gaydecki_at_manchester.ac.uk
www.eee.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/sisp/re
search/dsp
2
Synopsis
The universe was formed approximately 13.7
billion years ago from the cataclysmic explosion
of a singularity 0.000000000000000000000000003 (2
x 10-27) metres in diameter (much smaller than
the diameter of an atom). After just
0.00000000000000000000000000000000001 (10-35)
seconds, when the temperature of the nascent
universe was ten thousand trillion, trillion
degrees Kelvin (1028 K), it underwent a period of
ultra-rapid expansion called inflation, during
which it expanded in size by a factor of 1030.
This has been likened to the expansion of a DNA
molecule to the size of our galaxy, in a
trillionth of a trillionth of the blink of an
eye. After this point, the universe expanded and
cooled more gradually, during which the stars,
planets and all life emerged. The visible
universe today is 6 x 1025 m (or 3.75 x 1022
miles) in diameter, and contains some 1011
galaxies. Each galaxy contains roughly 1011
stars, most of which are thought to have planets.
The universe beyond this point is unknown. At
some distant time in the future, the universe
will cool and die, and all life will be
extinguished.
3
Lecture Overview (1)

• Sizing the universe
• The Steady State Theory
• Big Bang Theory
• Recession of the galaxies
• Microwave background radiation
• Problems associated with the Big bang Theory
  inflation, dark matter and dark energy
• Formation of matter and planets nucleo-synthesis
• Age and formation of the solar system
• Newtonian physics, the nature of light and time,
  the concept of the aether
• Einstein, Special Relativity and General
  Relativity

4
Lecture Overview (2)

• Problems associated with Maxwells
  interpretation Plank
• Formulation of Quantum Theory and The Uncertainty
  Principle
• The Standard Model of the Universe
• String and M-theory
• The evolution of life
• The nature of consciousness
• Mysteries and challenges ahead
• Ultimate fate of the universe
• The nature of reality

5
The Vault of the Heavens
Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea Now
steals along upon the Moon's meek shine In even
monochrome and curving line Of imperturbable
serenity
6
The Diameter of the Earth
In ancient times the Earth was assumed to be
flat. However, by 350 BC, The Greeks had
concluded, from many observations, such as the
way a ship disappeared over the horizon or the
shadow of the Earth on the moon during a solar
eclipse, that the earth was spherical.   The
first recorded, accurate measurement of the
circumference of the Earth was made by
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-196 BC). On June 21,
the noonday sun was directly above the city of
Aswan, Egypt. At the same time, a stick placed
upright in the ground in the city of Alexandria,
some 800 km north, cast a short shadow,
indicating the sun was 7 past its zenith. From
this, Eratosthenes calculated the Earths
circumference to be This was a momentous
discovery, and one which began to cast doubt on
initial estimates of the size of the cosmos.
Today, we know that the mean circumference of the
earth is 40,076 km, with a mean diameter of
12,774 km. Quite apart from the minor
irregularities cause by mountain ranges, the
earth is not truly spherical since it has an
equatorial bulge resulting from its rotation.
  Strictly speaking therefore, the Earth is an
oblate spheroid.
7
Earth Sizing Principle
Sunlight
7 degrees
8
The Lunar Distance
Hipparchus of Nicaea (190-120 BC) reasoned that
if the sun was much further from the earth than
was the moon, then the curvature of the earths
shadow during an eclipse could be used to
estimate the distance to the moon. Using
Eratosthenes data for the earths diameter, he
calculated the distance to the moon to be 384,403
km. This was an excellent estimate. Today, we
know that the moon is at a mean distance of
382,166 km, with a perigee of 354,341 km and an
apogee of 404,336 km. By exploiting the parallax
effect, it was possible to make increasingly
accurate measurements of the lunar distance. By
knowing its distance, the diameter of the moon
could also be estimated by using, additionally,
its apparent size as seen by the eye. The
diameter is 3,474 km.
9
The Parallax Method
10
The Solar Distance
Attempts by the ancient Greeks to measure the
distance to the sun using trigonometry were
correct in their method but limited by the
absence of appropriate astronomical instruments.
By 150 BC, they had gauged the sun to lie at a
distance of perhaps 8 million km, and this, they
reasoned, was also the approximate size of the
celestial sphere (the universe), in which the
stars were embedded. Calculating the distance to
the planets was not possible. No further progress
on the size of the universe was made for 1,800
years. Almost certainly, significant progress in
the sciences was delayed by several hundred years
by the destruction of the great Library in
Alexandria, the ancient world's single greatest
archive of knowledge. Matters were not helped by
the fact that the Greeks believed all celestial
bodies to orbit the earth. A new model of the
Solar System had to wait until the Polish
astronomer Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), who
reasoned in a book published on the day of his
death, that the Sun, not the Earth, was the
centre of the Solar System.
11
Size of the Solar System

• In 1619 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) established
  an accurate model of the Solar System. He found
  that the average distances of the planets from
  the Sun were proportional to the times of
  revolution. Hence, it was possible to say if a
  plant x was twice as far from the Sun as plant y.
  With the invention of the telescope by Galileo
  Galilei (1564-1642), it became possible to
  measure very small parallaxes. In 1671, Jean
  Richer (1630-96) and Giovanni Cassini (1625-172)
  made simultaneous parallax measurements of Mars
  from Cayenne, French Guiana and Paris.
• From this, they calculated the distance of the
  Earth to the Sun to be 140,070,000 km (87,000,000
  miles). This was pretty good it is actually at a
  mean distance of 149,053,800 (92,580,000 miles).
• Modern techniques use radar or laser reflection
  to measure the distances of planets within our
  solar system, with great accuracy (less than a
  centimetre). We know, for example, that the moon
  is spiralling away from the earth at a rate of 38
  mm per year.
• Pluto lies at a mean distance from the sun of
  5,910 million km, or 3,671 million miles.

12
The Nearest Stars
Our Galaxy contains roughly 150 billion stars.
The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light
years from us. Since light travels at 299,792,458
m/s, it follows that Proxima Centauri lies at a
distance of D 4.2 X 365 X 24 X 3600 X
299792.458 39,707,870,810,000 km i.e. about
24.7 trillion miles. The distances of the stars
are so vast that it was not until relatively
recently that the tiny stellar parallaxes could
be measured, for even the closest stars. This
required taking measurements at opposite points
of the earths rotation around the sun. In 1838,
Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846) announced the first
parallax measurement of a star, 61 Cygni, in the
constellation Cygnus, which was 0.29 seconds of
arc. Its distance was 11.1 light years, or 105
trillion km (63.4 trillion miles).
13
The Doppler Effect
The Doppler effect was first explained accurately
in 1842 by Christian Johann Doppler (1803-53). It
works like this if a car travels towards us, the
engine noise appears to be raised in pitch, and
it falls as it passes. This is because the sound
waves bunch up as they travel towards us but get
stretched as the car recedes. The same is true
for light, but with respect to colour. A white
star approaching us appears bluish, but reddish
if moving away. In addition, the light from a
star has many dark spectral absorption lines,
since different elements absorb different
frequencies. By observing the spectrum, we can
deduce the stars speed and chemical
composition. By analysing the Suns spectrum,
and comparing this with the stars, it was
confirmed that the sun is indeed an ordinary star.
Identification of Fraunhofer lines. Identification of Fraunhofer lines. Identification of Fraunhofer lines.
Fraunhofer Line Element Wavelength (Å)
A - (band) O2 7594 - 7621
B - (band) O2 6867 - 6884
C H 6563
a - (band) O2 6276 - 6287
D - 1, 2 Na 5896 5890
E Fe 5270
b - 1, 2 Mg 5184 5173
c Fe 4958
F H 4861
d Fe 4668
e Fe 4384
f H 4340
G Fe Ca 4308
g Ca 4227
h H 4102
H Ca 3968
K Ca 3934
14
Size of the Milky Way
Stellar parallax cannot be used to determine the
distance of more distant stars, simply because
they are too small. In 1912, a startling
discovery was made by Henrietta Swan Leavitt
(1868-1921), one of the greatest unsung heroines
of astronomy (there are several others). She
discovered that a particular kind of star called
a Cepheid Variable varies in brightness at a rate
inversely proportional to its absolute luminosity
(by observing Cepheids in the Small Magellanic
Cloud). The absolute luminosity is determined by
distance. Hence, by establishing the distance to
one Cepheid, all distances could be known.
By using the Doppler effect in conjunction with
Cepheid behaviour, it was for the first time
possible to establish absolute distances and the
size our galaxy. Many astronomers were involved
in this process, and the final shape and
distribution emerged in the 1930s. Our Galaxy
has a lens-shaped spiral construction, 16,000
light years thick at the centre and 3,000 light
years thick at the position of our sun, which is
roughly 2/3 the radius from the centre. The
galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in
diameter, i.e. 9.45 x 1017 km, or about one
million trillion km (600,000,000,000,000,000
miles). By 1919, it was not even suspected that
there might be other galaxies
15
The Milky Way
16
Our place in the Milky Way
You are here
17
Echoes of Eternity
If only you could see what I have seen, with
your eyes
18
Echoes of Eternity other Galaxies and Galactic
Recession
In the early part of the 20th century, Vesto
Slipher (1875-1969), not Edwin Hubble, first
discovered galactic red shifts, although at the
time they were considered shifts of stars.
However, Hubble (1889-1953) used Leavitts
discovery to show that the supposed stars
observed by Slipher were in fact galaxies in
their own right. In addition, he discovered that
the farther away a galaxy, the faster it is
receding (apart from the local cluster including
Andromeda and the Magellanic Clouds, due to
gravity). From these observations was derived
Hubbles Law
Where v is the recessional velocity, D is the
distance of the galaxy to the observer, and H is
a constant. Note that our galaxy does not occupy
a special position, i.e. all galaxies are
receding from one another, like dots on the
surface of an inflating balloon (this is a
simplification, since the surface of a balloon is
two-dimensional, whereas space is 3D).
19
Implications of an Expanding Universe The Great
Debate
The discovery of an expanding universe was a
relief to many but irksome to some. Most
important, Einsteins Theory of Gravitation does
not permit a static universe. At the time of its
formulation, no other kind was known, so he added
a cosmological constant (the greatest blunder of
my life) to accommodate it. Actually, Newtonian
physics does not allow it either. The expanding
universe removed the necessity of the
cosmological constant, completing the theory in
all its beauty. However, an expanding universe
implied, ineluctably, that it had a beginning as
a very small, hot and dense mass. The idea of the
big bang was born, first proposed by Georges
Lemaitre (1894-1966), a Belgian priest. This was
initially dismissed, but later gained increasing
acceptance. However, Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)
thought the theory absurd, and developed his own
ideas
20
The Steady State Universe
Fred Hoyle had no problems with the notion of an
expanding universe, but, based on the
Cosmological Principle (which states that on a
large scale, the universe is homogenous and
isotropic, and that we occupy no special
position), he maintained that it came into
existence by the continuous and spontaneous
creation of matter about 1 atom per cubic metre
every 10 billion years, not through a sudden
cataclysmic event which he coined The Big Bang
as a pejorative term during a radio broadcast. In
the 1950s however, evidence began to accumulate
in favour of the Big Bang Theory

• The expansion was consistent with Hubbles law,
  at all observed points
• The universe contained different features,
  depending on how far you looked, i.e. how far
  back in time.
• The amount of helium in the universe it is the
  2nd most common element, but the Steady State
  Theory would give far lower concentrations than
  those predicted by the BBT.

Yet the most important and crucial piece of
evident in the Big Bangs favour occurred quite
by accident in the 1960s...
21
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
In 1948 Russian cosmologist George Gamow
(1904-68) predicted that if the Big Bang Theory
were correct, the heat of the initial violent
event would have cooled to around 50 K, but
later revised to 5K (-268C). Hence the universe
would be filled with a steady, constant
background radiation in the microwave region.
Crucially, the radiation should be very similar,
but not identical, in all directions.  
In 1965, whilst working on a sensitive microwave
antenna at Bell Laboratories, Arno Penzias
(1933-) and Robert Wilson (1936-), were plagued
by a constant source of microwave interference,
no matter how they adjusted and cleaned the
instrument. It appeared to come from the sky
uniformly, at a temperature of 2.7K. They were
unawareof the significance of this, despite the
fact that Robert Dicke at Princeton (locally) was
trying to find it. This earned them a Nobel prize
and firmly established the BBT.
22
Implications for the Cosmic Microwave Background
Radiation
If the universe had been perfectly uniform during
expansion, then no stars or galaxies would have
formed. Minute fluctuations in the initial
conditions would instead lead to granularity and
clumping of atoms. Hence, the CMBR should contain
tiny fluctuations in temperature less than one
thousandth of a degree. In 1998, the Cosmic
Background Explorer (COBE) probe was launched to
detect such fluctuations. The data it provided
were exciting, but of low resolution. Its
successor, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP), was launched in 2001. It is located
1 million miles from the earth, at Lagrange point
2 (L2, a point of gravitational stability, always
looking away from the sun, earth and moon at the
universe. It includes the most sophisticated
microwave detectors ever made, and has yielded
the most detailed picture yet of the echo of
creation.
23
Lagrange Point 2 (L2) for WMAP
24
WMAP Looking back in time 380,000 years after the
Big Bang
25
The universe 380,000 years after the Big Bang
26
Furnace of the Gods
Fiery the angels fell, deep thunder rolled
around their shores, Burning with the fires of
orc
27
The Sun
The Sun is an ordinary, 2nd generation
(confusingly, a population I) G0-type (main
sequence) star, with a mean diameter of 1.292
million km (865,000 miles), and a mass of 2,000
trillion, trillion tons (333,000 times that of
the earth).
It burns hydrogen through D-T nuclear fusion. In
this process, two atoms of hydrogen are forced
together through intense gravitational pressure
to create helium. The helium atom is less massive
than the two hydrogen atoms, and the mass
difference is expressed as energy through
Einsteins celebrated formula E mc2. Each
second, the sun loses 4.26 million tons in mass,
releasing 383 trillion, trillion watts, or 9.15 X
1010 megatons of TNT per second.
The sun is approximately 5 billion years old, and
will continue to burn normally for a further five
billion, when it will swell and become a red
giant. The sun does not have sufficient mass to
form a supernova, but will eventually throw off
most of its outer layers and become a dead white
dwarf.
28
Stellar Nucleosynthesis
In the first phase of the Big Bang, only the
lightest elements including hydrogen (74),
helium (23), lithium (2), and beryllium (1)
were synthesised. The earliest stars (Population
II, i.e. 1st generation), contained none of the
heavier elements to start with. These are still
visible by observing distant galaxies, which are
of course further back in time. In a series of
papers in the 1950s, Sir Fred Hoyle, with
colleagues Fowler and the Burbridges, established
the principle of stellar nucleosynthesis. As a
star runs out of hydrogen, the helium ash in
the core contracts and heats to 100 million K,
triggering the fusion of helium. This in turn
produces heavier elements, including carbon,
oxygen and all the way up to iron, which is a
dead end. Each stage requires higher
temperatures, and the process becomes
progressively less efficient. Sir Fred Hoyle
brilliantly solved a theoretical problem with
this scheme (concerning the triple-alpha
process), which was proven experimentally. Fowler
received a Nobel prize for his work, but to the
eternal shame of the Nobel Assembly, Hoyle did
not. Elements beyond iron cannot be synthesised
through normal stellar burning because the
necessary temperatures cannot be generated. These
are only formed in supernova explosions. Everythi
ng that exists was manufactured in the heart of
stars. Our star is Population I, meaning it was
formed from the debris of earlier supernova.
29
Kepler's Supernova Remnant
This image was taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope. It is the last such object seen to
explode in our galaxy, residing about 13,000
light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.
30
Evolution of the Solar System
The formation of the solar system was first
proposed by the Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827),
and was termed the nebular hypothesis. In this
scheme, a great rotating cloud of interstellar
dust and gas coalesced under the force of gravity
to form the sun, with outer rotating rings
collapsing to form the planets. At the time,
nuclear fusion was unknown, so details (and
mathematical evidence) had to wait.   The scheme
is essentially correct as the matter condensed
in a central region, the temperature gradually
rose, until at 10 million degrees K, nuclear
fusion was triggered.   The planets underwent
countless collisions with other formations and
asteroids, as evidenced by craters on the moon,
the earth and other worlds in the Solar System.
31
Stellar Nurseries in the Eagle Nebula
32
Age of the Solar System
Radiometric dating using uranium-lead analysis
was first established as a reliable technique for
determining the age of the earth and indeed the
Solar System by Clair Patterson in 1953. Uranium
235 decays to lead-207 with a half-life of about
700 million years, uranium-238 decays to lead-206
with a half-life of about 4.5 billion years. By
comparing the amount of the parent material to
the daughter material, it is possible to
establish the age of the sample. Using the two
isotopes above also allows independent
cross-checking. The age of the earth is reliably
estimated to be 4.54 billion years, using
meteorite samples. This corresponds closely with
the age of the sun, established through analysis
of its nuclear reaction speeds.
Where t is the age of the sample D is the
number of atoms of the daughter isotope P is the
number of atoms of the parent isotope ? is the
decay constant of the parent isotope
33
The Gathering Storm
And all who heard should see them there, And all
should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes,
his floating hair! Weave a circle round him
thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For
he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of
Paradise.
34
Victorian Certainty
By the close of the 19th century, many scientists
thought that the age of scientific discovery was
drawing to a close, and that the rest would be
merely filling in the details.   The Newtonian
theory of gravitation had established celestial
mechanics as an exact science (nearly), with the
astounding equation of Which Henry Cavendish
(1731-1810) had used with great accuracy to weigh
the earth.   James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879),
widely considered the 4th greatest physicist of
all time, had unified the electric and magnetic
forces with the electromagnetic wave theory of
light, and the theory of acoustics was advancing
apace.   In short, scientists viewed the universe
as a vast, predictable machine, in which, if all
the motions of its particles were known, the
future could be established with perfect
accuracy.   Most important, Time was an endless,
constantly flowing river, that provided an
absolute reference for all phenomena.
35
Special Theory of Relativity (I)
In 1905 An obscure patent officer, Albert
Einstein (1879-1955), working in Bern,
Switzerland, published in the journal Annalen der
Physik a paper entitled On the Electrodynamics
of Moving Bodies. In contained almost no
mathematics (initially), no references, no
historical context and only a single
acknowledgement to a colleague, Michele
Besso. It is the single most important
publication in the history of science, and
completely altered our concept of the universe,
time, space, reality and the meaning of
existence. The most extraordinary feature of
this work is that Einstein appeared to have
deduced this purely by a process of cogitation,
independently and, it seems, out of nothing. It
established the Special Theory of Relativity
(which Einstein had originally wished to be
called Theory of Invariance), which replaced the
concepts of space and time with a single entity
called Spacetime.
36
Special Theory of Relativity (II)
The entire SRT may be summarised as follows The
combined speed of a body moving through space and
moving through time is always equal to the speed
of light. Or The speed of a body in spacetime is
always equal to the speed of light. Hence
If you travel at 200,00 km/s, b, for every 4
seconds that passed for an observer stationary
with respect to you, only 3 seconds passes for
you.

• As we move faster in space, time slows, since the
  spacetime velocity is always constant.
• If two bodies move relative to one another (e.g.
  trains passing), any clock on the other train
  appears to be moving more slowly. This is known
  as time dilation.
• Each train appears to the other to be shortened.
  This is called the Lorentz contraction.
• The speed of light, c, is absolute and
  independent of the observer.
• Events which appear simultaneous to one observer
  will not be so to a second observer who is moving
  relative to the first.
• If a body accelerates away from another and
  returns, less time will have passed for the body
  which accelerated.
• As a body accelerates, its mass increases, so it
  becomes ever harder to gain speed. At the speed
  of light, time would stop, mass would be
  infinite, and the body would have zero width.
  Hence, this is not possible.

Light 300,000 km/s
You 200,000 km/s
Although a stationary observer will see the light
pass you at 100,000 km/s, you will still see the
light pass at 300,000 km/s, since time travels
more slowly for moving bodies.
37
Special Theory of Relativity (III)
One of the consequences of the Special Theory of
Relativity is the relativity of simultaneity.
This means that two events which are simultaneous
to an observer will not be simultaneous to
another if the second is moving relative to the
other. This is not apparent, it is real. In one
interpretation of the theory, spacetime is a
solid block in which the universe is a static,
and all events that have happened and that will
happen are forever frozen.
time
38
Special Theory of Relativity (IV)
Time dilation for moving bodies was demonstrated
experimentally by Joseph Hafele and Richard
Keating, who, in 1971, flew a caesium atomic
clock on a 747 jet around the world, comparing
the results with those of an identical clock at
the United States Naval Observatory. As
expected, less time had elapsed on the moving
clock, by -59 ns, exactly in accordance with the
theory.
To build a time machine, simply accelerate away
from the earth at an appropriate velocity, for a
given time, and return. Depending on the
velocity, You might age a day, but the earth will
have moved on by 10,000 years.
39
General Theory of Relativity (I)
By 1915, Einstein concluded that acceleration and
the force of gravity are equivalent. It therefore
follows that time dilation will be experienced by
bodies immersed in a gravitational field, i.e.
the stronger the gravity, the slower time
flows. In addition, because Einstein had
established the concept of spacetime, he
concluded that gravity operates by warping the
fabric of spacetime in the vicinity of the body.
Objects, including light are attracted to a body
not in a Newtonian sense, but because they are
following the warp of the spacetime in which they
move. Immediately, it correctly accounted for the
anomalous precession of the perihelion of
Mercury. The GTR is the most tested and accurate
theory ever developed. It has many applications
in everyday life, including GPS, communications
and astronomical observations.
40
General Theory of Relativity (II)
In 1919, Arthur Eddington led an expedition to
Principe Island in the Gulf of Guinea, in
equatorial Africa, to observe a total eclipse of
the sun. In particular, they were attempting to
verify the bending of distant starlight by the
sun. The measure deviation, 1.76 seconds of arc,
was again as predicted by the theory.
Global Positioning System (GPS) must use an
Einsteinian correction factor to account for the
fact that the synchronization system on earth
runs more slowly than that on the satellite.
41
Quantum Theory (I)
Things were going to get a whole lot worse.
Maxwells classical theory of electrodynamics
relied on smoothly changing, continuous systems.
In 1894, an obscure professor named Max Planck
(1858-1947) had been commissioned by electric
companies to create maximum light from light
bulbs with minimum energy. This required a
theoretical description of how the intensity of
radiation change with frequency. Seemingly an
easy problem, it took 6 years to solve. At low
frequencies, classical methods failed. His
theory required that light (EM radiation) be
emitted as multiples of quanta, which appeared
continuous at high energies (like the dots in a
photograph). He disliked the idea, thinking it
was a fix. However, it was so accurate that he
received the Nobel prize in 1918. In 1905,
Einstein independently published a paper
describing how the photoelectric effect was
caused by absorption of quanta of light
(photons) unlike Plank, he immediately saw that
the quantum idea was real, and not a mathematical
expediency. Hence light, which for centuries had
been considered a wave, also had a discrete
microstructure. In the space of less than two
decades, the old order had been swept away.
42
Quantum Theory (II)
The photoelectric effect, part of quantum theory,
dictates that light may act as both a wave and a
particle, the photon. Normally, the light that we
see contains trillions of photons, and its wave
behaviour is dominant. However, if the intensity
is turned down below a critical point, we detect
individual photons, which, bizarrely, also have
wave properties. In 1905, Einstein confirmed
the existence of the atom with his work on
Brownian motion. In 1910, Rutherford confirmed
the existence of the nucleus. More strangeness
quickly followed. In 1913, Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
discovered that electrons in an atom occupied
discrete energy levels, and could only move into
higher or lower orbits in discrete jumps. This
explained why electrons did not lose energy as
they orbit the nucleus and hence spiral into it.
43
Quantum Theory (III)
Wave interference
What you expect with quanta...
...What you get
In the above experiment, individual photons of
light still behave as waves. Amazingly, so do
electrons. Quantum theory came of age with the
towering contributions of Erwin Schrödinger
(1887-1961) and Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976),
who described the laws governing wave-particle
duality. In essence, a particle is a wave until
measured, when its probability wave function
collapses. This is the Wave Equation, the corner
stone of Quantum Physics. Heisenberg went on to
show that at the quantum level, there is no such
thing as certainty it is fundamentally
probabilistic. Einstein was deeply opposed to
this. In 2007, D. Akoury and others, working at
the University of Frankfurt , demonstrated wave
interference for a molecules. Everything has a
wave function, including humans. Quantum theory
is one of the most successful, and least
understood, theories in physics. It has given us,
for example, the transistor, which underpins our
entire modern day technology.
44
A Theory of Everything
I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The
bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did
wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless,
and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and
blackening in the moonless air.
45
Conflicting Issues and the Standard Model
Interaction Theory Mediators Relative Strength Range, m
Strong QCD Gluons 1038 10-15
Electromagnetic QED Photons 1036 Infinite
Weak Electroweak W and Z bosons 1025 10-18
Gravitation General Relativity Gravitons (to be discovered) 1 Infinite
By 1979, it was known that the universe comprised
four, and only four, fundamental forces the
strong and the weak nuclear, electromagnetic and
gravitational force. The objective of a Grand
Unified Theory is to combine the forces into a
single super force, which will demonstrate their
common ancestry. At this point in time, the
relationships between all but gravity have been
established. This is known as the Standard
Model. Unlike the other forces, gravity is much
weaker, and cannot be accounted for yet by the
Standard Model. Furthermore, there is an
unresolved conflict between the General Theory of
Relativity and Quantum Theory. The GTR is superb
at predicting the behaviour of gravity at a
macroscopic level, but cannot be applied at the
particle level. The opposite is true for QT. A
theory of everything would combine all the
forces, perhaps involving quantum gravity. In
order to test the theories, the Large Hadron
Collider has been constructed, which will allow
physicists to replicate the conditions soon after
the Big Bang.
46
The Large Hadron Collider
The LHC will accelerate protons to 99.999999 of
the speed of light, giving them a collision
energy of 14TeV. On collision, the energy is
converted into mass via the formation of new
particles. This will replicate conditions very
shortly after the Big Bang. Amongst other things,
it is hoped that the particle theoretically
responsible for producing mass, the Higgs boson,
will be found. The speeds are so high that one
billionth of a gram of hydrogen has the energy of
8 litres of petrol.
47
Dark Matter and Dark Energy
In 1962, Vera Rubin (1928-) discovered that the
rotation of many galaxies was so fast that,
unless there was some additional unseen matter
holding them together, they should fly apart.
Initially she was ignored (partly because she was
a woman she had tried to enrol on the graduate
program at Princeton but they did allow women
until 1975) . However, further observations and
theoretical calculations suggested that the
universe appeared to be missing about 90 of its
matter. The idea of dark matter was born, but
as yet there is no direct evidence of its
existence. Similarly, at the present time the
inflation of the universe appears to be
accelerating. It is proposed that this is due to
dark energy, but again there is no direct
evidence. Some notable cosmologists, including
Mordehai Milgrom, propose Modified Newtonian
Dynamics (MOND).
48
Black Holes and Echoes of Hoyle
Black holes are formed by the collapse of
super-massive stars, typically after a supernova
event. The gravitational field produced is so
strong that even light cannot escape. Black holes
cannot be described by the GTR, since they are
singularities. Quantum theory dictates that
space is a seething mass of particles that
flicker into existence and out again every moment
(thereby maintaining the law of mass/energy
conservation). However, Stephen Hawking
discovered that black holes emit radiation
(Hawking Radiation), since , in a
particle/antiparticle pair, one may lie within
the event horizon, but not the other. Black holes
therefore eventually evaporate, over an
inconceivable amount of time.
49
The Nothing That is
2.5 miles
The diameter of an atom is typically 10-10 m. The
diameter of its nucleus is typically 10-15, i.e.
some 100,000 time smaller. Scaled up, if the
nucleus were the size of an orange, then the
electrons, each the size of a pea, would be
orbiting some 4 km (2.5 miles) away. Clearly,
the vast bulk of matter is empty space. But what
are the fundamental particles made of? String
theory, and its latter manifestation, M-theory
proposes that all matter ultimately comprises
strings of vibrating energy, incomparably smaller
than the particles they represent. Different
particles arise when the strings vibrate at
different fundamental frequencies. But what are
strings? How can nothing become
something? String theory so far allows many
(possibly an infinite) different manifestations
of the universe, and has so far failed to
describe ours in a unique way. Hence it has yet
to make a single, testable prediction. (1)
Matter (2) Molecules (3) Atoms (4) Electrons (5)
Quarks (6) Strings. Note protons and neutrons
comprise quarks, not electrons.
50
Dawn of Mind
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the
slimy sea. About, about, in reel and rout The
death-fires danced at night The water, like a
witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue and white.
51
Evolution Timeline
It is widely held that life on earth first
evolved around 3.8 billion years ago (the earth
is about 4.5 billion years old). This can be
inferred from carbon isotopes peculiar to life
and apatite, a mineral that is produced and used
by biological micro-environmental systems. The
central issue is how it got started. Amino acids
(there are 22 natural ones) will form
spontaneously if the conditions are right, but
the formation of proteins, from amino acids, is
still problematic. These must be assembled in the
right order for a meaningful protein to form. The
chances of this happening are exceedingly
remote. For life to get going, the proteins must
be assembled into self-replicating DNA molecules.
And the rest is just evolution Two of the most
remarkable features of life on this planet are
The human eye is a good example of a structure
that evolution has designed rather poorly.

• Although life started 3.8 billion years ago, for
  multi-cellular life such as slime moulds, did not
  appear until about 1 billion years ago.
• The first Homo species only appeared abou5 2.5
  million years ago. Hence if the age of the earth
  is one day, we appeared in the last minute before
  midnight.

52
Consciousness
Although there have been major advances in the
study of human consciousness in several narrowly
defined areas, the ultimate objective of creating
a machine with even a small fraction of the
cognitive powers of the human brain, or indeed
consciousness, still appears to be beyond the
reach of science and Artificial Intelligence
(AI). The neurological basis of human
consciousness is now a very important perhaps the
most important are of scientific endeavour. It
includes important themes such as notions of
Cartesian Dualism (now outmoded), The Multiple
Drafts Model, Connectionist Theory and The
Pandemonium Hypothesis of speech formation, as
proposed by Daniel Dennett (1942-). There is
some dispute between those cognitive theories
that maintain consciousness is a hard problem
(Roger Penrose, 1931-), i.e. forever beyond the
reach of a fundamental understanding (and
therefore replication), and those that argue it
has a convergent solution.
The human brain contains around 100 billion
neurons, with each neuron containing around 7000
synapses (connections). Your brain therefore has
around one thousand trillion interconnections.
Many scientists agree that it is the nature of
the connections which leads to consciousness.
53
Nightfall
Goodnight, Sweet Prince, and flights of angels
sing thee to thy rest
54
Open or Closed?
There is still some debate amongst cosmologists
about whether the universe is open or closed,
i.e. whether or not there is sufficient matter to
initiate a collapse, or whether it will expand
forever. At the moment, the evidence appears to
be in favour of an open universe. This therefore
dictates that the universe will end.
55
Come, Sable Night
Our sun will die in 5 billion years. In about
1000 billion years, our Galaxy will consist of
dead stars and cold interstellar matter. Other
galaxies will continue to recede from one
another. In 1025 years, 99 of the matter will
be ejected from our Galaxy, via collisions. The
remaining matter will form a super-massive black
hole, equal to 1 billion solar masses. This will
also happen to all other galaxies. In about
10100 years all black holes will evaporate due to
Hawking Radiation. It is thought that after
10100 years, all other forms of matter will
spontaneously collapse into black holes and
evaporate.
76
56
End
All these moments will be lost in time, like
tears in rain. Time - to die.
57
(No Transcript)