Subjects: Physics

The evidence that the universe emerged 14 billion years ago from an event called the ‘Big Bang’ is overwhelming. Yet the cause of this event remains deeply mysterious. This conventional picture agrees with current observations, but is contrived and incomplete. Prof. Turok contrasts this picture with a new view in which the bang is a more normal, albeit violent, event occurring in a pre-existing universe. He also reviews exciting recent developments and forthcoming observational tests which could distinguish between the rival hypotheses.

Will big questions be answered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)? What will scientists find? Where might the research lead? Prof. Arkani-Hamed investigates a number of mysteries and interactions in nature-puzzles that experiments at particle accelerators and new cosmological observations may help to shed light on.

How has the most celebrated scientific theory of the 20th century held up under the scrutiny of planetary probes, radio telescopes, and atomic clocks? After 100 years, was Einstein right? Prof. Will relates the story of testing relativity, from 1919 measurements of the bending of light to a 2004 space experiment to test whether space-time “does the twist.” He will show how a revolution in astronomy and technology led to a renaissance of general relativity, and will demonstrate the important role relativity plays in daily life.

Hollywood movies about aliens abound, but do they really exist? The real scientific search for life elsewhere in the cosmos is just as exciting as the “reel” version. SETI is at the forefront of this research and plans to extend even further out into the galaxy, looking for evidence of someone else’s technology. In coming decades, scientists will take a close look at places within our solar system where liquid water may exist and harbour life. Dr. Jill Tarter describes this research that some call the “archaeology of the future.”

The strange paradoxes and puzzles of the quantum behaviour of black holes and the things that fall into them led to a spirited battle of ideas between Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind and other scientists. Resolving the debate may change the entire current understanding of space, time, matter and information – is the whole world, for example, a quantum hologram?

Sixty-five million years ago dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Without warning, their world was swept away by an asteroid. Although the fact of this impact is established beyond doubt, how did it wipe out such a large fraction of the Earth’s inhabitants? Recent studies reveal disastrous effects including global wildfires, acid rain, ozone depletion and million-year long climatic changes. Concerns about the possibility of future impacts has led to a worldwide program to identify threatening asteroids and generated discussion on how to deflect an asteroid if one is found.

Practical implementations of quantum information systems hold great promise for society, much as the laser and the transistor revolutionized the world. This stems from a long history of research that included an intense, battle between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr about entangled states, where pairs of sub-atomic particles are strangely correlated. Prof. Aspect explains how, decades later, experimentalists, including himself, settled the great debate and helped harness atoms to process information.

Do ideas about information and reality inspire fruitful new approaches to the hardest problems of modern physics? What can we learn about the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the beginning of the universe and our understanding of black holes by thinking about the very essence of information? The answers to these questions are surprising and enlightening, but also controversial. The topic of information within physics has involved some of the 20th century’s greatest scientists in long-running intellectual battles that continue to the present day. In this special debate, hosted by the CBC’s Bob McDonald of ‘Quirks and Quarks’, you will enjoy a lively discussion between four prominent physicists who have thought long and hard about these questions.

Einstein published his revolutionary ideas at the beginning of the 20th century; now, at the beginning of the 21st century, his thinking is shaping one of the wonders of contemporary life: atomic clocks, the best timekeepers ever made. Such super-accurate clocks are the heart of the Global Positioning System which guides cars, airplanes, and hikers. Today, atomic clocks are being improved by cooling the atoms to incredibly low temperatures, using some of Einstein’s strangest predictions. This lively presentation includes demonstrations and down-to-earth explanations about some of today’s most exciting science.

Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 is usually associated with the idea that small amounts of mass can be converted into large amounts of energy. For fundamental physics, however, the more important idea is the opposite: researchers want to explain how mass itself arises. Prof. Wilczek explains how this goal can, to a remarkable extent, be achieved. He also discusses some of the consequences – such as an explanation of why gravity is so feeble – and gives suggestions for new physical phenomena that may be found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).