1 00:00:04,070 --> 00:00:08,530 Freeman: Earth - a place we all know. 2 00:00:10,844 --> 00:00:15,577 But this is an Earth where dinosaurs terrorize mankind. 3 00:00:19,953 --> 00:00:22,478 Or it could be another Earth 4 00:00:22,555 --> 00:00:25,183 where Russia won the moon race. 5 00:00:25,258 --> 00:00:28,694 Or another Earth that could annihilate our own 6 00:00:28,762 --> 00:00:31,663 in the blink of an eye. 7 00:00:31,731 --> 00:00:34,859 Beyond the faintest star, 8 00:00:34,934 --> 00:00:37,926 at the bottom of a black hole, 9 00:00:38,004 --> 00:00:40,438 or hidden in higher dimensions, 10 00:00:40,507 --> 00:00:42,634 groundbreaking science now suggests 11 00:00:42,709 --> 00:00:47,544 there might be more than one version of reality. 12 00:00:47,614 --> 00:00:50,845 Are there parallel universes? 13 00:00:53,053 --> 00:00:57,387 Space, time, life itself. 14 00:00:59,993 --> 00:01:04,657 The secrets of the cosmos lie Through the Wormhole. 15 00:01:19,079 --> 00:01:22,071 Is there more than one of you? 16 00:01:22,148 --> 00:01:24,343 More than one of me? 17 00:01:24,417 --> 00:01:28,911 Another version of me may look identical. 18 00:01:28,988 --> 00:01:30,785 But we're not. 19 00:01:30,857 --> 00:01:35,487 Our fates could be completely different. 20 00:01:35,562 --> 00:01:39,623 One of us could be a descendent of the other. 21 00:01:39,699 --> 00:01:43,726 Our meeting could cause both of us 22 00:01:43,803 --> 00:01:47,466 to evaporate into pure energy. 23 00:01:47,540 --> 00:01:51,374 We could all be living multiple parallel lives, 24 00:01:51,444 --> 00:01:53,742 because as scientists explore 25 00:01:53,813 --> 00:01:57,442 the outer reaches of physics and the cosmos, 26 00:01:57,517 --> 00:01:59,712 they're beginning to believe 27 00:01:59,786 --> 00:02:02,584 that parallel universes do exist 28 00:02:02,655 --> 00:02:06,250 and that they might determine the fate of humanity. 29 00:02:09,462 --> 00:02:14,365 When I was in grade school, I was smitten with this girl. 30 00:02:14,434 --> 00:02:17,528 I couldn't get her out of my mind. 31 00:02:17,604 --> 00:02:21,233 Trouble was, I had a funny way of showing it. 32 00:02:22,976 --> 00:02:25,570 Morgan! 33 00:02:25,645 --> 00:02:29,547 I often wished I could be someone else, 34 00:02:29,616 --> 00:02:33,848 somebody with confidence and charm. 35 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,414 I wished I could swap myself out for that Morgan, 36 00:02:38,491 --> 00:02:41,619 wherever he was. 37 00:02:41,694 --> 00:02:45,152 Cosmologist Max Tegmark of MIT 38 00:02:45,231 --> 00:02:49,224 believes that this other version of me, 39 00:02:49,302 --> 00:02:51,896 and of all of us, really exists. 40 00:02:51,971 --> 00:02:54,599 And he believes our cosmic doppelgangers 41 00:02:54,674 --> 00:02:57,438 live beyond the edge of the known universe. 42 00:02:57,510 --> 00:03:01,412 Tegmark: The best theory we have for what made our Universe 43 00:03:01,481 --> 00:03:04,450 predicts that it isn't just really, really big 44 00:03:04,517 --> 00:03:05,950 but actually infinite, 45 00:03:06,019 --> 00:03:09,682 going on literally forever in all directions. 46 00:03:09,756 --> 00:03:14,056 Freeman: For Max, it's all a matter of statistics. 47 00:03:14,127 --> 00:03:16,493 And in an infinite universe, 48 00:03:16,563 --> 00:03:20,966 even extremely unlikely occurrences are possible. 49 00:03:23,403 --> 00:03:25,633 Tegmark: If I take three rocks here, 50 00:03:25,705 --> 00:03:28,401 here's a pattern of orange, white, and black. 51 00:03:28,474 --> 00:03:29,941 I look around. 52 00:03:30,009 --> 00:03:32,739 Oh, here's another one - orange, white, and black. 53 00:03:32,812 --> 00:03:36,009 If I take a larger pattern with, say, uh, 10 rocks here, 54 00:03:36,082 --> 00:03:40,246 then I have to look a lot harder to find a copy of it. 55 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,515 Here it repeats. 56 00:03:42,589 --> 00:03:46,616 Freeman: Earth is an enormous pile of stones, 57 00:03:46,693 --> 00:03:50,891 just as our bodies are enormous piles of atoms. 58 00:03:50,964 --> 00:03:53,899 How those atoms are arranged in space 59 00:03:53,967 --> 00:03:56,265 determines who and what we are. 60 00:03:56,336 --> 00:03:58,099 The bigger the pattern, 61 00:03:58,171 --> 00:04:02,073 the further you have to travel before finding a repeat. 62 00:04:02,141 --> 00:04:04,336 When I say all patterns of atoms repeat, 63 00:04:04,410 --> 00:04:05,809 I really mean all patterns, 64 00:04:05,878 --> 00:04:09,609 even the pattern of atoms that makes up me, Max Tegmark. 65 00:04:09,682 --> 00:04:11,309 If I go far enough away, 66 00:04:11,384 --> 00:04:14,251 there's gonna be another exact copy of me 67 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,255 who will not just look like me but feel like he is me. 68 00:04:17,323 --> 00:04:21,555 Freeman: Max has calculated the number of light-years he must travel 69 00:04:21,628 --> 00:04:26,156 to find the same arrangement of atoms he is made of. 70 00:04:26,232 --> 00:04:29,793 It's a staggering number of light-years. 71 00:04:29,869 --> 00:04:34,966 Tegmark: I came up with 1 with a million trillion trillion zeros 72 00:04:35,041 --> 00:04:35,973 after it. 73 00:04:36,042 --> 00:04:38,010 And that's a huge number. 74 00:04:38,077 --> 00:04:40,045 But compared to infinity, 75 00:04:40,113 --> 00:04:43,446 which is the true size of space, I think, 76 00:04:43,516 --> 00:04:46,349 it's just in our backyard. 77 00:04:46,419 --> 00:04:48,284 Freeman: But there's a catch 78 00:04:48,354 --> 00:04:51,949 for any explorer daring enough to brave the long trek 79 00:04:52,025 --> 00:04:53,720 to meet his cosmic clone. 80 00:04:53,793 --> 00:04:57,320 In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble 81 00:04:57,397 --> 00:05:01,857 observed that our Universe was not sitting still. 82 00:05:01,934 --> 00:05:04,095 In every direction he looked, 83 00:05:04,170 --> 00:05:06,900 galaxies were flying away from us. 84 00:05:06,973 --> 00:05:08,304 The further he looked, 85 00:05:08,374 --> 00:05:11,502 the faster these galaxies appeared to move. 86 00:05:11,577 --> 00:05:14,444 Hubble concluded this was only possible 87 00:05:14,514 --> 00:05:17,278 if the entire Universe was expanding. 88 00:05:17,350 --> 00:05:20,183 Tegmark: If this slab of concrete here 89 00:05:20,253 --> 00:05:22,983 were a distant galaxy sitting still, 90 00:05:23,056 --> 00:05:24,887 then I could send messages to it. 91 00:05:24,957 --> 00:05:27,892 I could send intergalactic e-mails at the speed of light. 92 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:31,794 If I'm willing to wait long enough, they'll get there. 93 00:05:31,864 --> 00:05:33,058 Since space is expanding, 94 00:05:33,132 --> 00:05:34,929 we need to turn on the conveyer belt 95 00:05:35,001 --> 00:05:36,298 to make this more realistic. 96 00:05:36,369 --> 00:05:41,568 This distant galaxy is actually moving away from me. 97 00:05:41,641 --> 00:05:43,575 Freeman: The further away from us we try to reach, 98 00:05:43,643 --> 00:05:47,875 the faster the space between here and there expands. 99 00:05:47,947 --> 00:05:49,812 At a certain point, 100 00:05:49,882 --> 00:05:52,817 the expansion is faster than the speed of light. 101 00:05:52,885 --> 00:05:56,685 And that means we will never reach or even be able to see 102 00:05:56,756 --> 00:05:59,486 anything that lies beyond this horizon. 103 00:05:59,559 --> 00:06:01,993 To me, the bad news with this cosmic horizon 104 00:06:02,061 --> 00:06:04,655 is it prevents me from visiting copies of myself 105 00:06:04,731 --> 00:06:07,564 and of my friends, which would be kind of fun. 106 00:06:07,633 --> 00:06:11,694 Freeman: But there's another place to look for parallel worlds - 107 00:06:11,771 --> 00:06:13,932 not in the depths of outer space, 108 00:06:14,006 --> 00:06:16,804 but in the microcosmos right under our noses, 109 00:06:16,876 --> 00:06:21,279 where nothing, it seems, is solid. 110 00:06:21,347 --> 00:06:25,784 Frank Tipler studies the strange laws of quantum mechanics. 111 00:06:25,852 --> 00:06:29,447 These laws govern the tiny subatomic particles 112 00:06:29,522 --> 00:06:31,046 we are all made of. 113 00:06:31,124 --> 00:06:32,716 Thank you, Adam. 114 00:06:32,792 --> 00:06:35,056 He fuels his prodigious brain power 115 00:06:35,128 --> 00:06:39,030 with the finest cuisine the city of New Orleans has to offer. 116 00:06:39,098 --> 00:06:41,464 I think what I would be in the mood for today 117 00:06:41,534 --> 00:06:43,161 is the Schrodinger's Special. 118 00:06:48,508 --> 00:06:51,136 All of reality is described by quantum mechanics, 119 00:06:51,210 --> 00:06:53,644 and the central equation of quantum mechanics 120 00:06:53,713 --> 00:06:55,078 is Schrodinger's Equation. 121 00:06:55,148 --> 00:06:59,312 Freeman: Erwin Schrodinger unplugged reality as we knew it 122 00:06:59,385 --> 00:07:02,445 when he wrote down his namesake equation. 123 00:07:02,522 --> 00:07:06,049 He proved that subatomic particles could exist 124 00:07:06,125 --> 00:07:08,923 in multiple places at the same time 125 00:07:08,995 --> 00:07:11,259 and that more than one particle 126 00:07:11,330 --> 00:07:15,357 could occupy the same point in space at the same time. 127 00:07:15,435 --> 00:07:19,804 This subatomic world remains a blur of probabilities 128 00:07:19,872 --> 00:07:23,171 until the moment someone looks at it, 129 00:07:23,242 --> 00:07:27,838 when those probabilities gel into one definite reality. 130 00:07:27,914 --> 00:07:30,280 Frank believes this quantum fuzziness 131 00:07:30,349 --> 00:07:33,546 doesn't just happen in the microscopic domain. 132 00:07:33,619 --> 00:07:37,111 It's the way everything works. 133 00:07:37,190 --> 00:07:39,249 People try to think, "Oh, it can't be 134 00:07:39,325 --> 00:07:41,190 quantum mechanic supplies to the Universe." 135 00:07:41,260 --> 00:07:42,318 Nonsense. 136 00:07:42,395 --> 00:07:45,364 Anyone who looks at the Schrodinger Equation 137 00:07:45,431 --> 00:07:49,595 is forced to conclude that it applies to all of reality, 138 00:07:49,669 --> 00:07:53,196 not just to atoms, but to buildings, to glass, 139 00:07:53,272 --> 00:07:54,967 to the whole Universe. 140 00:07:55,041 --> 00:07:57,009 Freeman: If Frank is correct, 141 00:07:57,076 --> 00:07:59,567 everyday objects are schizophrenic 142 00:07:59,645 --> 00:08:01,442 when nobody looks at them. 143 00:08:01,514 --> 00:08:07,214 They constantly shift between one of many existences. 144 00:08:07,286 --> 00:08:09,311 Underneath this metal hood 145 00:08:09,388 --> 00:08:12,482 is every dish that Frank could order, 146 00:08:12,558 --> 00:08:14,458 existing simultaneously. 147 00:08:14,527 --> 00:08:16,961 And only when the hood is removed 148 00:08:17,029 --> 00:08:20,430 and Frank looks at it does one reality take hold. 149 00:08:20,500 --> 00:08:22,092 Ah. Veal. 150 00:08:22,168 --> 00:08:23,658 Oysters. 151 00:08:23,736 --> 00:08:26,796 But why this dish and not the other? 152 00:08:26,873 --> 00:08:29,865 Most scientists believe Frank's observation 153 00:08:29,942 --> 00:08:32,934 forced nature to make a decision at random. 154 00:08:33,012 --> 00:08:35,071 In the blink of an eye, 155 00:08:35,147 --> 00:08:38,639 all other possible realities collapse. 156 00:08:38,718 --> 00:08:42,552 But Frank is not convinced the mainstream has it right. 157 00:08:42,622 --> 00:08:46,319 They concluded that when you carry out a measurement, 158 00:08:46,392 --> 00:08:49,384 there are possible universes out there 159 00:08:49,462 --> 00:08:52,454 which collapse into one real universe. 160 00:08:52,532 --> 00:08:54,762 Actually, that is inconsistent 161 00:08:54,834 --> 00:08:56,825 with the mathematics of quantum mechanics. 162 00:08:56,903 --> 00:09:00,805 Freeman: Frank believes that every possible outcome 163 00:09:00,873 --> 00:09:03,000 does in fact become reality, 164 00:09:03,075 --> 00:09:06,010 each in its own parallel universe. 165 00:09:06,078 --> 00:09:09,138 In this Universe, Frank eats veal. 166 00:09:09,215 --> 00:09:12,981 But in another universe, he ends up with steak. 167 00:09:13,052 --> 00:09:16,488 In another, shrimp jambalaya. 168 00:09:16,556 --> 00:09:18,717 In fact, we have always known 169 00:09:18,791 --> 00:09:21,954 that reality was more than one universe, 170 00:09:22,028 --> 00:09:26,055 but physicists would not believe their own equations. 171 00:09:26,132 --> 00:09:28,066 Freeman: If Frank is right, 172 00:09:28,134 --> 00:09:32,366 the space that you occupy is filled with a near infinite sea 173 00:09:32,438 --> 00:09:34,668 of identical copies of yourself. 174 00:09:34,740 --> 00:09:36,332 If something happens to you, 175 00:09:36,409 --> 00:09:39,867 the exact opposite could happen to one of your hidden twins. 176 00:09:39,946 --> 00:09:43,473 But they may not stay hidden for long. 177 00:09:45,051 --> 00:09:48,282 On this silicon chip lies a tiny object 178 00:09:48,354 --> 00:09:51,812 that can exist in two realities at once. 179 00:09:51,891 --> 00:09:54,018 For the first time, 180 00:09:54,093 --> 00:09:59,190 this scientist may have caught sight of a parallel universe. 181 00:10:04,570 --> 00:10:08,131 Alternate realities don't have to be light-years away, 182 00:10:08,207 --> 00:10:10,198 far across the Universe. 183 00:10:10,276 --> 00:10:12,642 They could all be right here. 184 00:10:12,712 --> 00:10:17,172 If the strange rules of quantum mechanics are correct, 185 00:10:17,249 --> 00:10:21,242 I am really a collection of countless alter egos, 186 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:24,414 all locked in a relentless struggle. 187 00:10:24,490 --> 00:10:28,449 This internal war is supposed to be undetected. 188 00:10:28,527 --> 00:10:32,293 At any moment, only one ego can become real. 189 00:10:32,365 --> 00:10:37,098 The others are completely invisible. 190 00:10:37,169 --> 00:10:38,898 Or are they? 191 00:10:41,173 --> 00:10:44,267 Physicist Frank Tipler believes quantum mechanics predicts 192 00:10:44,343 --> 00:10:47,312 there are countless versions of ourselves 193 00:10:47,380 --> 00:10:49,371 living in parallel universes. 194 00:10:49,448 --> 00:10:51,507 And like many of us, 195 00:10:51,584 --> 00:10:55,611 he sometimes daydreams of an alter ego. 196 00:10:55,688 --> 00:10:59,488 Man: It's time for another trip around the cosmos 197 00:10:59,558 --> 00:11:01,185 with fearless Frank, 198 00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:04,559 astrophysicist and cosmic adventurenaut! 199 00:11:04,630 --> 00:11:06,222 This week, 200 00:11:06,298 --> 00:11:13,136 Frank discovers a portal to a quantum parallel universe! 201 00:11:13,205 --> 00:11:18,108 Freeman: This Frank Tipler believes our Universe, like a cartoon, 202 00:11:18,177 --> 00:11:21,613 tricks us into thinking it's the only reality. 203 00:11:21,681 --> 00:11:27,847 From the top down, a cartoon appears to be a single object. 204 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:31,788 But a cartoon is made up of cells. 205 00:11:31,857 --> 00:11:38,592 We can use one transparency to represent one universe, 206 00:11:38,664 --> 00:11:43,966 but in reality, there are four more universes out there, 207 00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:46,630 superimposed on each other. 208 00:11:46,706 --> 00:11:50,938 Freeman: An unobserved object will be in many places at once. 209 00:11:51,010 --> 00:11:52,409 According to Frank, 210 00:11:52,478 --> 00:11:56,209 each one is destined to become reality 211 00:11:56,282 --> 00:12:00,048 in its own separate parallel universe. 212 00:12:00,119 --> 00:12:02,110 When we make a measurement, 213 00:12:02,188 --> 00:12:05,589 each one of the Frank Tiplers would be united 214 00:12:05,658 --> 00:12:07,523 with a particular result. 215 00:12:07,593 --> 00:12:11,962 Freeman: In one universe, the objects can only be seen in one place. 216 00:12:12,031 --> 00:12:13,362 From our perspective, 217 00:12:13,432 --> 00:12:15,662 it appears the act of observation 218 00:12:15,735 --> 00:12:19,364 destroys all other possibilities. 219 00:12:19,438 --> 00:12:22,202 But appearances can be deceptive. 220 00:12:22,274 --> 00:12:25,334 We shouldn't think of the possibilities 221 00:12:25,411 --> 00:12:27,106 just as possibilities. 222 00:12:27,179 --> 00:12:30,376 The other realities do not cease to exist 223 00:12:30,449 --> 00:12:33,976 just because I have picked one in my own hand. 224 00:12:34,053 --> 00:12:37,716 They still remain. They still exist. 225 00:12:37,790 --> 00:12:41,453 Freeman: If we could see every universe at once, 226 00:12:41,527 --> 00:12:44,325 a countless number of Frank Tiplers 227 00:12:44,396 --> 00:12:47,729 will make the same measurement at the same time. 228 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:50,291 And each Frank will see the object 229 00:12:50,369 --> 00:12:52,394 in a slightly different place. 230 00:12:52,471 --> 00:12:56,430 These tiny nuances can, over time, amplify, 231 00:12:56,509 --> 00:13:01,003 resulting in parallel worlds with diverging fates. 232 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:02,911 In one universe, 233 00:13:02,982 --> 00:13:08,443 a giant asteroid misses Earth and dinosaurs live on. 234 00:13:08,521 --> 00:13:16,053 In another, rocket failure dooms America to lose the moon race. 235 00:13:16,128 --> 00:13:20,758 But how can we ever know if these alternate realities exist 236 00:13:20,833 --> 00:13:24,269 if they evaporate from view as soon as we look at them? 237 00:13:26,839 --> 00:13:29,137 Cleland: We never see these quantum-mechanical effects, 238 00:13:29,208 --> 00:13:30,903 like being in two places at the same time, 239 00:13:30,976 --> 00:13:33,467 because we're always unavoidably measuring things. 240 00:13:33,546 --> 00:13:35,946 Air molecules are hitting them. 241 00:13:36,015 --> 00:13:38,245 That's a kind of measurement. 242 00:13:38,317 --> 00:13:39,784 We shine a light on something. 243 00:13:39,852 --> 00:13:41,251 That's a kind of measurement. 244 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:43,379 Perhaps you have an object sitting on a table. 245 00:13:43,455 --> 00:13:46,390 The table, because it's pushing back on the object, 246 00:13:46,458 --> 00:13:47,686 is also measuring it. 247 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,456 Freeman: Experimental physicist Andrew Cleland 248 00:13:50,529 --> 00:13:52,394 may have become the first man 249 00:13:52,464 --> 00:13:55,262 to catch a glimpse of a parallel universe. 250 00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:58,770 Inside this small square of silicon, 251 00:13:58,838 --> 00:14:03,400 Andrew has etched a barely visible metal panel. 252 00:14:03,475 --> 00:14:07,309 It's made up of over a trillion atoms. 253 00:14:07,379 --> 00:14:10,678 In the quantum world, it's Godzilla. 254 00:14:10,749 --> 00:14:15,015 And he's trying to show that something this large 255 00:14:15,087 --> 00:14:18,113 still obeys the rules of quantum mechanics. 256 00:14:18,190 --> 00:14:20,283 We're very familiar with the fact 257 00:14:20,359 --> 00:14:23,192 that quantum mechanics applies to small things, 258 00:14:23,262 --> 00:14:24,695 like electrons or atoms. 259 00:14:24,763 --> 00:14:27,459 But the idea that it should also apply to large things, 260 00:14:27,533 --> 00:14:29,524 things that we deal with in our everyday life, 261 00:14:29,602 --> 00:14:31,160 is much harder to accept. 262 00:14:31,237 --> 00:14:34,695 Freeman: But proving that his panel can behave quantum mechanically 263 00:14:34,773 --> 00:14:38,300 means making sure nothing measures it. 264 00:14:38,377 --> 00:14:43,644 It needs to be in complete isolation and very cold. 265 00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:46,776 Cleland: So, this instrument is a dilution refrigerator. 266 00:14:46,852 --> 00:14:49,286 If you have half a million dollars lying around, 267 00:14:49,355 --> 00:14:51,448 you, too, could own one in your own home. 268 00:14:51,523 --> 00:14:53,991 The instrument has a series of temperature stages 269 00:14:54,059 --> 00:14:58,962 that go from 1 Kelvin to .6 Kelvin to .1 Kelvin 270 00:14:59,031 --> 00:15:02,000 all the way to 20 Millikelvin, or in other words, 271 00:15:02,067 --> 00:15:05,696 about -459 degrees Fahrenheit. 272 00:15:05,771 --> 00:15:09,229 This is where we operate these quantum experiments. 273 00:15:09,308 --> 00:15:12,334 Freeman: Inside the dilution refrigerator, 274 00:15:12,411 --> 00:15:16,279 Andrew directs a single quantum of energy at the paddle. 275 00:15:16,348 --> 00:15:18,976 It should have a 50-50 chance 276 00:15:19,051 --> 00:15:23,283 of either receiving the energy or missing it. 277 00:15:23,355 --> 00:15:25,823 Instead, to his amazement, 278 00:15:25,891 --> 00:15:30,351 the panel both receives the energy and misses it 279 00:15:30,429 --> 00:15:32,863 at the same time 280 00:15:32,932 --> 00:15:37,733 and begins to oscillate between these two realities. 281 00:15:37,803 --> 00:15:41,000 The panel can be both in a state where it has no energy 282 00:15:41,073 --> 00:15:44,099 and where it has one of these units of energy in it. 283 00:15:44,176 --> 00:15:45,803 And in that state, actually, 284 00:15:45,878 --> 00:15:48,244 when it's in both at the same time, 285 00:15:48,314 --> 00:15:52,045 you actually do get a vibration at 6 billion times a second. 286 00:15:52,117 --> 00:15:55,484 Freeman: Andrew's groundbreaking experiment 287 00:15:55,554 --> 00:15:59,285 proves that the strange laws of quantum mechanics 288 00:15:59,358 --> 00:16:02,122 govern everything in our Universe, 289 00:16:02,194 --> 00:16:04,992 from tiny particles... 290 00:16:05,064 --> 00:16:07,498 to gargantuan galaxies. 291 00:16:07,566 --> 00:16:13,698 No matter the size, any object can be in many places at once. 292 00:16:13,772 --> 00:16:16,434 Cleland: I thought people within the physics community 293 00:16:16,508 --> 00:16:19,409 would notice it and would give it some applause, as it were, 294 00:16:19,478 --> 00:16:21,571 but I really didn't expect that it would break 295 00:16:21,647 --> 00:16:24,309 outside of the small community that I'm used to dealing with. 296 00:16:24,383 --> 00:16:25,645 So that was quite a surprise. 297 00:16:25,718 --> 00:16:27,709 There's a number of different interpretations 298 00:16:27,786 --> 00:16:30,152 that have been generated to try to explain this. 299 00:16:30,222 --> 00:16:33,123 One of them is the many-worlds interpretation, 300 00:16:33,192 --> 00:16:34,557 or parallel universes. 301 00:16:34,626 --> 00:16:37,424 But in the end, those are not predictive. 302 00:16:37,496 --> 00:16:40,465 And because it's not predictive, it's not something we can test. 303 00:16:40,532 --> 00:16:42,625 So that leaves it open for people to choose 304 00:16:42,701 --> 00:16:44,532 whichever interpretation they prefer. 305 00:16:44,603 --> 00:16:48,095 Freeman: If there are quantum parallel universes, 306 00:16:48,173 --> 00:16:51,301 Andrew's experiment could be the first step 307 00:16:51,377 --> 00:16:53,538 toward unlocking their secrets. 308 00:16:55,547 --> 00:16:58,744 But there's another type of parallel world 309 00:16:58,817 --> 00:17:02,753 that nearly all scientists are convinced should exist. 310 00:17:02,821 --> 00:17:04,550 It's made of antimatter, 311 00:17:04,623 --> 00:17:06,284 and if we ever meet it, 312 00:17:06,358 --> 00:17:11,193 the results would be complete and utter destruction. 313 00:17:14,700 --> 00:17:18,500 There's something evil lurking out in the cosmos. 314 00:17:18,570 --> 00:17:21,562 It's called antimatter. 315 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:25,701 If one tiny drop of it met a drop of normal matter, 316 00:17:25,778 --> 00:17:30,238 it would explode with more force than the bomb at Hiroshima. 317 00:17:34,253 --> 00:17:35,948 The frightening reality 318 00:17:36,021 --> 00:17:40,481 is that the Big Bang should have created antimatter and matter 319 00:17:40,559 --> 00:17:41,890 in equal amounts. 320 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,485 In other words, out there, 321 00:17:44,563 --> 00:17:49,466 there should be an antimatter twin to our Universe 322 00:17:49,535 --> 00:17:54,768 with the power to annihilate all creation. 323 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,308 There's just one problem. 324 00:17:57,376 --> 00:18:03,144 This deadly antimatter universe has gone missing. 325 00:18:03,215 --> 00:18:06,548 Joanne Hewett is a theoretical physicist 326 00:18:06,618 --> 00:18:10,577 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in California. 327 00:18:10,656 --> 00:18:12,055 She's a detective 328 00:18:12,124 --> 00:18:15,821 on the trail of this missing parallel universe. 329 00:18:15,894 --> 00:18:17,122 Where did it go? 330 00:18:17,196 --> 00:18:20,688 That's one of the big mysteries of science today, 331 00:18:20,766 --> 00:18:22,893 is where did the antimatter go? 332 00:18:22,968 --> 00:18:28,702 Every particle has its own antiparticle associated with it. 333 00:18:28,774 --> 00:18:33,234 It has the same mass as its parent particle, 334 00:18:33,312 --> 00:18:35,109 but it has all the opposite properties. 335 00:18:35,180 --> 00:18:40,345 Like an electron has an electric charge associated with it, 336 00:18:40,419 --> 00:18:43,183 so an antielectron, which is called a positron, 337 00:18:43,255 --> 00:18:47,351 has the opposite electric charge associated with it. 338 00:18:47,426 --> 00:18:49,417 When antimatter and matter collide, 339 00:18:49,495 --> 00:18:51,326 basically you get a big burst of energy, 340 00:18:51,396 --> 00:18:52,761 just like "Boom." 341 00:18:52,831 --> 00:18:57,962 Freeman: If the Big Bang created as much antimatter as matter, 342 00:18:58,036 --> 00:19:02,268 then one of two things should have happened to it. 343 00:19:02,341 --> 00:19:05,105 Any particles of antimatter and matter 344 00:19:05,177 --> 00:19:07,008 that bump into one another 345 00:19:07,079 --> 00:19:09,980 should have been completely annihilated. 346 00:19:10,048 --> 00:19:14,314 But some antimatter and matter may not yet have met, 347 00:19:14,386 --> 00:19:18,447 and an explosive reunion could be coming our way. 348 00:19:18,524 --> 00:19:21,823 Joanne has made it her business to find out. 349 00:19:21,894 --> 00:19:24,761 She harnessed the power of Stanford's 350 00:19:24,830 --> 00:19:27,094 2-mile long particle accelerator 351 00:19:27,166 --> 00:19:31,933 to re-create miniature versions of the Big Bang. 352 00:19:32,004 --> 00:19:34,598 We created two beams of particles, 353 00:19:34,673 --> 00:19:37,904 and we collided them with just enough energy 354 00:19:37,976 --> 00:19:41,343 to create a pair of particles called B mesons. 355 00:19:41,413 --> 00:19:46,373 Freeman: Inside their experiment, called the "B" factoring, 356 00:19:46,451 --> 00:19:48,885 Joanne and a team of scientists 357 00:19:48,954 --> 00:19:53,584 track the swarm of B mesons and their antimatter twins, 358 00:19:53,659 --> 00:19:55,183 known as Anti-Bs. 359 00:19:55,260 --> 00:19:57,990 They looked for any subtle differences 360 00:19:58,063 --> 00:20:01,726 between these supposedly equal and opposite particles. 361 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:05,429 If you want to study the B meson versus the Anti-B meson, 362 00:20:05,504 --> 00:20:08,940 you have to be able to see the difference in the time 363 00:20:09,007 --> 00:20:11,475 between which the two of them decay. 364 00:20:11,543 --> 00:20:14,171 But they live for a trillionth of a second. 365 00:20:14,246 --> 00:20:16,180 It makes them very difficult to study. 366 00:20:16,248 --> 00:20:19,843 Freeman: With the help of sophisticated instruments, 367 00:20:19,918 --> 00:20:23,285 Joanne and her team discovered a tiny difference 368 00:20:23,355 --> 00:20:25,346 between the B and the Anti-B. 369 00:20:25,424 --> 00:20:27,858 One will decay just a little bit faster 370 00:20:27,926 --> 00:20:30,759 or a little bit differently than the other one. 371 00:20:30,829 --> 00:20:34,492 And it's the Anti-B meson that decays just a little bit faster. 372 00:20:34,566 --> 00:20:38,229 Freeman: This tiny imbalance between matter and antimatter 373 00:20:38,303 --> 00:20:39,998 could make a big difference 374 00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:42,506 to what happened after the Big Bang. 375 00:20:42,574 --> 00:20:47,409 In fact, it could make a whole universe of difference. 376 00:20:47,479 --> 00:20:50,812 Think of matter and antimatter 377 00:20:50,882 --> 00:20:54,318 locked in a game of checkers... 378 00:20:56,154 --> 00:20:59,885 ...to the death. 379 00:20:59,958 --> 00:21:02,859 Both sides start with equal numbers. 380 00:21:02,928 --> 00:21:04,759 As time goes on, 381 00:21:04,830 --> 00:21:07,458 most of the checkers and anti-checkers 382 00:21:07,532 --> 00:21:09,090 annihilate one another. 383 00:21:10,135 --> 00:21:16,096 But in the end, one side has a slight edge 384 00:21:16,174 --> 00:21:18,938 and claims victory. 385 00:21:19,011 --> 00:21:22,412 This one single checker out of that entire group 386 00:21:22,481 --> 00:21:26,611 that was created from the Big Bang is all that exists today, 387 00:21:26,685 --> 00:21:31,054 and it is the entire matter content of the Universe. 388 00:21:31,123 --> 00:21:34,183 Freeman: The matter we see in the Universe today 389 00:21:34,259 --> 00:21:35,726 is just a tiny fraction 390 00:21:35,794 --> 00:21:38,524 of two vast seas of matter and antimatter. 391 00:21:38,597 --> 00:21:41,191 They would have completely destroyed one another 392 00:21:41,266 --> 00:21:44,326 were it not for the tiny imbalance 393 00:21:44,403 --> 00:21:49,636 Joanne and her colleagues found between the B and Anti-B mesons. 394 00:21:49,708 --> 00:21:51,266 Hewitt: Because of this slight difference 395 00:21:51,343 --> 00:21:53,709 in the decay properties of the antimatter, 396 00:21:53,779 --> 00:21:56,680 we're left with matter today, just a sliver of matter 397 00:21:56,748 --> 00:21:59,376 compared to the original amount of the Big Bang. 398 00:22:02,988 --> 00:22:05,456 Freeman: So, Joanne's detective work is done, 399 00:22:05,524 --> 00:22:07,458 and everyone can stop worrying 400 00:22:07,526 --> 00:22:09,551 about our impending annihilation 401 00:22:09,628 --> 00:22:11,687 with an evil antimatter universe 402 00:22:11,763 --> 00:22:14,425 prowling in the dark recesses of space. 403 00:22:14,499 --> 00:22:17,662 Actually, this story may not wrap up so neatly. 404 00:22:17,736 --> 00:22:20,796 Because even though the "B"-factoring results 405 00:22:20,872 --> 00:22:23,898 explain where most of the antimatter went... 406 00:22:23,975 --> 00:22:26,671 Unfortunately, that doesn't account 407 00:22:26,745 --> 00:22:30,374 for all of the missing antimatter in the Universe. 408 00:22:30,449 --> 00:22:34,180 So there must be some new piece of physics 409 00:22:34,252 --> 00:22:37,779 that is still there for us to discover. 410 00:22:37,856 --> 00:22:41,758 Man: 3, 2, 1, zero, and liftoff 411 00:22:41,827 --> 00:22:46,025 for the final launch of Endeavour. 412 00:22:46,098 --> 00:22:50,034 Freeman: That discovery could be close at hand. 413 00:22:50,102 --> 00:22:53,401 In May 2011, the space shuttle Endeavour 414 00:22:53,472 --> 00:22:57,431 delivered a giant particle detector called the AMS 415 00:22:57,509 --> 00:22:59,704 to the International Space Station. 416 00:22:59,778 --> 00:23:02,076 The AMS will look for the cosmic rays 417 00:23:02,147 --> 00:23:05,742 created billions of years ago from matter and antimatter 418 00:23:05,817 --> 00:23:10,049 annihilating in the wake of the Big Bang. 419 00:23:10,122 --> 00:23:13,387 Perhaps they will lead us to the remnants 420 00:23:13,458 --> 00:23:16,450 of that primordial sea of antimatter, 421 00:23:16,528 --> 00:23:19,861 if it's out there. 422 00:23:19,931 --> 00:23:23,662 The antimatter universe is not the only strange domain 423 00:23:23,735 --> 00:23:27,171 that may be lurking on the fringes of our cosmos. 424 00:23:27,239 --> 00:23:31,573 We could be surrounded by all manner of parallel universes. 425 00:23:31,643 --> 00:23:36,307 Learning where and what they are is not just a theoretical game. 426 00:23:36,381 --> 00:23:39,509 The fate of our entire Universe depends on it. 427 00:23:42,687 --> 00:23:47,488 Why do we care if another version of you and me exists? 428 00:23:47,559 --> 00:23:51,655 We're never going to meet them face-to-face. 429 00:23:51,730 --> 00:23:55,131 But these alter egos are important. 430 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,761 Because they are the key to answering 431 00:23:58,837 --> 00:24:02,398 the biggest questions of existence - 432 00:24:02,474 --> 00:24:06,342 how was the Universe born... 433 00:24:06,411 --> 00:24:09,312 and how will it end? 434 00:24:14,519 --> 00:24:17,215 Cosmologist Andrei Linde believes 435 00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:19,382 he's made a shocking discovery. 436 00:24:19,458 --> 00:24:22,154 The force that created the cosmos 437 00:24:22,227 --> 00:24:26,391 should have created countless other parallel universes. 438 00:24:26,465 --> 00:24:27,864 And that same force 439 00:24:27,933 --> 00:24:31,494 would also cause the demise of everything we know. 440 00:24:31,570 --> 00:24:35,370 This discovery began with a simple, 441 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,375 seemingly innocuous question. 442 00:24:38,443 --> 00:24:41,139 Why does the Universe look the same 443 00:24:41,213 --> 00:24:43,477 in every direction that we look? 444 00:24:43,548 --> 00:24:46,881 This is the problem which bothered physicists 445 00:24:46,952 --> 00:24:49,011 for, well, hundreds of years. 446 00:24:49,087 --> 00:24:53,922 Freeman: Andrei was convinced that a massive chaotic explosion alone 447 00:24:53,992 --> 00:24:57,519 could never create the smooth and uniform Universe 448 00:24:57,596 --> 00:24:58,893 that we see today. 449 00:24:58,964 --> 00:25:02,422 Because the way physics understands the Big Bang, 450 00:25:02,501 --> 00:25:04,765 everything we see today 451 00:25:04,836 --> 00:25:09,569 exploded from something the size of a sugar cube. 452 00:25:09,641 --> 00:25:12,610 Linde: It appears that in order to create 453 00:25:12,677 --> 00:25:15,339 all of these galaxies surrounding us 454 00:25:15,413 --> 00:25:17,574 in the standard Big Bang theory, 455 00:25:17,649 --> 00:25:21,085 we would need approximately 10 to the degree 85 456 00:25:21,152 --> 00:25:23,245 tons of high-energy explosive. 457 00:25:25,423 --> 00:25:27,857 It's like a billion of a billion of a billion of billion 458 00:25:27,926 --> 00:25:30,156 of a billion of a billion of a billion of a billion 459 00:25:30,228 --> 00:25:31,957 tons of matter. 460 00:25:32,030 --> 00:25:35,056 And this just sounds totally unbelievable. 461 00:25:35,133 --> 00:25:37,260 And that's why it was necessary 462 00:25:37,335 --> 00:25:40,168 to come with a different kind of story. 463 00:25:40,238 --> 00:25:42,968 And that was the inflationary theory. 464 00:25:45,176 --> 00:25:48,441 Freeman: Inflation is a process Andrei knows very well, 465 00:25:48,513 --> 00:25:51,539 and not just as a force that blows up the Universe. 466 00:25:51,616 --> 00:25:55,108 When he's not decoding the mysteries of the Big Bang, 467 00:25:55,186 --> 00:25:59,748 he inflates tiny portions of our world with his favorite hobby - 468 00:25:59,824 --> 00:26:01,724 photography. 469 00:26:03,395 --> 00:26:06,455 Linde: This is actually a pretty nice camera. 470 00:26:06,531 --> 00:26:10,490 My family gave it to me as a birthday present when I got 60, 471 00:26:10,569 --> 00:26:13,470 and since that time, I got kind of hooked. 472 00:26:14,839 --> 00:26:16,602 Freeman: According to Andrei's theory, 473 00:26:16,675 --> 00:26:19,735 when the Universe was the size of this sugar cube, 474 00:26:19,811 --> 00:26:22,939 it must have been a chaotic lump of energy, 475 00:26:23,014 --> 00:26:24,743 each microscopic part 476 00:26:24,816 --> 00:26:28,513 a fundamentally different place from another, 477 00:26:28,587 --> 00:26:31,784 like a technicolor patchwork. 478 00:26:31,856 --> 00:26:35,758 Linde: This cube may have different colors of different size, 479 00:26:35,827 --> 00:26:37,317 but what inflation does, 480 00:26:37,395 --> 00:26:40,626 if you start with any tiny corner of the sugar cube, 481 00:26:40,699 --> 00:26:43,190 then this part of the Universe expands. 482 00:26:43,268 --> 00:26:44,758 And we look around. 483 00:26:44,836 --> 00:26:47,669 We're living inside this sugar cube. 484 00:26:47,739 --> 00:26:51,175 Everything is white around us or everything is pink around us. 485 00:26:51,242 --> 00:26:53,369 And then we say, "Oh, so beautiful." 486 00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:56,539 Our Universe is uniform. We've solved all our problems. 487 00:26:58,216 --> 00:27:01,845 Freeman: But inflation may not solve all of our problems. 488 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,480 Because once it gets going, inflation, 489 00:27:04,556 --> 00:27:07,616 like Andrei's addiction to blow-up photography, 490 00:27:07,692 --> 00:27:09,216 never stops. 491 00:27:09,294 --> 00:27:12,661 The Universe, it seems, 492 00:27:12,731 --> 00:27:17,725 is constantly growing larger and larger forever. 493 00:27:17,802 --> 00:27:19,633 But according to Andrei, 494 00:27:19,704 --> 00:27:21,865 inflation must also come back 495 00:27:21,940 --> 00:27:24,807 to visit our already expanded Universe. 496 00:27:24,876 --> 00:27:28,812 It zeros in on a tiny fraction of it 497 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:32,839 and blows it up into a new universe. 498 00:27:32,917 --> 00:27:35,078 Linde: So, what will happen - 499 00:27:35,153 --> 00:27:38,919 there will be a bubble formed of a new phase, if you wish, 500 00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:41,857 and the bubble will grab you and kill you, 501 00:27:41,926 --> 00:27:43,985 and, well, that will be the end. 502 00:27:44,062 --> 00:27:46,553 Freeman: If Andrei is correct, 503 00:27:46,631 --> 00:27:49,862 our Universe is inherently unstable. 504 00:27:49,934 --> 00:27:55,099 At any moment, one tiny part of it might expand to cosmic size 505 00:27:55,173 --> 00:27:58,870 and destroy everything we know. 506 00:27:58,943 --> 00:28:00,843 But across the continent, 507 00:28:00,912 --> 00:28:04,678 a former colleague thinks Andrei has got it wrong. 508 00:28:04,749 --> 00:28:09,152 Paul Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein professor in science 509 00:28:09,220 --> 00:28:11,051 at Princeton University, 510 00:28:11,122 --> 00:28:17,459 a title that only two scientists have ever earned. 511 00:28:17,529 --> 00:28:19,963 What does inflation actually predict? 512 00:28:20,031 --> 00:28:23,728 Well, any possibility can occur an infinite number of times. 513 00:28:23,802 --> 00:28:26,999 There is no prediction that such a theory can make. 514 00:28:27,072 --> 00:28:30,633 Anything that can happen is consistent with such a theory. 515 00:28:30,709 --> 00:28:34,805 Freeman: Paul is scrapping decades of work on inflation 516 00:28:34,879 --> 00:28:36,244 for a new theory, 517 00:28:36,314 --> 00:28:38,214 one that claims 518 00:28:38,283 --> 00:28:43,380 there is a hidden fourth dimension of space. 519 00:28:43,455 --> 00:28:49,621 And across that dimension lies a parallel universe. 520 00:28:49,694 --> 00:28:53,357 Our three-dimensional world can be viewed 521 00:28:53,431 --> 00:28:57,333 as a membrane-like surface embedded in space 522 00:28:57,402 --> 00:29:00,496 with an extra fourth spacial dimension. 523 00:29:00,572 --> 00:29:02,767 So think about these two newspapers here 524 00:29:02,841 --> 00:29:04,468 and how close they are together. 525 00:29:04,542 --> 00:29:07,306 The two brane worlds - ours and the one opposite - 526 00:29:07,378 --> 00:29:09,903 are separated by a much tinier distance, 527 00:29:09,981 --> 00:29:12,848 about a trillionth of a trillionth of an inch. 528 00:29:12,917 --> 00:29:16,785 Freeman: In Paul's model, everything in our Universe 529 00:29:16,855 --> 00:29:20,382 lives on a flexible three-dimensional membrane, 530 00:29:20,458 --> 00:29:21,755 or brane world. 531 00:29:21,826 --> 00:29:23,589 The other brane world, 532 00:29:23,661 --> 00:29:26,960 even though it's incredibly close to us, 533 00:29:27,031 --> 00:29:30,967 is a separate universe that does not interact with us. 534 00:29:31,035 --> 00:29:35,199 But then Paul began to wonder what would happen if it did. 535 00:29:35,273 --> 00:29:37,969 Steinhardt: What my colleagues and I began to think about 536 00:29:38,042 --> 00:29:40,943 was the idea that these brane worlds might not just sit there 537 00:29:41,012 --> 00:29:42,240 for all time, 538 00:29:42,313 --> 00:29:44,144 that they might begin to move towards one another 539 00:29:44,215 --> 00:29:45,705 and actually collide. 540 00:29:45,784 --> 00:29:47,115 In that collision, 541 00:29:47,185 --> 00:29:48,914 energy would be converted 542 00:29:48,987 --> 00:29:53,390 from the energy of motion of the branes into matter and radiation 543 00:29:53,458 --> 00:29:55,449 so that when they came apart again, 544 00:29:55,527 --> 00:29:58,257 they would be filled with hot matter and radiation, 545 00:29:58,329 --> 00:30:01,355 just like what we'd get after a Big Bang. 546 00:30:01,432 --> 00:30:04,265 In fact, we realized this could be the Big Bang. 547 00:30:04,335 --> 00:30:07,964 The Big Bang, instead of being the beginning of space and time, 548 00:30:08,039 --> 00:30:09,768 could actually be a collision. 549 00:30:09,841 --> 00:30:13,402 Freeman: Paul believes that this alien universe 550 00:30:13,478 --> 00:30:16,675 is still less than an atom's length away. 551 00:30:18,983 --> 00:30:20,245 It's a strange domain 552 00:30:20,318 --> 00:30:23,310 where the laws of physics are completely different. 553 00:30:23,388 --> 00:30:27,984 And Paul thinks we're already picking up evidence of it. 554 00:30:31,029 --> 00:30:33,361 Although we can't touch, feel, or see 555 00:30:33,431 --> 00:30:35,194 any matter on the other brane, 556 00:30:35,266 --> 00:30:37,757 we can nevertheless sense its existence, 557 00:30:37,836 --> 00:30:39,701 because we can feel its gravity. 558 00:30:39,771 --> 00:30:41,932 Freeman: In the past decade, 559 00:30:42,006 --> 00:30:45,237 astronomers discovered that every galaxy 560 00:30:45,310 --> 00:30:49,838 is surrounded by invisible supermassive sources of gravity. 561 00:30:49,914 --> 00:30:54,180 No one is sure what these hidden behemoths are made of. 562 00:30:54,252 --> 00:30:58,621 They call it dark matter. 563 00:30:58,690 --> 00:31:00,351 The matter that's on the other brane world, 564 00:31:00,425 --> 00:31:01,449 which from our vantage point 565 00:31:01,526 --> 00:31:03,619 appears to be a kind of dark matter, 566 00:31:03,695 --> 00:31:05,856 doesn't interact with the light on our side. 567 00:31:05,930 --> 00:31:10,924 Freeman: Could dark matter actually be matter in a parallel world? 568 00:31:11,002 --> 00:31:13,630 Paul thinks we may find the truth 569 00:31:13,705 --> 00:31:15,866 at the bottom of a black hole, 570 00:31:15,940 --> 00:31:17,999 a vast sink hole in space 571 00:31:18,076 --> 00:31:22,240 where gravity is so intense, nothing can escape it. 572 00:31:22,313 --> 00:31:24,508 If a lot of matter clusters together 573 00:31:24,582 --> 00:31:26,345 on one brane or the other brane, 574 00:31:26,417 --> 00:31:28,851 its gravitational field becomes so strong 575 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:32,151 that it draws the other brane towards it near that point. 576 00:31:32,223 --> 00:31:35,215 What happens is as if you've pinned the two together 577 00:31:35,293 --> 00:31:37,921 at that point where the black hole forms. 578 00:31:37,996 --> 00:31:41,056 So elsewhere, the two branes may be separate, 579 00:31:41,132 --> 00:31:43,794 but at the point where they're pinned, 580 00:31:43,868 --> 00:31:46,166 they're joined together at the position of the black hole. 581 00:31:46,237 --> 00:31:48,603 Freeman: Decoding the riddle of dark matter 582 00:31:48,673 --> 00:31:52,040 is one of the biggest challenges in physics today. 583 00:31:52,110 --> 00:31:53,941 Thousands of brilliant minds 584 00:31:54,012 --> 00:31:56,480 and hundreds of telescopes are trained on it. 585 00:31:56,547 --> 00:31:58,640 Paul believes that when they finally learn 586 00:31:58,716 --> 00:32:00,081 what dark matter is, 587 00:32:00,151 --> 00:32:05,851 they will actually discover that it exists in another universe. 588 00:32:05,924 --> 00:32:09,519 Do black holes connect us to a parallel world? 589 00:32:09,594 --> 00:32:12,961 This scientist may already have the answer, 590 00:32:13,031 --> 00:32:15,761 and if his new theory is correct, 591 00:32:15,833 --> 00:32:18,427 we could be on the verge of making contact 592 00:32:18,503 --> 00:32:20,994 with a parallel universe. 593 00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:25,875 400 years ago, 594 00:32:25,944 --> 00:32:30,472 it was believed Earth was the center of the Universe. 595 00:32:30,548 --> 00:32:34,314 Then a man from the village Torun in Poland 596 00:32:34,385 --> 00:32:36,319 swept the Earth aside. 597 00:32:36,387 --> 00:32:39,720 But in discovering our true place in the cosmos, 598 00:32:39,791 --> 00:32:42,658 the great astronomer Nicolas Copernicus 599 00:32:42,727 --> 00:32:45,389 left one crucial question unanswered. 600 00:32:45,463 --> 00:32:49,194 Where is the center of the Universe? 601 00:32:49,267 --> 00:32:52,168 Now another son of that same village 602 00:32:52,236 --> 00:32:54,136 thinks he has the answer. 603 00:32:54,205 --> 00:32:59,336 If he's right, it could lead us to a parallel universe, 604 00:32:59,410 --> 00:33:02,743 one that gave birth to ours. 605 00:33:02,814 --> 00:33:07,046 Nikodem Poplawski has the same revolutionary spirit 606 00:33:07,118 --> 00:33:09,245 as his Polish predecessor. 607 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,847 He believes the key to making a scientific breakthrough 608 00:33:12,924 --> 00:33:17,054 is rigorous training and a clear head. 609 00:33:17,128 --> 00:33:20,791 Poplawski: When I work out, I have some freshness in my mind, 610 00:33:20,865 --> 00:33:23,629 and then I want to think about some problems 611 00:33:23,701 --> 00:33:24,895 about the Universe. 612 00:33:24,969 --> 00:33:26,402 I become more creative. 613 00:33:28,139 --> 00:33:31,370 Freeman: Nikodem's intense focus brought him face-to-face 614 00:33:31,442 --> 00:33:32,807 with a cosmic monster - 615 00:33:32,877 --> 00:33:35,471 the black hole. 616 00:33:35,546 --> 00:33:39,710 Inside its outer edge, known as the event horizon, 617 00:33:39,784 --> 00:33:42,878 not even light can escape its voracious appetite. 618 00:33:42,954 --> 00:33:46,890 No one is sure what happens past this cosmic point of no return. 619 00:33:46,958 --> 00:33:48,755 At the heart of a black hole, 620 00:33:48,826 --> 00:33:51,192 the force of gravity is so powerful 621 00:33:51,262 --> 00:33:54,288 that it will compress the entire mass of a star 622 00:33:54,365 --> 00:33:57,266 into a single point. 623 00:33:57,335 --> 00:34:03,035 Physicists call this point of infinite density a singularity. 624 00:34:03,107 --> 00:34:05,098 Poplawski: And, of course, singularity means 625 00:34:05,176 --> 00:34:07,337 that we do not understand completely the physics. 626 00:34:07,412 --> 00:34:11,371 I don't like singularities, 627 00:34:11,449 --> 00:34:14,816 and I wanted to see if there is a mechanism 628 00:34:14,886 --> 00:34:18,617 which would be the simplest and the most natural. 629 00:34:18,689 --> 00:34:23,092 Freeman: Like most scientists who study gravity, 630 00:34:23,161 --> 00:34:27,894 Nikodem is a disciple of Albert Einstein. 631 00:34:27,965 --> 00:34:32,402 Einstein professed that space and time are woven together 632 00:34:32,470 --> 00:34:35,997 into a flexible fabric he called space-time. 633 00:34:36,074 --> 00:34:39,874 Katie and Meghan are holding here a towel, 634 00:34:39,944 --> 00:34:42,208 which represents space-time. 635 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:44,305 Space-time can be curved 636 00:34:44,382 --> 00:34:47,818 under the influence of massive objects. 637 00:34:47,885 --> 00:34:51,377 So here I have the ball, which represents the sun. 638 00:34:51,456 --> 00:34:56,951 Sun has some significant effect on the space-time. 639 00:34:57,028 --> 00:35:00,589 You can see how space-time is curved. 640 00:35:00,665 --> 00:35:02,326 And here's Earth. 641 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,335 And Earth feels curvature of space-time, 642 00:35:05,403 --> 00:35:07,837 and that's why it moves around the sun. 643 00:35:07,905 --> 00:35:11,466 Freeman: But this curving was not the only way 644 00:35:11,542 --> 00:35:14,568 Einstein believed matter could distort 645 00:35:14,645 --> 00:35:16,579 the fabric of space-time. 646 00:35:16,647 --> 00:35:18,205 In addition to curvature, 647 00:35:18,282 --> 00:35:21,718 space-time is also equipped with another geomatical property 648 00:35:21,786 --> 00:35:23,014 called torsion. 649 00:35:23,087 --> 00:35:26,545 Freeman: Albert Einstein and mathematician Elie Cartan 650 00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:29,889 believed matter could also twist individual fibers 651 00:35:29,961 --> 00:35:31,986 in the fabric of space-time. 652 00:35:32,063 --> 00:35:35,328 However, the effects of torsion are so tiny, 653 00:35:35,399 --> 00:35:37,594 they are impossible to measure. 654 00:35:37,668 --> 00:35:39,761 Without any means to test it, 655 00:35:39,837 --> 00:35:43,432 Einstein and Cartan abandoned the theory. 656 00:35:43,508 --> 00:35:46,272 But Nikodem picked up where they left off. 657 00:35:46,344 --> 00:35:47,834 He applied their theory 658 00:35:47,912 --> 00:35:50,972 to the unforgiving gravity inside a black hole, 659 00:35:51,048 --> 00:35:53,608 where matter spins so fast, 660 00:35:53,684 --> 00:35:58,212 torsion twists space-time into a coiled spring, 661 00:35:58,289 --> 00:36:00,655 waiting to explode. 662 00:36:05,663 --> 00:36:08,496 So, here is the collapsing black hole. 663 00:36:08,566 --> 00:36:12,195 Tornado in a tube visualize the very violent dynamics 664 00:36:12,270 --> 00:36:15,933 of the motion of the matter through the event horizon. 665 00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:18,168 At extremely high densities, 666 00:36:18,242 --> 00:36:22,008 torsion starts becoming significant 667 00:36:22,079 --> 00:36:24,513 and manifests itself as a force 668 00:36:24,582 --> 00:36:27,813 that opposes gravitational attraction. 669 00:36:27,885 --> 00:36:31,753 Freeman: As matter approaches the heart of a black hole, 670 00:36:31,822 --> 00:36:33,653 torsion becomes so extreme 671 00:36:33,724 --> 00:36:36,921 that it spins the matter around with intense force. 672 00:36:36,994 --> 00:36:39,724 Matter does not fall into a singular point. 673 00:36:39,797 --> 00:36:45,360 Instead, the heart of a black hole is a swirling opening. 674 00:36:45,436 --> 00:36:48,166 Poplawski: The matter cannot just disappear. 675 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:49,968 The energy must be conserved. 676 00:36:50,041 --> 00:36:53,010 So all the matter goes through the event horizon 677 00:36:53,077 --> 00:36:56,706 from a black hole to the growing white hole on the other side 678 00:36:56,781 --> 00:37:01,514 and participates in creating new growing universe. 679 00:37:01,586 --> 00:37:03,713 Freeman: If Nikodem is right, 680 00:37:03,788 --> 00:37:07,656 when the mass of a star collapses into a black hole, 681 00:37:07,725 --> 00:37:12,424 it spews out on the other side as a white hole, 682 00:37:12,496 --> 00:37:16,125 an explosive fountain of mass and energy 683 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,532 in a new parallel universe. 684 00:37:18,603 --> 00:37:21,128 But this idea does not just apply 685 00:37:21,205 --> 00:37:23,332 to black holes in our Universe. 686 00:37:23,407 --> 00:37:26,137 If we assume that every black hole 687 00:37:26,210 --> 00:37:28,474 produces a new universe inside, 688 00:37:28,546 --> 00:37:33,483 then our Universe must have been born in a black hole 689 00:37:33,551 --> 00:37:36,748 which exists in another universe. 690 00:37:36,821 --> 00:37:40,757 Freeman: Nikodem believes the Big Bang that created our Universe 691 00:37:40,825 --> 00:37:42,315 was actually a white hole 692 00:37:42,393 --> 00:37:47,126 created in turn by the death of a star in another cosmos, 693 00:37:47,198 --> 00:37:49,530 a cosmos that is our parent. 694 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,000 And if this theory is correct, 695 00:37:52,069 --> 00:37:55,402 there should be a cosmic umbilical cord 696 00:37:55,473 --> 00:37:57,532 between these two worlds, 697 00:37:57,608 --> 00:38:00,076 one that has never been severed. 698 00:38:00,144 --> 00:38:03,580 Poplawski: If we are inside a black hole, 699 00:38:03,648 --> 00:38:06,344 then there must be a connection 700 00:38:06,417 --> 00:38:09,250 from the parent universe to our Universe. 701 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:15,782 Freeman: Has this scientist stumbled upon a bridge to another universe? 702 00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:18,795 And could strange bursts of energy in the night sky 703 00:38:18,863 --> 00:38:21,798 actually be something totally unexpected... 704 00:38:21,866 --> 00:38:26,064 messages from the inhabitants of a parallel universe? 705 00:38:28,773 --> 00:38:32,106 Black holes are the most terrifying things 706 00:38:32,176 --> 00:38:34,076 in the Universe. 707 00:38:34,145 --> 00:38:39,105 Anything that falls into one is gone forever. 708 00:38:39,183 --> 00:38:43,381 But where does it go? 709 00:38:43,454 --> 00:38:46,753 The answer could be another universe. 710 00:38:46,824 --> 00:38:48,758 If this idea is right, 711 00:38:48,826 --> 00:38:52,626 black holes might be a way to send a message 712 00:38:52,697 --> 00:38:54,460 to a parallel world. 713 00:38:54,532 --> 00:38:57,467 And there's another possibility. 714 00:38:57,535 --> 00:39:00,368 Beings from another universe 715 00:39:00,438 --> 00:39:05,307 may already have tried to make contact with us. 716 00:39:05,376 --> 00:39:08,436 Physicist Nikodem Poplawski is convinced 717 00:39:08,512 --> 00:39:12,414 that our Universe rests at the bottom of a black hole 718 00:39:12,483 --> 00:39:14,383 in a parallel world. 719 00:39:14,452 --> 00:39:16,943 And he's trying to discover 720 00:39:17,021 --> 00:39:20,582 whether beings in that parallel world 721 00:39:20,658 --> 00:39:24,685 might have a way to communicate with us. 722 00:39:27,164 --> 00:39:28,654 And this is a visualization 723 00:39:28,733 --> 00:39:31,031 of what happens to the matter and energy 724 00:39:31,102 --> 00:39:33,127 when it goes to a black hole. 725 00:39:33,204 --> 00:39:37,436 Freeman: The gravity inside a black hole is so intense, 726 00:39:37,508 --> 00:39:39,339 if you jumped into one, 727 00:39:39,410 --> 00:39:42,504 it would rip apart every atom in your body. 728 00:39:42,580 --> 00:39:48,382 But that doesn't mean nothing can survive the trip. 729 00:39:48,452 --> 00:39:53,219 Now I'm going to write the word "Space-time" in Polish, 730 00:39:53,290 --> 00:39:57,556 "Czasoprzesetrzen." 731 00:39:57,628 --> 00:39:59,357 Now I'm going to rip it off, 732 00:39:59,430 --> 00:40:04,424 and I'm going to put little piece of paper to the blender. 733 00:40:04,502 --> 00:40:08,563 And I'm going to press the button. 734 00:40:08,639 --> 00:40:12,234 No matter how long I'm going to press the button, 735 00:40:12,309 --> 00:40:14,539 the information is still there. 736 00:40:14,612 --> 00:40:16,910 Now it's very distorted. 737 00:40:16,981 --> 00:40:19,779 We cannot easily recognize it. 738 00:40:19,850 --> 00:40:22,148 However, it is inside a black hole, 739 00:40:22,219 --> 00:40:25,814 and it will appear on the other side inside the white hole, 740 00:40:25,890 --> 00:40:28,017 and we can hope that one day 741 00:40:28,092 --> 00:40:31,960 someone will be able to decipher this information. 742 00:40:32,029 --> 00:40:36,398 Freeman: Could our cosmic parents be sending us messages? 743 00:40:36,467 --> 00:40:40,096 Nikodem thinks we may already have detected evidence 744 00:40:40,171 --> 00:40:41,229 that they are. 745 00:40:41,305 --> 00:40:43,671 For decades, astronomers have picked up 746 00:40:43,741 --> 00:40:45,174 powerful bursts of energy 747 00:40:45,242 --> 00:40:49,838 coming from the farthest reaches of the cosmos. 748 00:40:49,914 --> 00:40:53,611 Poplawski: Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions 749 00:40:53,684 --> 00:40:58,644 that we observe in our Universe besides the Big Bang. 750 00:40:58,722 --> 00:41:02,249 And we still do not understand well 751 00:41:02,326 --> 00:41:07,923 the mechanism that causes them. 752 00:41:07,998 --> 00:41:11,126 We see them coming from far, far away. 753 00:41:11,202 --> 00:41:14,000 They may be indications of matter 754 00:41:14,071 --> 00:41:17,871 coming from the parent universe to our Universe. 755 00:41:17,942 --> 00:41:22,379 Freeman: Could these pulses of energy actually be a form of Morse Code 756 00:41:22,446 --> 00:41:25,472 from inhabitants of another universe, 757 00:41:25,549 --> 00:41:28,450 a message of profound cosmic wisdom 758 00:41:28,519 --> 00:41:31,920 based on billions of years of experience 759 00:41:31,989 --> 00:41:34,981 before our Universe was even born? 760 00:41:35,059 --> 00:41:38,426 Nikodem's theory is still young, 761 00:41:38,496 --> 00:41:41,556 and the math is intimidating. 762 00:41:41,632 --> 00:41:44,499 He could be wrong. 763 00:41:44,568 --> 00:41:46,798 But in his struggle to wrench parallel universes 764 00:41:46,871 --> 00:41:49,237 from the realm of fantasy 765 00:41:49,306 --> 00:41:52,764 to one of serious scientific possibility, 766 00:41:52,843 --> 00:41:55,778 he is far from alone. 767 00:41:55,846 --> 00:41:59,043 Once you consider the full multiverse point of view, 768 00:41:59,116 --> 00:42:01,607 you see a much broader picture of reality. 769 00:42:01,685 --> 00:42:04,586 Tegmark: Whenever two different things happen, 770 00:42:04,655 --> 00:42:06,850 you would just be aware of one of them. 771 00:42:06,924 --> 00:42:10,291 You would think mistakenly that the other outcome didn't happen, 772 00:42:10,361 --> 00:42:12,921 but in fact, the other copy of you 773 00:42:12,997 --> 00:42:15,761 would feel just the other way around. 774 00:42:15,833 --> 00:42:17,858 We start discussing things 775 00:42:17,935 --> 00:42:22,167 which previously belonged to realm of science fiction. 776 00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:25,800 We are right now thinking about this very, very seriously, 777 00:42:25,876 --> 00:42:29,642 and maybe eventually we will find some answers. 778 00:42:29,713 --> 00:42:36,312 The word "Universe" is supposed to mean everything that exists. 779 00:42:36,387 --> 00:42:38,321 Today, we're almost certain 780 00:42:38,389 --> 00:42:41,290 that our Universe is not all there is. 781 00:42:41,358 --> 00:42:44,850 There really could be parallel Earths, 782 00:42:44,929 --> 00:42:49,093 parallel you's, and parallel me's. 783 00:42:49,166 --> 00:42:53,432 It's hard not to wonder what our alter egos might be like, 784 00:42:53,504 --> 00:42:57,497 whether they are living out our most cherished dreams. 785 00:42:57,575 --> 00:43:00,635 But don't forget this possibility - 786 00:43:00,711 --> 00:43:04,772 you could already be living the dream 787 00:43:04,848 --> 00:43:08,375 of another you from a parallel universe.