Are there Infinite Versions of You?

February 3rd, 2020

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If the universe goes on forever, does that mean there are infinite versions of you out there?

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Written by Matt O’Dowd
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The cosmological equations that so beautifully describe our universe make an uncomfortable prediction: interpreting them in the most straightforward way, they tell us that the universe may be infinite. Or not; it could turn out that the universe contains enough matter and energy to close in on itself and be finite, or perhaps the simplest interpretation of the cosmological equations is TOO simple. But according to our best theoretical understanding, an infinite universe seems at least possible – and some would say likely. If so this raises an even more crazy possibility. An infinite universe may literally contain every possible thing allowable by the laws of physics – each in infinite multitude. And that includes infinite versions of you. Today I’m going to try to convince THIS version of the reality of all of the others.

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This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)

January 29th, 2020

The logistic map connects fluid convection, neuron firing, the Mandelbrot set and so much more. Fasthosts Techie Test competition is now closed! Learn more about Fasthosts here: https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/veritasium Code for interactives is available below…

Animations, coding, interactives in this video by Jonny Hyman 🙌
Try the code yourself: https://github.com/jonnyhyman/Chaos

References:
James Gleick, Chaos
Steven Strogatz, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

May, R. Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics. Nature 261, 459–467 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/261459a0

Robert Shaw, The Dripping Faucet as a Model Chaotic System
https://archive.org/details/ShawRobertDrippingFaucetAsAModelChaoticSystem1984_201811/mode/2up

Crevier DW, Meister M. Synchronous period-doubling in flicker vision of salamander and man.
J Neurophysiol. 1998 Apr;79(4):1869-78.

Bing Jia, Huaguang Gu, Li Li, Xiaoyan Zhao. Dynamics of period-doubling bifurcation to chaos in the spontaneous neural firing patterns Cogn Neurodyn (2012) 6:89–106 DOI 10.1007/s11571-011-9184-7

A Garfinkel, ML Spano, WL Ditto, JN Weiss. Controlling cardiac chaos
Science 28 Aug 1992: Vol. 257, Issue 5074, pp. 1230-1235 DOI: 10.1126/science.1519060

R. M. May, D. M. G. Wishart, J. Bray and R. L. Smith Chaos and the Dynamics of Biological Populations
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 413, No. 1844, Dynamical Chaos (Sep. 8, 1987), pp. 27-44

Chialvo, D., Gilmour Jr, R. & Jalife, J. Low dimensional chaos in cardiac tissue. Nature 343, 653–657 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/343653a0

Xujun Ye, Kenshi Sakai. A new modified resource budget model for nonlinear dynamics in citrus production. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 87 (2016) 51–60

Libchaber, A. & Laroche, C. & Fauve, Stephan. (1982). Period doubling cascade in mercury, a quantitative measurement. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jphyslet:01982004307021100. 43. 10.1051/jphyslet:01982004307021100.

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Hacking the Nature of Reality

January 27th, 2020

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In particle physics we try to understand reality by looking for smaller and smaller building blocks. But what if that has been the wrong philosophy all along?

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In standard use, the S-matrix can be calculated if you understand the forces in the interaction region – for example, in the nucleus of an atom. But what if you don’t know those internal interaction forces? Heisenberg sought a way to ignore that internal structure and, rather, treat the S-matrix as fundamental. The S-matrix was to become the physics of the interaction, rather than an emergent property of more fundamental, internal physics. Heisenberg’s made some progress in the 40s, but the approach came into its own 20 years later when the atomic nucleus refused to give up its mysteries.

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Solving the Three Body Problem

January 20th, 2020

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The three body problem is famous for being impossible to solve. But actually it’s been solved many times, and in ingenious ways. Some of those solutions are incredibly useful, and some are incredibly bizarre.

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Physics – and arguably all of science changed forever in 1687 when Isaac Newton published his Principia. Within it were equations of motion and gravity that transformed our erratic-seeming cosmos into a perfectly tuned machine of clockwork predictability. Given the current positions and velocities of the bodies of the solar system, Newton’s equations could be used in principle be used to calculate their locations at any distant time, future or past. I say “in principle” because the reality isn’t so simple. Despite the beauty of Newton’s equations, they lead to a simple solution for planetary motion in only one case – when two and only two bodies orbit each other sans any other gravitational influence in the universe. Add just one more body and in most cases all motion becomes fundamentally chaotic – there exists no simple solution. This is the three-body problem, and we’ve been trying to solve it for over 300 years.

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How To Capture Black Holes

January 13th, 2020

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Black holes are awesome – but how about black holes being captured by the screaming vortex of a quasar, where they merge and grow like some monstrous version of a solar system. This insane hypothesis is getting closer to reality, according to the papers in today’s space time journal club.

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Thanks to LIGO we’ve now seen black hole mergers, but there was some striking surprises. For one thing, many of the merging black holes were too massive to have been formed by the collapse of stellar cores. That is if our understanding of stellar evolution is half as good as we think it is. This led astrophysicists to think about new ways to produce black hole mergers. Here’s the most awesome possibility: what if black hole mergers actually occur in orbit around supermassive black holes, embedded deep in the whirlpools of searing gas that surround some of these monsters? Today on Space Time Journal Club we’ll be looking at a pair of 2019 papers that talk about this possibility. We have Yang et al., which predicts the properties of black holes that merge this way, and McKernan et al. which proposes a way for us to actually test this hypothesis.

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How To Detect a Neutrino

January 6th, 2020

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Why is there something rather than nothing? Well the answer may be found in the weakest particle in the universe: the neutrino. For over half a century Fermilab has been the premier particle accelerator facility of the United States and we got to visit with Don Lincoln to explore it’s science and its engineering. These days many of the super-powered geniuses of Fermilab are tackling the mysteries of the neutrino. Why? Because this elusive particle may hold powerful secrets: from the unification of the forces of nature to the biggest question of all: why is there something rather than nothing?

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Why New Years Resolutions Fail & How To Succeed

December 28th, 2019

Common pitfalls of New Year’s resolutions and how I plan to avoid them.
Thanks to Simone Giertz for sending me and Every Day Calendar!
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Do Black Holes Create New Universes?

December 17th, 2019

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What if every single black hole that formed in our universe sparked the big bang of a new universe? Cosmological natural selection proposes exactly this – but even better, it claims to be able to test the hypothesis.

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Physicists have been struggling for some time to figure out why our universe is so comfy. Why, for example, are the fundamental constants – like the mass of the electron or the strength of the forces – just right for the emergence of life? Tweak them too much and life, stars, galaxies, the universe as we know it wouldn’t exist. In recent episodes we explored one possible explanation for this – the anthropic principle and the idea of the multiverse. If there are countless universes with different fundamental constants, then it’s not surprising that a few exist with the right numbers for life – and certainly not surprising that we find ourselves in one of those good ones. But if you don’t like the anthropic principle – and many scientists don’t – then rest assured, there’s an alternative. You only need to accept two things: that our universe formed inside a black hole, and that universes can evolve.

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How to Slow Aging (and even reverse it)

December 14th, 2019

Scientists like Prof Sinclair have evidence of speeding up, slowing, and even reversing aging.
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What causes aging? According to Professor David Sinclair, it is a loss of information in our epigenome, the system of proteins like histones and chemical markers like methylation that turn on and off genes. Epigenetics allow different cell types to perform their specific functions – they are what differentiate a brain cell from a skin cell. Our DNA is constantly getting broken, by cosmic rays, UV radiation, free radicals, x-rays and regular cell division etc. When our cells repair that damage, the epigenome is not perfectly reset. And hence over time, noise accumulates in our epigenome. Our cells no longer perform their functions well.

To counter this decline, we can activate the body’s own defenses against aging by stressing the body. Eat less, eat less protein, engage in intense exercise, experience uncomfortable cold. When the body senses existential threats it triggers longevity genes, which attempt to maintain the body to ensure its survival until good times return. This may be the evolutionary legacy of early bacteria, which established these two modes of living (repair and protect vs grow and reproduce). Scientists are uncovering ways to mimic stresses on the body without the discomfort of fasting. Molecules like NMN also trigger sirtuins to monitor and repair the epigenome. This may slow aging.

Reversing aging requires an epigenetic reset, which may be possible using Yamanaka factors. These four factors can revert an adult cell into a pluripotent stem cell. Prof. Sinclair used three of the four factors to reverse aging in the retinal cells of old mice. He found they could see again after the treatment.

Special thanks to:
Professor David Sinclair, check out his book “Lifespan: Why We Age & Why We Don’t Have To”
Assistant Professor David Gold
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Genepool Productions for telomere animations from Immortal: https://ve42.co/immortal
Epigenetics animations (DNA, histones, methylation etc) courtesy of: http://wehi.tv
Animation: Etsuko Uno
Art and Technical Direction: Drew Berry
Sound Design: Francois Tetaz & Emma Bortignon
Scientific Consultation: Marnie Blewitt
Courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Filming, editing and animation by Jonny Hyman and Derek Muller

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The Doomsday Argument

December 9th, 2019

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Since the dawn of humanity around 100 billion people have lived. How many will live in the future of our species? We might hope for a trillion times that if we colonize the galaxy. But a simple statistical argument tells us that the doom of our species is much, much closer.

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In some recent episodes we’ve explored the anthropic principle and seen how it can be used to explain the fact that both our planet and our universe seem very finely tuned to allow the development of life. Our planet and/or universe can be rare and unlikely as long as there are enough other planets and/or universes to stack the odds in favour of our existence. We touched on both the potential power and potential misuse of this principle. Today we’re going to push our luck, and see how this controversial idea can be used to predict the physics of our universe, and also to predict the imminent demise of the human race.

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