Exploring the Edges of the Universe With Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
As far along as we think that we're getting, I think it's always good to have beginner's mind. There is no point in my life when that won't be useful for me. As much as I think I know, I still don't know most things.
I have been joking for a week now that I am prepping for an interview with a particle physicist, even though I do not understand particle physics. But it turns out that is the right way to go into a conversation with Chanda Prescott Weinstein. They have a way of describing the cosmos and the fabric of space-time that feels like you're accompanying Alice through the looking glass. revealing a universe that is senseless at times, strange, and full of wonder. She also points out that looking at the cosmos and widening our view can grant us a perspective, particularly at a time when everything feels so overwhelming.
People need to know that the universe is bigger than the bad things that are happening to us. There are a lot of things that, like, Donald Trump can do to us and is doing to us right now. But the one thing that he can't take away from you is your awe in the universe. That's yours.
I'm Willa Defabaugh, and this is The Nature Of, where we look to the nature of our world for wisdom and ideas that change the way we live. And this week, that extends to the cosmos at large.
How did the universe begin and what happened in the first moments after the Big Bang?
I'm sitting down with Chanda Prescott Weinstein to talk about her new book, The Edge of Spacetime, and to ask my most pressing questions about the universe. Chanda, thank you so much for being here and joining us on The Nature Of. I have to say you are the first cosmologist and the first particle physicist on the show.
Thank you for having me. I feel honored to break this barrier for the show.
As someone who looks at the origin and evolution of space-time, no small thing, by the way, and everything inside of it, can you just start by gently explaining how did our universe begin?
I guess I will say the easy and cheap answer is we don't know. But we can talk a lot about what happened in the immediate aftermath of the formation of the universe. So instead of, often people think like, oh, there was a big bang. And I think people imagine there was some explosion at some point. And then the universe came into existence. And actually, like, I genuinely think that we don't know exactly what happens at that moment. Because whatever that was, it's where our equations break down. And so we don't have a good description of that. But we know that like very soon, like immediately after the universe came into existence or this iteration of it, that space-time started expanding rapidly. It happened really fast in less than a fraction of a second.
It goes faster than anything is allowed to go inside of space-time. Space-time is going faster than that. And soon after that, we start to have particles forming. The universe is filled with like this dense plasma of hot particles stew.
What surprising facts about subatomic particles, like neutrinos, still blow cosmologists’ minds?
And so if you think about it, something trying to move around in a stew, for example, just to take that metaphor, stew is thick. It's constantly running into like potatoes and chunks of lamb and like pieces of carrot or whatever. And so in this case, a photon, like a particle of light, it gets emitted, but it can't go very far without running into something. And so this is like the very early stages. And then at about 380,000 years after whatever came before, For the first time, hydrogen atoms start to form and the universe starts to cool off and light can travel freely through the universe for the first time without just constantly running into something. You might be thinking, this is very detailed.
How could you possibly know that? And so the incredible thing is, is that this light is still available to us and we can see it. And we've sent multiple telescopes up to space to measure it.
How does Chanda introduce readers to physics in The Edge of Spacetime for non-experts?
We have telescopes down in Antarctica that are studying it. And then you have these hydrogen atoms are gravitationally attracted to each other. So they start to form clumps of gas and those clumps of gas get bigger and bigger and they start to gravitate more and more.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:07–1:52
2
How did the universe begin and what happened in the first moments after the Big Bang?
1:52–3:41
3
What surprising facts about subatomic particles, like neutrinos, still blow cosmologists’ minds?
3:41–4:41
4
How does Chanda introduce readers to physics in The Edge of Spacetime for non-experts?
4:41–6:01
5
What does ‘the edge of space-time’ mean and why are boundary conditions important in cosmology?
6:01–6:52
6
How do Chanda’s Black and queer identities shape her science writing and metaphors?
6:52–9:25
7
What are dark matter and dark energy and how do they differently influence the universe?
9:25–11:11
8
Why do poetry and metaphor matter when explaining physics and scientific ideas?
11:11–28:37