Paul Davies

Biography:

Paul Davies is Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University. His research has spanned the fields of cosmology, gravitation, and quantum field theory, with particular emphasis on black holes and the origin of the universe. Paul is also interested in the nature of time, high-energy particle physics, the foundations of quantum mechanics, the origin of life and the nature of consciousness.

In addition to his research, Professor Davies is well known as an author, broadcaster and public lecturer. He writes regularly for newspapers, journals and magazines in several countries, both about science and the political and social aspects of science and technology.

Past Shows:

	Understanding the Universe
	Thursday March 4, 2004

The universe as a whole has a kind of life cycle and is "now comfortably in its middle years," saidProfessor and author, Paul Davies (website). An astrobiologist based in Australia, Davies shared theories behind the birth and eventual death of our universe. In the first trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe leapt in size through a process called "inflation," releasing a huge burst of radiation energy which clumped into matter and light, he said. Then for a period of 380,000 years after that, the universe resembled a "glowing opaque plasma," he noted. Turning his attention to the other end of the cycle, Davies posited a time in the immensely far distant future, when the universe would die out, just as suns eventually do. It could fall into a state of equilibrium that it would be unable to extricate itself from, he explained. While Davies doesn't put stock in the idea of a grand architect of the universe, he does believe "there is a scheme and we're a part of i ... More
Host: George Noory