Understanding the Universe

Show Audio

Highlights:

Energy and Matter win real Wormholes win real

Date:	03-04-04
Host:	George Noory
Guests:	Paul Davies

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(1)). 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 it," and that "meaning and purpose do apply."

1. http://aca.mq.edu.au/PaulDavies/pdavies.html

Related Articles

After Dark: Sneak Peek

In this month's After Dark, Paul A. Toth takes a look at the threat of a tsunami hitting the Eastern Seaboard, if La Palma (one of the Canary Islands) caves in. Here is an excerpt: La Palma lies between volcanic craters or calderas. Between two of those calderas Taburiente and Cumbre Nueva, a fault line developed that slices a path straight across the border of the island's southern third. Each volcanic activity weakens the island's existence above the sea. At the same time, with water entering the chasm and serving as a lubricant, the fault line is in danger of slipping at any minute. If that happens, a trillion tons of rock -double the size of the Isle of Man- would collapse into the ocean with the energy generated equal to that consumed by all of the United States in a six-month period. Three thousand feet of water would then mushroom upward and kick back a 500-mile-per-hour tsunami. A sheet of water between 150 and 600 feet would zoom towards Florida and reach land in as little as six hours.

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Thursday March 04, 2004

1.	Bang a Gong T. Rex	2.	Inca Dance Cusco	3.	Mellow Yellow Donovan
4.	Midnight Express (The Chase) Giorgio Moroder	5.	Midnight Express (The Chase) Giorgio Moroder	6.	Miracles Jefferson Starship
7.	One Three Dog Night	8.	One U2	9.	One of These Nights Eagles
10.	Rhythm of Love Yes	11.	Rocket Man Elton John	12.	Say You Will Fleetwood Mac
13.	Soul to Squeeze Red Hot Chili Peppers	14.	Spirits in the Material World The Police	15.	Spooky Atlanta Rhythm Section
16.	Spooky Classics IV	17.	Bad Blood Neil Sedaka & Elton John	18.	Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of Carly Simon
19.	Captain of Her Heart Double