Last Thursday, I went to a scientific colloquium. It was the last of the lecture series, The Science of Evolution: Life, Earth, Universe. The lecture was titled Let There Be Light: The First Billion Years. The speaker was Dr. Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and astronomy. He received his doctorate in 1988, from the University of Durham, United Kingdom.
In general, the lecture was a summary of the life of the universe, from the Big Bang to today. He began his lecture with concepts that are well-known to those who are educated; the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the solar system and the Copernican Revolution. From there, he went on to notions that are lesser known, such as the problem physicists have encountered with the time period after the Big Bang. Physicists (and/or astrophysicists) have figured out what exactly happened after the Big Bang to mere slivers of a second. The problem that physicists have with the Big Bang is that they have no idea what happened from time zero to 10^-43 seconds. To size up their problem in simpler terms, these scientists don't know what went on when the Big Bang was only a "little Bang". Ten to the power of negative forty-three seconds is a very short amount of time; it's 0.0000001 seconds with 37 more zeroes in front of the one.
The descriptions of the later time periods became more and more like today as Dr. Mobasher went through his lecture. From the time period of 3 minutes to 300,000 years, the first Hydrogen atom formed and the temperature of the universe was about 3000 Kelvins. In Fahrenheit, that's 4940.33 degrees (or really really really hot).
He also described the size of the universe in terms that made everyone in the lecture hall feel very small and insignificant. He said that we live on a planet that is in a solar system (out of many) that is on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy that is a part of local group of galaxies that is a part of a local supercluster of galaxies. Each galaxy is made up of 10^11 stars and the universe is made up of about 10^11 galaxies.
I found the lecture somewhat boring because of the information that I was already aware of, but it was interesting to learn about dark matter, dark energy and that the forces of nature were all one at a very short moment of time. The doctor spoke with a slightly heavy European accent, but he was understandable. He spoke with confidence and was bit of a comedian.
In conclusion of the lecture, Dr. Mobasher ended with a question that is similar to that of the chicken and the egg. Which came first? The universe or the laws of physics?
-George Wong
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I just became aware that I am not required to post in this blog after 8th week. Despite knowing this, I continued because I was invited into the blog one or two weeks into the quarter.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun blogging.
I'm glad to hear you liked the blogging aspect. Your write-up on the colloquium is very clear and interesting. (Your line about what the universe was like when it was still a little bang is pretty effective. And including the professor's final question -- which really gets at the heart of the matter -- was a good way to cap off this piece.)
ReplyDelete- GS
Oh, and you had a slight misunderstanding about the blog posting that I wish you'd clarified: I never said you weren't required to post past week 8. What I said was that you get "two free weeks," which you can take at any time during the term.
ReplyDelete- GS