The Universe: The Bizarre Microscopic Universe (S7, E5) | Full Episode | History

in the beginning there was darkness and then  bang giving birth to an endless expanding   existence of time space and matter every day  new discoveries are unlocking the mysterious   the mind-blowing the deadly secrets  of a place we call the universe as they try to unravel the mysteries of  the universe scientists are coming to   an astounding conclusion to make sense  of outer space they need to understand   inner space the microscopic matter that  forms the foundation of everything we see   but shrinking down billions of times into  the realm of atoms and subatomic particles   takes us into a strange unexplored world when we  descend into the microscopic world we find that   it's really weird and indeed downright bizarre  and unbelievable the stuff in this universe is   far smaller than anything we can see with a  microscope but it holds the key to the cosmos we can only understand where we came from  if we understand this crazy micro world   so let's go on a fantastic voyage into an  uncharted world known as the microscopic universe when people talk about the universe  they usually mean the vast expanse of   space billions of light years across that they  can see with radio telescopes cosmic imaging they think about stars and galaxies and  planets and all the big stuff out there you have astronomical bodies  moving under the force of gravity   there are laws of nature and you think  that the laws are right once and for all however there is another universe an  unseen world that governs everything we see   when we go down in size trillions of  times smaller to the microscopic world   the rules are much less intuitive than the  ones we're used to from the large scale world the magic of the microscopic  universe begins at about a ten   billionth of a meter or the size of an atom  matter behaves so differently at this level   that scientists have developed an entirely  new set of rules to describe what's going on they call it quantum theory and  what it says is extraordinary this baseball represents a subatomic  particle like an electron or a photon of   light that routinely does all sorts of weird  strange things in the microscopic universe   the subatomic version of this baseball can be  invisible can go through solid objects with ease   can be in multiple places at the same time and can  seemingly go backwards in time and change the past this means i could throw this microscopic baseball  to first base and to home plate at the same time   or change the seemingly predetermined outcome  of a play while it's still going on now this   this is the stuff of science fiction but really  we know it to be true or at least it appears to   be true in our quantum world we get all sorts  of weird things happening if scientists can   understand how these weird things work they'll  be able to put them to use in our everyday world   revolutionizing modern computing and perhaps  even allowing us to communicate across the cosmos   instantly the key to making these miracles come  true is a process called quantum entanglement and   scientists are already harnessing this astounding  discovery for both civilian and military purposes in quantum physics what  happens to an object over here   can instantly affect an object over here and  over here could be millions of miles away this is how it works when two subatomic particles  interact they can become entangled that means   their spin position or other properties become  linked through a process unknown to modern science   if you then make a measurement of one of the  particles then that instantaneously determines   what the behavior of the other particle should be   and when the experiment is done it's found  that indeed the other particle's quantum   state is exactly determined once you've made a  measurement of the partner particles quantum state   that means if a scientist observes one entangled  particle and forces it to spin clockwise the   other entangled particle will immediately  start spinning in the opposite direction   that seems intriguing but it's hardly earth  shattering until you consider that the two   entangled particles can be separated by billions  of light years and still the moment you observe   one particle spin you've dictated the other  particle spin that's weird because it may suggest   that information has traveled instantaneously  faster than the speed of light from one particle   to another i don't understand it i don't know  that anyone does spooky action at a distance   as einstein called it quantum entanglement is  more than a curiosity of the microscopic world   because the effects of entangled particles  can be seen and felt in our world   if scientists can overcome  some fundamental obstacles   quantum entanglement could someday help humans  communicate across vast distances instantly   people sometimes think that quantum entanglement  will achieve the desired goal of transferring   information at a speed faster than that of light  i don't think this will be achieved because to set   up these systems you had to have brought them  there at speeds slower than the speed of light   but then what do i know a hundred years ago  they didn't think that we'd be going to the moon   quantum entanglement is far more  likely to transform modern computing   scientists hope to use the magic  of the microscopic universe   to build powerful new computers we're  going to see what this baby can do at the massachusetts institute of technology  professor seth lloyd has helped create a   prototype of a quantum computer which uses quantum  bits rather than traditional computer bits to   perform its calculations this lab has the world's  best superconducting quantum bit or qubit in it   and when we do quantum computations with qubits  we can have the quantum computer do multiple   tasks simultaneously we can do this it can do  that at the same time you can add two plus two   can add one plus three and it can  add those two things simultaneously the fact that a single qubit can perform  many calculations at the same time   gives the quantum computer the potential  to be far more powerful than any computer   ever imagined like traditional computers in the  1950s quantum computers are in their infancy today   the machines take up large rooms and  can do only the most basic calculations   but they hold great promise for the future   quantum physics is notoriously weird strange  and counter-intuitive and so quantum computers   use this weirdness to compute in ways that  classical computers can't the major stumbling   block is figuring out how to effectively  code classical information the ones and   zeros that computers use in a way the microscopic  universe can process it using entangled particles   but when scientists figure that out quantum  computers could transform the planet   even if you have a quantum computer with not  that very many bits you might still be able   to do things like break all the codes that  people use to communicate on the internet or you could solve very difficult problems having   gajillions of variables like try to  figure out what happened in the big bang   that may be hard to believe but the  microscopic universe gets even stranger in fact the most famous  experiment in quantum physics   shows how one object can be  in two places at the same time a result that startled the great albert einstein as scientists explore the microscopic  universe they find it's governed by rules that   are often incomprehensible to  those of us in the normal world at the smallest scales imaginable  not only does information appear to   travel faster than the speed of light but human  observation often seems to decide what happens it seems like the behavior  of quantum mechanical stuff   is different when we're looking at  it than when we're not looking at it this profound conclusion comes from  performing the double hole experiment   scientists first conducted this experiment a  century ago firing photons of light through a   metal plate with two slits the light that went  through the holes hit a screen behind the plate i'm going to demonstrate the results of this  amazing experiment with a bunch of baseballs   and a barrier that we've set up which has two  holes in it now normally in the everyday world   if i throw baseballs through one hole or the  other they'll form a predictable pattern on a   screen that we've set up behind home plate they'll  be in one place or the other now let's make that   pattern with a whole bunch of baseballs i'm gonna  use this pitching machine here's the first one   let's see what happens now you see the balls  landed on the screen in two bunches pretty much   along a direct line from each of the two  holes that's natural that's what we expect but when we descend into the microscopic universe  and use electrons which are 10 trillion times   smaller than baseballs we get a very different  odd result when we perform this experiment   a pattern that you would expect if these were   waves going through both holes at the same  time and interfering with themselves well we   usually think of electrons as being particles  so how can they exhibit wave-like properties these test results were confounding the electron  was a particle before it was fired at the screen   yet it formed a pattern on the screen as  if this single electron had gone through   both holes at the same time does a microscopic  particle spontaneously clone itself in midair after years of study scientists still don't know  exactly what's happening probably the most magical   thing is that in quantum physics an object  can be in more than one place at the same time   it actually can sense both slits and   actually go through and quantum mechanically feel  the structure of both slits in the experiment most physicists agree that the math is quite  solid and leads to solutions that are undeniable   and can be confirmed with experimental  measurements but exactly what is happening and how   is a matter of debate to try to grasp this  amazing experimental result scientists   decided to observe how individual electrons  behaved when they went through the double slit how exactly could a particle go  through both holes at the same time scientists got a front row seat to observe  the strange behavior of these electrons or   other subatomic particles or even photons of  light doesn't really matter as long as they're   small they didn't just look at where they landed  on the screen back there they also watched the   behavior of the particles as they went through  the holes and then they saw something amazing   when scientists were watching the holes the  electrons behaved like particles forming the   baseball-like pattern on the screen back there  but when the scientists weren't watching then the   electrons behaved like waves they formed a pattern  that looked like the interference pattern produced   by waves on a screen that's really strange what  you see depends on whether you're watching or not   if you're watching you see the particle-like  behavior like baseballs if you're not watching   you see a wave-like behavior  but not both at the same time this was nothing less than astounding observation seems to change the nature of  subatomic particles mysteriously when we're   not looking things are waves when we are  looking they look like particles so even   an electron which seems to us like a particle has  wave-like properties when we're not looking at it   the fact that when we don't look the  electron appears to go through both holes   but when we do look we always see it go through  one hole or the other is what we call the quantum   enigma how could our decision about whether to  observe something change how that something acts there is a technical explanation to make an  observation you somehow have to interact with the   system for example you have to shine light on it  which then bounces off and you observe the light   that's how we can tell that a baseball is here  or there we bounce light off of it well for   macroscopic particles that doesn't disturb them  very much but for microscopic particles the act   of bouncing the light off of the particle  changes where it is and how it's moving so in the microscopic universe where photons  of light are about the same size as subatomic   particles these photons have a big impact when  they illuminate the particles so we can see them but this doesn't answer the question why doesn't  the light simply change the direction of the   subatomic particles why does observation actually  change the nature of what is being observed the short answer is we don't know this is the  fundamental mystery of quantum mechanics the   reason why quantum mechanics is difficult  mysteriously when we look at things we see   particles that when we're  not looking things are waves this is something we scientists have argued  passionately about now for almost 100 years   and there's still no consensus when  they were first released a century ago   these test results were enough to  unsettle the brightest mind in science einstein said i don't believe in quantum physics  because i believe the moon is there even when   i'm not looking at it einstein was of course  referring to the implications of the theory   that the moon really isn't  anywhere until it's observed   however the double hole experiments  mind-boggling conclusions don't end there in recent years technology has allowed scientists  to perform a fascinating variation of the test   its results call into question our perception  of time itself this is like a high-tech version   of the double-hole experiment electrons are  being fired toward a barrier with two holes in it   but the scientists can delay their decision  about whether to observe the electrons   until after they've passed through the  holes but before they hit the screen it's as though i'm on a baseball field and there's  a baseball being pitched toward the barrier with   the holes in it but my eyes are closed so  it goes through and it behaves like a wave   but then at the last second before it hits the  screen i open my eyes and decide to observe it at that moment the electrons in essence become   particles and seemingly always were particles  from the time they left the electron gun so it's as though they went back in  time to before they went through the   holes and decided to go through one or the other   not through both as they would have had they  been behaving like waves that's really crazy that's the enigma that our choice of what  experiment to do determines the prior state of the   electron somehow or other we've had an influence  on it which appears to travel backwards in time   scientists are only beginning to grasp what  these microscopic mysteries mean for time   travel and changing the past in our everyday  world but one thing is clear the rules that   govern this subatomic world hint at a universe  that's just as mysterious as science fiction in fact quantum physics may suggest that  reality is simply a figment of our imagination after discovering mysteries in the microscopic  universe scientists wanted to quickly unravel   study and solve them but as they tried  to figure out exactly what was going on   in this strange subatomic realm they  found something completely unexpected nature refused to tell them when we descend into the microscopic  world we find that there's a fundamental   uncertainty in essentially all  quantities that we wish to measure   and it's not a problem with the measurement  process it's that nature herself does not know scientists call this the uncertainty principle   and as strange as it is it may be the most  profound concept to emerge from the microscopic   universe we simply cannot know  anything with absolute certainty in our everyday world we think we  know a lot about the things around us   we can actually locate for example the position  of this cue ball and strike it at a certain speed   which we know and we can use that to collide  it into other balls and go ahead and play   a game of pull but what actually happens if  we shrink everything down trillions of times in that world these pool balls are now actually  like subatomic particles in this microscopic realm   quantum physicists have found they simply  cannot determine with any precision   where these particles are located  because of their wave-like qualities   and what's even stranger if scientists try  to box in a particle it will always generate   enough energy to break out of the box before  its position and speed have been determined the uncertainty principle says nature will not  allow its fundamental elements to be boxed in so because in the microscopic world  because particles will interact   with a completely different set of  rules the rules of quantum physics   microscopic pool will be a  completely different game the uncertainty of the microscopic universe  extends far beyond the location of particles   it applies to everything including a  particle's energy and this gives rise   to a stunning phenomenon called quantum tunneling  in classical physics if you throw a ball at a wall   and you don't throw it hard enough it  won't go through the wall it'll bounce back   but if it's an electron and you don't  throw it hard enough to go through the wall   it might go through anyway  we call that quantum tunnel   how can this be possible it may sound bizarre  but one way to explain quantum tunneling is   that the uncertainty of the microscopic universe  allows a particle to borrow energy from the future   to breach the barrier and then pay it  back after it gets to the other side   the electron actually already  is on the other side of the wall   and therefore it can go through it and  appear on the other side of the wall ever since these wonders of a microscopic  world were discovered a century ago   people have asked if quantum tunneling  being in multiple places at the same time   and what appears to be traveling backwards  in time can be achieved in our everyday world   some scientists say we'll never be able to  throw a baseball through a solid barrier   a baseball is a huge number of particles  you would need all of them to collectively   suddenly appear in another place for the baseball  as a whole to appear in another place and that's   just extraordinarily unlikely a single electron  or a single proton can do this but the bigger your   particle or the bigger the collection of particles  the more difficult that process of tunneling is   however a growing number of  physicists are developing a   more outrageous theory for what's going on we know that these tiny particles can  be in two places at the same time but   hey i'm made of these kinds of particles  so if they can be in two places at once   so can i scientists call this the many  worlds interpretation of quantum physics they say just like the electron  in the double hole experiment   human beings are all in  multiple places at the same time they say anytime anyone makes a decision we  don't actually choose one option over another instead we do them both in slightly  different versions of reality what happens when you use your mind and your  will to decide things is you end up actually   making many choices at once and all of them  become realized in different parallel universes the many worlds hypothesis of quantum  physics says that when i throw a curveball   i do so only in this universe in another  universe i might be throwing a fastball   and instill another one i throw a  knuckleball for the first time in my life   and in yet another universe i heave this ball  to the outfield in the many worlds hypothesis   all of these choices are outcomes that occur in  universes that are parallel to our own just not   in ours but in parallel universes that's  what the many worlds hypothesis tells us this may sound far-fetched  but an impressive array of   theoretical physicists believe it's  the way the microscopic world works if it's true the implications of this startling  theory go far beyond the baseball diamond in essence it suggests there are  universes parallel to our own in which   the nazis won world war ii and in  another the american government   foiled the 911 hijackers so the world  trade center still stands in manhattan if you take quantum mechanics absolutely  at face value it says that every time you   observe something quantum mechanical you  become two different copies of yourself   there's the copy that got one answer and a copy  that got another answer it just implies there's   a huge number of other copies of you that saw  slightly different things happen in the universe these days it's completely accepted that the  microworld is weird many people had hoped that   this weirdness could be confined to the microworld  so the big things like us would be immune to it   and always be in a single place but it's  become clear now that that hope was naive   the weirdness can't be confined the fascinating debate about the many  worlds interpretation of quantum physics   will rage until physicists finally solve  the mysteries of the microscopic universe however some astronomers are concluding  that we will never be able to fully explain   any of these mysteries because according  to their calculations the vast majority of   matter holding the universe together exists  in a higher dimension that we can never explore if there's anything in the microscopic  universe stranger than quantum particles   it's the mysterious matter that scientists have  never seen but that plays a crucial role in the   formation of planets solar systems and galaxies  astronomers know that there's all sorts of matter   out there that exerts a gravitational influence  but that we can't see we call that dark matter i wouldn't exist if they weren't for dark matter  because dark matter has this nurturing force of   bringing things together to form structure to form  galaxies which are absolutely necessary for life   dark matter makes up a staggering 85 percent  of the gravitationally attractive stuff   in the universe if the dark matter is some kind  of particle then typically millions of dark matter   particles will pass through me every second  but even though they know dark matter exists   astronomers have been confounded  by a microscopic mystery what is it   at first they thought it was ordinary matter  that for some reason they couldn't see but what happened was astronomers went and took an  inventory we know how much ordinary matter there   is in the universe by ordinary matter we basically  mean atoms things that are made out of protons   neutrons and electrons the elementary particles  that go into making you me everything on earth   and it just doesn't measure up there's  not nearly enough ordinary matter in   the universe to make up the total this  conclusion was bizarre how could most of   the matter in the microscopic universe not  be made of protons neutrons and electrons it's been quite shocking to discover that these  atoms actually make up just a small minority of   all the stuff in the universe there's six times  more of an altogether different substance which is   invisible to us it's interesting to think that  science has brought us to the point where we   realize not only are we not the center of the  universe we're not even made of the same stuff   as the universe is made of for the most  part most of the stuff in the universe   is this dark matter and it's some small  particle beyond the reach of our direct detection some theoretical physicists  speculated that dark matter   might be made of neutrinos tiny particles  a thousand times smaller than an electron   that fit many of the known characteristics of dark  matter we know neutrinos exist and they have mass   they contribute weight so maybe we're done but  now it turned out that they're not neutrinos most of the dark matter is probably not normal  neutrinos because they travel very very quickly   and they wipe out the formation of what's called  large scale structure the clumping of material   on the scale of galaxies early in the universe's  history so it would be much harder to produce   galaxies if the universe is filled with  lots and lots of neutrinos zooming around   so the dark matter is not ordinary matter it's not   neutrinos it's some wholly new kind of  particle that we haven't detected yet it has to be some sort of weird subatomic particle  left over from the big bang when the universe   was very hot and dense a whole zoo of particles  was created most of them annihilated or decayed   into other particles but some were left over and  they are what are thought to be the dark matter but what could this exotic microscopic particle be since it's nothing known to science astronomers  proposed an entirely new particle that embodied   all of dark matter's characteristics and  then began searching the universe for it   they call it a wimp a weakly interacting massive  particle one of the problems with the wimp   hypothesis is that we've never actually detected  a wimp in a laboratory in fact there's several   experiments going on right this minute to look for  wimps in underground laboratories and you'd also   like to make them in particle accelerators like  the large hadron collider in geneva so there's   a multi-pronged attack to detect wimps directly  if they're the right answer if scientists find   evidence of dark matter will they also find  evidence of another world of dark planets dark life forms and a dark  matter table of elements i don't think they're like us in that the dark  matter particles can form planets and so on   because if they could then we would expect  most of the planets in our solar system to   actually be made of dark matter but i think  it's much more likely that the dark sector   is many different kind of particles  that are much more complex than just one   however modern science still has not found  evidence of this mysterious microscopic material and a growing number of scientists  argue that's because it's not   something else it's somewhere  else like other dimensions people have taken very seriously the  idea that the dark matter comes from   other dimensions or represents ordinary particles  that are actually moving in the other dimensions   the thing about other dimensions are we don't see  them we don't interact with them very strongly   so they're a natural place to put the dark matter  it's conceivable that the gravitational influence   in galaxies and clusters of galaxies that we  attribute to dark matter in our own universe   is actually caused by concentrations of matter  in other dimensions that are felt within our   dimensions but will never be discovered within our  dimensions because they're actually somewhere else whatever or wherever it is  many physicists are confident   they'll eventually discover a complete  solution to the dark matter mystery   unless they say it simply exists at an incredibly  small size far smaller than humans have ever been   able to explore that raises the question what does  exist at the smallest scales of the microscopic   universe that's what viewer jason l from houston  texas wanted to ask the universe jason i'm glad   you asked that question the smallest things  in the universe are the fundamental subatomic   particles like electrons or the quarks that make  up protons and neutrons or neutrinos now all these   particles are thought to be different vibrational  modes of a little tiny entity called a string a   little tiny package of energy and that then is the  smallest thing from which everything else is made scientists have just started trying to explore   strings and other incredibly small  stuff in the microscopic universe and what they found offers  tantalizing clues to a world beyond as they delve into smaller and smaller  spaces in the microscopic universe   scientists have successfully looked  inside atoms but what exists if we   continue our fantastic voyage still  deeper into this subatomic netherworld even scales that are smaller than the electron are  really a vast unexplored territory more so than   solar systems or galaxies or even the universe  because we can make observations of planets and   stars and galaxies in the universe but it's hard  to conduct experiments that allow us to directly   explore tiny scales in time and space essentially  what you need to examine the microscopic world   is a sharper and sharper tool something that  actually allows you to distinguish the details   down at that very small level but as scientists  try to probe spaces smaller than the atom   they cannot possibly focus enough light to  illuminate them they need something more powerful   to look more finely you need more energy we can  go to incredibly small details using high energy   devices of various kinds now the state of  the art are actually particle accelerators   we use elementary particles to actually probe  the structure of other elementary particles by   colliding them together letting them  interact with each other and then then   seeing what comes out at various energy scales  so we can continue this process of examining   smaller and smaller distances in space and time  by actually going to higher and higher energy with   collider experiments however the world's largest  particle accelerators have not yet generated   enough energy to probe things much smaller  than the elementary particles inside atoms even so scientists believe something  exists at even smaller scales   at a size so tiny the human mind  cannot possibly comprehend it   physicists are now trying to understand  what's called the planck length   10 to the minus 33 power centimeters that's  20 factors of 10 20 orders of magnitude   smaller than an electron now an electron is yay  big and i exaggerate a lot so the planck length   is just almost unimaginably smaller than any  objects we can actually measure nevertheless   physicists are trying to deal with these scales  and that's what string theory is all about string theory says that everything that we think  of as a particle is actually a tiny vibrating loop   of string to get an idea of how tiny it is i have  here an eye dropper we're going to put out one   drop of water that has about a trillion trillion  atoms of hydrogen and oxygen now imagine taking   one hydrogen atom and blowing it up by 10 billion  times it becomes about half a meter across and you   might say can we now see the individual strings  inside that hydrogen atom but the answer is no we   can continue to make it bigger make one hydrogen  atom the size of the solar system the strings   are still too small to be seen it's only when we  make that atom the size of our observable universe   that a string becomes macroscopically large  if one hydrogen atom is as big as the whole   observable universe how big is a string only about  the size of one of these trees the amazing thing   is that we human beings can even talk sensibly  about what exists at this microscopic scale   not only can scientists talk sensibly they've  also formulated theories about what happens   down there this is really one of the holy grails  of of all of science we think that ordinary space   and time cease to exist at the punk length  what we don't know is what takes their place   we need to replace our idea of space itself by  something more fundamental something that might   involve different numbers of dimensions  or just a different concept entirely one possibility is that space at the planck  length resembles the grid on a football field   the yard lines are the fabric of our universe  and there's simply nothing in between it could be that time jumps from  one discrete point to another   and there are no steps in between like little  quantum mechanical ants could tunnel from one   spot on the grid to another spot  on the grid without ever going   into the intervening space in between why because  there isn't any intervening space in between whatever exists at this incredibly small scale  most scientists believe that the concepts of space   and time segway into another kind of universe  where shrinking smaller is a meaningless concept   it could be that time and space are  what we call emergent properties   of the universe but that if you go to very small  spatial scales or very small intervals of time   the concepts of time and space  break down they don't make sense scientists say the conditions at the plant length  may be very similar to those that existed before   the big bang when everything in our universe  was probably concentrated in a microscopic   pinpoint maybe the same answers to the question  about what happens to the universe at the very   smallest scales may also be connected to knowing  what was the universe like before the big bang   did it just come into being at the big bang or  was it something different which then turned   into the universe that we're familiar with  at the big bang these are all questions we   don't know the answer to but are all connected to  the issue of what's going on at the plank scale   so you might think that these tiny plank  scale things have nothing to do with us   who are much bigger but actually it has everything  to do with us it's our origins our entire universe   if we extrapolate backwards would have  been smaller than the planck length whatever exists at the smallest scales of the  subatomic world and however these things behave   scientists say they must make sense of it all  before they can possibly comprehend the cosmos   above human behavior and what might have existed  before the big bang it's a mind-boggling amount of   information tucked inside an unimaginably  small space of our microscopic universe

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 232,214

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, the universe, history the universe, the universe show, the universe full episodes, the universe clips, full episodes, the universe season 7 episode 5, the universe s7 e5, the universe s07 e05, the universe 7X5, watch the universe, Watch the universe full episodes, Season 7, history clips, history channel full episodes, universe, the universe season 7, Episode 5, Strange Microscopic Universe, Microscopic Universe

Id: 4AWw7jzhpms

Length: 44min 22sec (2662 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/prsnreddit]

For nerds: this is a compelling argument about Time Travel. Watch it with TENET in mind.