The beginning and end of the universe...BBC4

[ardcarp]

...presented by Jim AlKahlili. This was quite a comprehensive guide to modern thinking about the Big Bang. JA mentioned the work of two women scientists, whose contributions were important but whose names,, needless to say, are not widely known.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0754t74

[Richard Barrett]

...presented by Jim AlKahlili. This was quite a comprehensive guide to modern thinking about the Big Bang. JA mentioned the work of two women scientists, whose contributions were important but whose names,, needless to say, are not widely known.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0754t74

Jim al-Khalili also wrote a fascinating book about the contributions of Muslim thinkers to the advancement of science during the Middle Ages - I think there was a TV series about that as well.

[ahinton]

Jim al-Khalili also wrote a fascinating book about the contributions of Muslim thinkers to the advancement of science during the Middle Ages - I think there was a TV series about that as well.

Yes; it's The House of Wisdom - see https://books.google.co.uk/books/abo...wC&redir_esc=y , its title referring to http://www.muslimheritage.com/articl...wisdom-baghdad and the TV series was Science and Islam - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scienc...documentary%29 .

[Gordon]

Interesting programme but nothing really new - not enough time or appetite for too much science. Good to hear of female scientists of course but there are many male scientists also little known outside science. How many people knew about Alpher as in Alpher, Bethe and Gamow? Lisa Meitner is a name worth googling. And then there was also Rosalind Franklin who did not get her due recognition back in the 50s. We might hear of Jocelyn Bell I suppose, people may have heard of her but not what she did? She was someone my old boss, who did his PhD with Martin Ryle in the late 60s , knew at Cambridge and had enormous respect for her.

[ardcarp]

No, nothing new, but I felt JA explained things clearly to a general audience. I missed the very start...did he even mention Fred Hoyle and the Steady State Theory?

We might hear of Jocelyn Bell I suppose, people may have heard of her but not what she did? She was someone my old boss, who did his PhD with Martin Ryle in the late 60s , knew at Cambridge and had enormous respect for her.

I've long admired Jocelyn Bell, who discovered pulsars as a young researcher....and her (male) boss got the Nobel Prize for it, if I remember correctly. She does pop up occasonally on In our Time.

[Gordon]

No, nothing new, but I felt JA explained things clearly to a general audience. I missed the very start...did he even mention Fred Hoyle and the Steady State Theory?

I've long admired Jocelyn Bell, who discovered pulsars as a young researcher....and her (male) boss got the Nobel Prize for it, if I remember correctly. She does pop up occasonally on In our Time.

No, no mention of Hoyle, Gold, Bondi or the Steady State as such. The question of why, if gravity attracts, the universe isn't collapsing [illustrated with the magnetic ball bearings] puzzled Einstein and led him to his Lambda was described and so he did suggest that at the time of the issue with Lemaitre of Lambda in Einstein's equation that the universe was assumed to be in a steady state.

I think Jocelyn Bell was on Desert Island Discs once?** Yes, she did miss out [like Franklin] when Ryle/Hewish got the gong. Hoyle and Ryle were in enmity and so their respective students had to steer clear of each other!! Hoyle was mistaken on the issue of expanding universes but he nevertheless made significant contributions to understanding nuclear processes after his war time experience at Montreal airport. His books are well worth a read.

She was an Ulster lass born in Belfast and so I wonder if she was related to the Bell of Bell's Inequality who was also born in Belfast?

**: Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features...&gender=female number 18 in the list of 37 females. One of her choices in 2000 was a Mozart Horn concerto played by Timothy Brown and conducted by his sister Iona who of course died later.

I like the idea that first in the list is Prof Ion who is a nuclear physicist!!! Quarky name.

I suppose that the second programme will cover the Big Crunch/Freeze and the final fate of the universe if it ever decides to collapse or simply carry on expanding . Before then I expect the sun will have given up and earth will have been burned. I suppose Earth can always opt for the exit clause under the Treaty of Alpha Centauri? I mean we don't want all those Centaurians coming here do we when their sun gives out? Centaurs could frighten the horses.

[ardcarp]

I suppose Earth can always opt for the exit clause under the Treaty of Alpha Centauri? I mean we don't want all those Centaurians coming here do we when their sun gives out? Centaurs could frighten the horses.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I suppose Earth can always opt for the exit clause under the Treaty of Alpha Centauri? I mean we don't want all those Centaurians coming here do we when their sun gives out?

Gordon: you are Sheldon Cooper and I claim my £5

[ardcarp]

A no-one has yet explained why the universe is still accelerating apart, maybe Fred Hoyle's day will come? Difficult for mere human brains to comprehend a continuum. (Unless you're Ligeti, of course.)

[teamsaint]

A no-one has yet explained why the universe is still accelerating apart, maybe Fred Hoyle's day will come? Difficult for mere human brains to comprehend a continuum. (Unless you're Ligeti, of course.)

Give that nobody has yet come up with a really convincing wind machine for concert use, ( well not that I have heard), failure to provide an satisfactory explanation for this shouldn't really be a surprise.

[Gordon]

Gordon: you are Sheldon Cooper and I claim my £5

Rats, rumbled. It's in the post, I hope you don't mind Centauran dollars? The exchange rate is quite good at the moment, we did a deal in a recent clandestine visit to our partners at the RBoS to set up a post independence trading deal. Should be with you in about 436 years or so, by sub-light mail ship, the TransLight next year service is too expensive. I'd bring it myself but I'd prefer not to frighten your horses.

A no-one has yet explained why the universe is still accelerating apart, maybe Fred Hoyle's day will come? Difficult for mere human brains to comprehend a continuum. (Unless you're Ligeti, of course.)

Fred's biography by Mitton gives a good explanation of the SS theory** - and it isn't trivial and also had a good earlier pedigree - even Dirac supported it for a while!! Who knows, maybe the galaxies are all receding so that they can go round the universe the back way to converge and arrive back at the big bang. Time is an illusion.

** page 120, it appears that all the SS theory needs in the way of new material injected into the universe is 1 particle per cubic metre every million years, not a lot to ask really. Hard to measure!!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Rats, rumbled. It's in the post, I hope you don't mind Centauran dollars? The exchange rate is quite good at the moment, we did a deal in a recent clandestine visit to our partners at the RBoS to set up a post independence trading deal. Should be with you in about 436 years or so, by sub-light mail ship, the TransLight next year service is too expensive. I'd bring it myself but I'd prefer not to frighten your horses.

But is that your moment or my moment, relativistically speaking? I'm quite prepared to put myself into cryogenic suspended animation for 436 years but only for a decent payout, and really don't want to wake up to find the Centauran exchange rate has bottomed out at absolute zero!

[ardcarp]

Given that nobody has yet come up with a really convincing wind machine for concert use

Do you know, that is something which hasn't kept me awake at night? Up to now, that is. I guess anything too violent would blow the music off the desks.......

[teamsaint]

Do you know, that is something which hasn't kept me awake at night? Up to now, that is. I guess anything too violent would blow the music off the desks.......

hadn't thought of that.

Orchestral parts on ipad might be a technological answer to that little issue.

[ardcarp]

Episode 2. The End. We started off with Fred Hoyle, a handsome tribute, really. Had Jim been reading this thread?