Ep.38 – The science of the universe with Islam Khan

Planet B612

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In this episode, I’m speaking with early universe cosmologist Islam Khan. We talk about inflation theory, the multiverse, dark matter, and so much more! Is there such a thing as a parallel universe? Do we know why the universe has stretched? What does a cosmologist do for fun?

• (0:00:50) What does a Cosmologist do?
• (0:01:48) Islam Khan's journey into studying cosmology
• (0:04:50) The Infinite Universe vs The Observable Universe
• (0:06:30) The Milky Way in the cosmic web
• (0:07:50) The scale of the Observable Universe
• (0:09:30) Are we alone out here? The possibility of alien life
• (0:11:50) The Inflation Theory - our stretchy Universe
• (0:12:45) How do we know it stretched?
• (0:13:30) The painting analogy
• (0:14:35) How the Inflation Theory explains these problems
• (0:15:52) Multiverses: a consequence of inflation. What are they?
• (0:16:32) Max Tegmark - defining the four levels
• (0:17:55) Level 1: Inflation fields, Quantum Fields and the Higgs Boson
• (0:19:24) Level 2: Bubbles of Universes
• (0:20:02) Level 3: The Many Worlds Theory
• (0:22:10) Level 4: An Abstract view: Changing the laws of physics
• (0:23:30) Do doppelgangers actually exist?
• (0:24:20) Wave Function Collapse - Schrödinger's cat and Hugh Everett's theory
• (0:26:03) Are we just a simulation?
• (0:27:25) What caused the inflation? The ball and the hill
• (0:29:10) Reheating the Universe
• (0:30:25) Unifying Inflation Theory and dark energy/dark matter
• (0:31:45) The Theory of Everything
• (0:32:45) The real world applications - answering the big questions
• (0:34:46) The second stretching phase - what's happening now
• (0:35:50) Einstein's Cosmological Constant
• (0:37:35) Accelerated Expansion and Earth
• (0:40:00) Particle Cosmology - not just math
• (0:41:15) The Philosophical side
• (0:42:38) The Anthropic Principle
• (0:43:25) Evidence over opinion - why we can't all get along
• (0:44:45) Working together - you need more than Theorists to make a theory
• (0:46:25) Exciting advances in research today! Stepping on Mars! New particles and more!
• (0:49:15) Islam Khan's interests; soccer, guitar and travel
• (0:52:25) Science and the arts - is there a link?
• (0:54:15) Conversations and discussions - other fields of interest
• (0:56:20) Research is the dream

Follow Islam Khan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KhanCosmologist Islam Khan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/islam-khan-001915/

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