Are These The Strangest Objects In The Universe?

The first sign would be small. [music]

Through a telescope, a single star would

appear to split in two. Perhaps it would

be dismissed as a mistake, an oddity

caused by a problem with the lens. But

then a few nights later, telescopes

across the globe would [music] spy the

same thing. Detectors around the world

would notice increased levels of cosmic,

UV, and gamma rays. Something energetic

would be detected happening in the

nearby universe.

Then would come the rumbling. To begin

with, it would be subtle, noticed only

by gravitational wave detectors. Strange

ripples in space fitting no known

template. An invisible approaching

threat.

But in time, we would see it stretching

from one horizon to the other. As if it

cut the universe in two, [music] it

would pulse with exotic energies. When

it whipsled onto itself, it would create

an explosion brighter than a supernova.

And indeed, by the time it became

visible to the naked eye, it would

already be too late.

The universe holds close [music] its

dark secrets. Beyond the boundaries of

the known and familiar, past the

protection of the sun, and the circling

embrace of the Milky Way, lie relics of

its ancient past, remnants [music]

of the Big Bang itself.

There are defects in the cosmos, and

they have been here a long, long time.

They were there in epochs of fire and

unification at the beginning of

everything. The long eras of splintering

and fracturing, the chaos and violence

before the universe as we know it took

its final shape. They appear in our

theories. We give them names. We assign

them properties. [music]

We ask how they might survive to the

present day. How we might detect them

through a subtle signature in this or

that survey. We tell ourselves we are

safe.

But perhaps we are wrong.

In February 2011, Robonaut 2 became the

first humanoid robot in space. Initially

designed as a prototype [music] to be

used on Earth, mission managers chose to

send it to the International Space

Station after being impressed with its

capability. It could be controlled

remotely either by crew members aboard

the space station or even back on Earth

and was invaluable to engineers in

[music] demonstrating how dextrous

robots function in space. Sometimes it's

useful to be able to control something

remotely even from the other side of the

world. And if you're looking to remotely

control your computer for personal or

business reasons, Anyesk can help. Anyes

is a lightning fast remote access tool

that makes it feel as if you're sitting

right in front of the remote machine.

Indeed, we find it especially useful for

video editing. Our editors can access

[music] their high performance desktops

back at home on the go, even with

low-spec laptops. [music]

This allows us to take cheaper, older,

or more portable machines to the coffee

shop or gym without losing any

productivity. Any is available across

all major platforms, is backwards

[music] compatible with older operating

systems, and has 99.98%

uptime reliability, so you can depend on

being able to use it when you need to.

And what's more, personal use is totally

free with tailored plans for team and

business environments. So head to

anyes.com to try this premium remote

access tool free of charge.

[music]

We live in a broken universe and in 1983

physicists revealed a more perfect one.

The laboratory [music] was called

Underground Area 1. It sat outside the

main detection chambers of CERN, the

collection of massive particle colliders

situated at the border of France and

Switzerland. The main detector consisted

of a series of cylinders almost 6 m long

and over 2 m wide filled with ultra pure

neutral argon and ethane gases. A

complex zigzagging of 17,000 wires and

over 6,000 sensors tracked the

three-dimensional movement of any

charged particles as they raced through

the chamber. After years of development,

the team at UA1 had hacked together a

new kind of collider, one that combined

protons and anti-rotons together at

nearly the speed of light. With the

machine in operation, the particles

raced around kilometers of circular

track, accelerating to higher energies

with each pass, coming within

centimeters of each other. Finally, at

the last moment, right at the very

limits that [music] the accelerators

could achieve before their beams of

particles drifted off course, the

engineers initiated a carefully

orchestrated sequence of events that

brought the twin beams into collision

precisely within the UA1 chamber.

And for the barest fraction of a second,

when the energies peaked and the

collision ignited to its maximum

intensity, a pure infant universe was

born.

This new universe was unbroken,

symmetric. Strange particles sprung into

existence. [music] the wires and

detectors of the chamber briefly

registering their exotic presence before

they flashed away.

But [music] this was no portal into

another dimension.

It was a window into our past.

Few people anticipated what would happen

on that fateful day in 1983.

Some of them, like Peter [music] Higgs,

are well known today with their names

attached to Nobel prizes and

international recognition. But some

stayed out of the limelight, content to

do their work regardless [music] of the

promise of fame.

By all accounts, [music]

Sir Thomas Kibble was the gentleman's

gentleman and the scientist's scientist.

[music] He was kind, gregarious, and

dignified. He delighted in his work, in

the camaraderie of his peers, [music]

and his ventures into the frontiers of

physics. Indeed, in 2013, when Peter

Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize, he

expressed regret that Kibble was not

joining him. And yet, when asked his own

opinion, Kibble simply shrugged. He was

happy with what he had accomplished, he

didn't need a gold medal to reap his

rewards.

But what was it that he had found? What

was it that was confirmed in the fires

of CERN in 1983?

The theory of the Big Bang tells us that

the universe was smaller, hotter, and

denser in the past. Billions of years

ago, the entire observable universe had

a temperature of over a quadrillion

degrees and was compressed into a volume

no bigger than a peach. And Peter Higgs,

Tom Kibble, and others discovered that

at those insane energies, what we call

the forces of nature take on an entirely

different form.

There are four fundamental forces that

control everything within the universe.

Gravity, electromagnetism, and the

strong and weak nuclear forces which

operate at atomic scales. At least there

are usually four. For at high enough

energies, [music] we know that two of

these disperate forces merge together

into a single unified hole. At extreme

enough energy scales, there are no

longer four forces of nature. There are

only three. gravity, the strong force,

and the electroeak force.

This is a symmetry of nature exposed

only at incredibly high energies. The

electromagnetic and weak forces become

two [music] sides of the same coin. The

same way we view electricity and

magnetism as two sides of

electromagnetism.

But this symmetry is broken in the

everyday cosmos with some mechanism

driving a wedge between them, making

them appear and act as completely

different forces.