Brief History of the End of Everything, A

Synopsis

A series of 15-minute programmes exploring how our ideas about the end of the universe have been shaped by religion, belief, and the contemporary state of scientific thinking and observation. Presented by Vatican Astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit astro-physicist who came to religion via science and his wonder at the universe. At the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, he compares cutting edge cosmology with Chinese, Ancient Greek, Buddhist, Medieval and Victorian ideas about the end of everything

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2005

Year of production

2003

Notes

Broadcast in 5 daily parts on Radio 4 during the week beginning 27/1/2003

Subjects

Astronomy; Philosophy; Science

Keywords

big bang theory; cosmology; creationism; history of science; philosophy of science

Online availability

URI

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/briefhistory.shtml

Price

free

Delivery

Streamed

Sections

Title

It’s OK, the universe is eternal

Synopsis

Eternity. In the 1950s, scientists were unconvinced about the concept of a start to the universe and held to the "steady state" theory that, whilst galaxies come and go, everything remains constant on a larger scale. The Big Bang Theory, however, forced them to consider both a beginning and an end, with its Biblical implications.

Duration

15 mins

Title

Universe will crash, The - we’re all doomed

Synopsis

It will die. Like a ball thrown into the air, no matter how fast the acceleration to begin with, gravity always wins. The universe will reach a critical mass, then start to fall back in on itself. This is the big crunch theory. The power of gravity wins out over the accelerating power throwing everything outwards. Microseconds from the end, black holes begin to merge with each other, little different from the collapsing state of the surrounding universe. The implosion becomes increasingly powerful, crushing all matter and every physical thing out of existence. Space and time end - there is eternal nothingness beyond this point, unless...

Duration

15 mins

Title

Lets go round again

Synopsis

The universe will certainly end, but at the crunch the process starts all over again, and could go on forever (cf. Hindu and Buddhist ideas of re-birth). Another possibility is "multiverses" - there are lots of different universes, all in different states of existence, some at moment of big bang, but will never become a universe as we know it, so grow to the size of a grape and shrink back, or expand outwards and never turn into frothy, lumpy matter - just a thin soup with no life in them. Our universe is perfect...not too fast to become a soup and not so slow that it falls back in on itself to destruct - just lumpy enough for galaxies to form and the whole thing to hold together - a balancing act between gravity and acceleration, for the time being.

Duration

15 mins

Title

Universe is expanding, The - we’re all doomed

Synopsis

The universe will die. The sun and other stars like it will throw out heat until they have no more energy to burn. The big bang threw everything outwards at a massive rate. As it gets bigger, so the gaps between matter get bigger and are filled with "dark energy". Instead of gravity pulling everything back down to a "big crunch" the dark energy accelerates the expansion process, pushing everything further apart faster and faster. In the end everything will be a cold, sad, blackness as the stars all go out, or are too far apart for us to see anything - but we will be long gone. This is currently the favoured thery.

Duration

15 mins

Title

Oops, I’ve dropped an exotic particle

Synopsis

A strange subatomic particle produced in an atom-smashing experiment here on earth could, theoretically, tumble to the centre of the planet and start eating the planet from the inside out - death by industrial accident. Or a random quantum fluctuation in distant space could switch off the machinery that makes matter big, and this would send a bubble of destruction moving at the speed of light and shutting down all creation in its path. All of the ideas explored in this series suggest that the future is not rosy - that the universe is going to end and that we will end along with it...or can we escape? Humans have been around for about five million years - civilisation only a few thousand - but the earth could remain habitable for two or three billion years to come, by which time inter-galactic travel might be possible.

Duration

15 mins

Production Company

Name

BBC Radio 4

Web

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 External site opens in new window