An hour to make the universe - Frank Close 1993 Christmas Lectures 5/5
In his final lecture, Frank Close looks at the symmetry of the early universe and the reasons behind its current asymmetrical state.Watch all the lectures in this series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnrZHfNEDZzLKaoTdeYwVajlium5DvVP
Watch our newest Christmas lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnrZHfNEDZyQJZLPMjwEoOLdkFBLU2m1
This was recorded on 5 Dec 1993.
--
This year marks 200 years of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures — a world famous series showcasing science, curiosity, and mind-blowing demos, and started by the legendary Michael Faraday himself. To celebrate, we're unlocking the archive. Every Saturday, we’ll upload a classic lecture to our YouTube channel — some not seen since they aired on TV. Sign up as a Science Supporter and get early access here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeF244yNGuFefuFKqxIAXw/join
--
From the 1993 programme notes:
The discoveries from LEP, and throughout the century, make it increasingly surprising that we are here at all! According to our best theories, the Universe erupted in a big hang of hot radiation from which matter and antimatter were born in equal amounts.
Yet out of this uniform symmetric newborn Universe, somehow 20 billion years later all the antimatter has disappeared leaving matter, such as us, and the microwave background radiation remnant of the original heat. How did a uniform Universe end up skewed?
There are several examples in nature of phenomena that appear to be symmetric under one set of conditions and that hide the symmetry under other circumstances. A bath of water consists of molecules uniformly distributed in all 3-dimensions and all directions; but when frozen this uniformity is replaced by the hexagonal symmetry of the snowflake. It is beautiful but more ordered than its hot counterpart, analogous perhaps to the highly structured cool Universe of 20 billion years in contrast to the uniform and hot initial state.
Physicists are now on the trail of the mechanism that hid this original symmetry. They are planning to use the facilities at the LEP in CERN to build a more powerful machine known as LHC (Large Hadron Collider).
The cosmologists tell us that 90% of the Universe consists of mysterious 'Dark Matter': this could be formed at LHC as this accelerator will produce conditions 100 times nearer to the Big Bang than ever seen before, taking us into an epoch before the veil dropped that hid the original symmetries of the Natural Laws, and begin to resolve the deep conundrum of our existence.
--
About the 1993 CHRISTMAS LECTURES
These lectures explore a century of discovery, beginning in 1893—a time before scientists knew of radioactivity, electrons, or atoms, and had no idea how stars shine or that galaxies rush away from a Big Bang. Despite this, many believed they were close to fully understanding nature. But discoveries at the century’s turn shattered that view, revealing a deeper, more complex reality.
By 1993, people spoke of a “Theory of Everything” and pondered whether we could “know the mind of God.” Yet again, there were signs that all was not well. These lectures trace this journey through discovery and debate, ending with a look toward the next hundred years.
They will show how each breakthrough not only answers questions but opens new ones—driving innovation, creating new tools, and extending our reach far beyond our senses.
While our eyes see nearby stars and fine detail, and our ears detect fleeting sounds, it’s our “sixth sense”—the tools of science—that let us look deep into atoms and far across the cosmos. Telescopes capture ancient light; particle accelerators recreate the moments after the Big Bang.
At the smallest scales, we image subatomic particles living for billionths of a second. Like hieroglyphs revealing ancient secrets, these modern symbols tell the story of creation—and may even hint at our future.
Find out more about the CHRISTMAS LECTURES here: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures
---
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeF244yNGuFefuFKqxIAXw/join
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science
and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution
and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science
Listen to the Ri podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ri-science-podcast
Donate to the RI and help us bring you more lectures: https://www.rigb.org/support-us/donate-ri
Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments
Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter
Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link. Receive SMS online on sms24.me
TubeReader video aggregator is a website that collects and organizes online videos from the YouTube source. Video aggregation is done for different purposes, and TubeReader take different approaches to achieve their purpose.
Our try to collect videos of high quality or interest for visitors to view; the collection may be made by editors or may be based on community votes.
Another method is to base the collection on those videos most viewed, either at the aggregator site or at various popular video hosting sites.
TubeReader site exists to allow users to collect their own sets of videos, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others; TubeReader can develop online communities around video sharing.
Our site allow users to create a personalized video playlist, for personal use as well as for browsing and viewing by others.
@YouTubeReaderBot allows you to subscribe to Youtube channels.
By using @YouTubeReaderBot Bot you agree with YouTube Terms of Service.
Use the @YouTubeReaderBot telegram bot to be the first to be notified when new videos are released on your favorite channels.
Look for new videos or channels and share them with your friends.
You can start using our bot from this video, subscribe now to An hour to make the universe - Frank Close 1993 Christmas Lectures 5/5
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. You can even create and upload your own videos to share with others. Originally created in 2005, YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web, with visitors watching around 6 billion hours of video every month.
