We have no idea about the universe | Daniel Whiteson | TEDxSanFrancisco

There are huge yawning voids in our basic notions of how the world works.
Physicist Daniel Whiteson discusses how we're in an age of precision ignorance when we know very well that we know very little about the universe. The first step in making discoveries is embracing our ignorance.
Whiteson is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine. He is also the co-author of “We Have No Idea,” a light-hearted look at the open mysteries of the universe, and co-host of the podcast “Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe.”
Whiteson’s research is in the field of experimental high energy physics. He is interested in probing the structure of matter and the nature of its interactions at the very smallest scales, to understand the fundamental nature of our universe. Whiteson is part of the ATLAS collaboration, which built, maintained, and collects data from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, This is where the Higgs Boson was discovered.
Filmed at #TEDxSanFrancisco #DareToKnow on October 3rd, 2019, at the Herbst Theatre.
#Astronomy #Physics #Astrophysics #Universe Daniel Whiteson has a desire to understand the fundamental nature of our Universe. So naturally, he is a Professor of Physics at UC Irvine. Whiteson is also the co-author of
“We Have No Idea”, a light-hearted look at the open mysteries of the Universe, and co-host of the podcast “Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe". Whiteson and his colleagues have also created popular comics like “What’s in the data? The Higgs Boson Explained” and “True Tales of Dark Matters” which were both featured on PBS. Whiteson received his PhD from UC Berkeley and received a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@SuperManning11]

This guy is one of the great minds of our time. He is very smart, of course, but that’s not what I mean-I’m talking about the questions that he proposes, together with the excellent communication skills that he possesses that can lead a non-science person to a much greater understanding of our universe and our place in it. His podcast is terrific and prolific, covering a huge variety of topics, from particle physics to spirituality, all in his deep velvety voice and his dad joke sense of humor that can keep one engaged in even the most mind-bending questions that we all grapple with.

[@medabaliminaga6074]

He is more of a stand up comedian than a particle physicist........it was awesome......

[@fleanos]

Bro my professor kinda a beast

[@yak6896]

Awesome job Daniel! Love the podcast, still need to buy the book... Jorge is a great collaborator, you can tell just from this alone.

[@cb3470]

This guy and his podcast are the best.

[@AnaAguirre219]

Wow ! I find myself asking those questions more often than I’d actually like. How can we sleep every night not knowing many basic stuff 🥴

[@Kiel1919]

maybe you're the one to figure it out or perhaps propose a working theory :)

[@deepakSharma-we7rj]

This is best Ted talk I have ever come across .

[@toni4729]

Keep it up. Great talk.

[@khmerfooddelicious5117]

Thanks for your free video! It helps me a lot

[@naseef8686]

Amazing

[@Earlymorningtea]

My boy Daniel flexing his *Air Jesus 1’s*

[@me-0094]

Bruh

[@Baketoast]

cant wait for the j twos

[@stevoofd]

Hey hey, without the greek philosophers we wouldn’t be where we’re at today. I’d assume he would hold the same opinion since he waxed poetic about pioneering ideas and epiphanies. Those greeks were some of the earliest people to ponder existence and raise fruitful questions.

[@TToastedG]

Read the book and its awesome!

[@jodevs6077]

Good presentation and talk

[@lisaschuster9187]

For a 12 year old.

[@keyblade408]

The bigger space gets the farther we get from other milky ways, stars, etc.... This has lead me to believe space is young and its just starting to expand and we happend to be in maybe the beginning of creation maybe? I tryed describing what I'm thinking about this as best as possible but somethings can't be describe with words.

[@gmcb1711]

Brilliant

[@keziagreste]

He's so cool

[@RagingGeekazoid]

In the spirit of accepting that we don't know things, do we really know that matter is made of particles? Quantization of matter and energy fields is only evident when fields interact with each other ("measurements"), so why can't quantization be a property of those interactions? It would eliminate the silly "wave-particle duality", which tries to shoehorn two different phenomenological observations into one ontological entity.

[@lisaschuster9187]

RIGHT!! He starts out saying how much “we” know, then admitting we don’t know anything. What a waste of 18 minutes.

[@lukelader]

Great talk.

[@toni4729]

I don't understand why you got so many thumbs down. You were very articulate and well-spoken. I enjoyed and understood all you said.

[@lisaschuster9187]

An appropriate critique for his 7th grade wisdom.

[@toni4729]

@@lisaschuster9187 Seventh grade? With a PhD in physics? Not bad. Perhaps you should have taken more notice of the program and dug your head out of the bible.

[@TorMax9]

The Ancient Greeks were fantastic! The beginning of Philosophy, Logic, Science, Theatre, Literature, etc., etc., etc. The conceptual framework for Christianity - LOGOS, Soul, Heaven, etc. The cradle of Western Civilisation - that due to its pragmatic success has spread over the world. It's practically impossible to overestimate what we owe the Ancient Greeks.

[@balkrishnadhabade327]

This Guy just Explained his Book in 18 Mins 😂😂🙌

[@VG-rj8pn]

his worthless book

[@youngboss5813]

bruh this guy showed up in sandals, good talk tho.

[@Darakai]

he's thinking about important stuff, not dresscode. ;)

[@chrisparsonson420]

@@Darakai well said

[@youngboss5813]

Darakai very true it’s funny though

[@contingenceBoston]

Dude just walked off the beach with a flash drive in his pocket and was like, "no, yeah, I can totally make some puns. Pencil me in"

[@timenotime]

He’s a physicist.

[@sarcasm-83]

So now that I watched this... do I know more or less?

[@verafleck]

There could be a missunderstanding in how those big masses in movement behave. Some sort of "side effect" that we didn't count in.

[@morgunstyles7253]

I think the spin of a galaxy does not originate from the center out. I think it spins towards the center like a drain. Or stirred sugar in a glass of water. It spins towards the vortex, not away from it.

[@forty4027]

Humans, are so naive. We literally have no idea how the universe is made and never will. The moment we stop trying to answer these questions and start trying to find how to make human life better things will change.

[@webbridges1422]

When did the universe begin? Never. It never "started" in the sense that it began at some time. The universe is truly infinite: has alway been, will always be, without beginning or end.

[@missrosie2333]

U deserve more likes

[@AngeloHyuga]

"HUMAN IGNORANCE"

[@toni4729]

Yours? Are you learning anything or stating something from the Bible?

[@lisaschuster9187]

No HIS ignorance. I bet he barely made it through high school.

[@JakeMcClake2]

Yes it is quite true, we know very little about the Universe. The more we learn about the Universe, the more we realize we do not know. We may never know much about the Universe. At the current speed the voyager spacecraft will take 40,000 years to travel the distance to the nearest star. if it was headed there. We are on a planet which within the context of the entire universe, is invisibly small. We have traveled to that planet's nearest neighbor, the moon, and again in the Universe that distance is invisibly tiny. We have sent spacecraft out to the edge of the Solar System, and again within the context of the entire universe, that distance is also invisibly small. We know there is matter between the stars as we are on a planet in the solar system, and the solar system, has planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and many other things, that are not stars. We do not know how much of that is within our galaxy, or what is between galaxies or what, other than stars exists within or between galaxies. We just do not know much at all.

[@phy29]

You have to understand that there is no fondamentale particules ...there are an infinity kind of blocks ....

[@konoha1993]

Damn Daniel

[@phy29]

The chemistry go farer than physics it is the most complex level of scale in scale theory but not in other theory you know if there is only one theory you would be able to deduce everything from an simple idea that scary .....i rather an endless quest of knowledge ......

[@phy29]

That why there is no end of time .....

[@judahnat6529]

God is the answer

[@sarcasm-83]

God is an excuse used to claim we have the answers.

[@judahnat6529]

@@sarcasm-83 I didnt say we have the answers. I said God is the answer.

[@sarcasm-83]

@Anders Anderson If contradicting oneself is a good comeback, then sure.

[@sarcasm-83]

​@Anders Anderson ... are you serious? First sentence claims they're not saying they have the answers and the very next sentence lists what they are convinced to be the answer. So.. I don't know, maybe you read more carefully?

[@sarcasm-83]

​@Anders Anderson Well I can certainly admit I'm not religious, but no matter how I spin it, to me that's quite equivalent to "We do not have the answers - science is the answer" I don't see it so much as such an open ended, deep statement, but a blanket statement that encompasses all of the universes answers under one thing. One "excuse" to lean on, like I originally said. Not to mention how blind faith to one thing would shut your mind to a whole lot of possibilities. Deep down, I think it's arrogant to think we'd ever get all the answers. Even more arrogant to me that one oversimplified invented thing like "God" would be the answer. I .. just don't see humanity as the very center of the entire universe and everything.. or as the main purpose catered to by a spiritual omnipotent force that does everything in relation to us. If I thought my existance was the center of everything, I can't even begin to imagine how much it'd skew all my thinking processes about everything, resulting in a whoole lot of bias. But yeah none of my beliefs I explained are intended to insult, just how I see things. I tried making myself believe in a God, but I just can't do it. It doesn't "make sense" and it stops me. Thanks for the chat.

[@phy29]

galaxy speed so fast because of the cold star in the center

[@VG-rj8pn]

lmao there is no cold start in the center lmao

[@phy29]

The universe exist to give senses to mathematical definitions....

[@1959Berre]

"What would happen when we die?" Maybe a philosophy question to you; for me it is crystal clear: when we die it is "game over". There is no afterlife, there are no gods.

[@NewYorkerinSapporo]

An opinion which is impossible to substantiate.

[@TorMax9]

You don't know and to claim to know is pretty silly. You're just extrapolating the conceptual model you use to navigate around the world as a limited biological being with needs and wants and desires. A bit of humbleness in the face of awe and wonder would be in order here instead of outrageous reductionist hubris.

[@phy29]

dinosaure pirates really exist .....

[@phy29]

You all know about Planet, galaxy, nebula, asteroide, comeit, stars, quasar and blackhole but there are more than this like thoret, cristalet, starlet, galaxet, asteroidet, white fountain, candle, riveras, hearts, pulsar, ghost star, baby star, nebula star, vagabond, ....etc...

[@robbedontuesday]

Dark matter matters.

[@toni4729]

Absolutely.

[@harpar1028]

CURIOSITY WILL DESTROY YOU S WHOLE

[@jessew6437]

We are created creation

[@pigmentrich224]

Life is so weird because there's nothing else we can compare it to just like the universe. We don't even know what we was doing before our individual lives started. God doesn't want us to know anything smh

[@KonwTheTrut]

ALL FACTS probability because a god doesn’t exist.

[@terrestrialcreature7481]

Konw The Trut!!!!! It’s all a mystery. How did the universe come to existence? Where did the energy come from? I personally believe there’s a god yet I still ask myself who made god? How did he appear? Our life seems meaningless when compared to the universe. The only things making believe there’s a god is the complexity of life, even a protein molecule, as small as it is, is extremely complex. The average protein in a simple cell contains 200 amino acids. It’s been calculated that the chance of a protein with just 100 amino acids being made on earth is 1 followed by 113 zeros. A number estimated to be larger than the total amount of atoms in the universe. K now guess what? 1 simple protein molecule isn’t enough to maintain life. A cell needs at least 2,000 different proteins. Making the chance a 1 followed by 40,000 zeroes. Every evolutionists admits that and every mathematician dismiss anything taking place if the chances are less than 1 followed by 50 zeroes.

[@KonwTheTrut]

@@terrestrialcreature7481 sorry, did you have a question?

[@terrestrialcreature7481]

Konw The Trut!!!!! Lol

[@toni4729]

@@terrestrialcreature7481 What's one of those?

[@paulmatolsy4593]

Great job but I wish scientists would stop using the term 'created' or 'creation' when talking about the origin of the universe. This implies a creator which inplies the concept of some sort God-like being. That is pure anthropomorphicism antithetical to scientific discussions. Why not just say the origin of the universe, not it's creation?

[@phy29]

Why no one ask God why is more hard to lose weight that win that no logical even for me hihihi....

[@phy29]

En plus la reponce est toute conne c'est parce que notre corps creer de l'ernergie grace au movement donc si on veut perdre du poids efficacement il faut surtout pas faire d'effort......

[@balkrishnadhabade327]

What It's like to Be a Bat ? Well, You Can Spread Many Diseases whenever you Want and Stop the World 😅😅😂

[@phy29]

Everything is not make of the same thing String theory is a good theory but String are made of smaller particules and there is again smaller on and on ......

[@lisaschuster9187]

“The first human being ever to look at the Grand Canyon!” That was at least 15,000 years ago, Mr. Doosh Bagge. I wouldn’t rely on him to know anything. Why are Ted Talks always the WORST documentaries??

[@NewYorkerinSapporo]

'always' 'worst' ??? The use of superlatives weakens the value of your comment.

[@trainado5683]

We already know how the universe was made 🤦‍♂️ GOD made it🤦‍♂️

[@GodBody-BodyofGod]

It was too difficult to listen to Sylvester the Cat