What’s the life story of our universe? Are there other universes, and what might they look like? All questions for Professor John D. Barrow, delivering last night’s packed Royal Institution lecture.
Indeed, the Royal Institution came with added royals. We found ourselves in the august presence of the Duke of Kent (he’s the Queen’s cousin or, for anyone who saw the King’s Speech, the nephew of Colin Firth and Mike off of Neighbours). Prewarned about the blue-blooded audience member, I took a position at the side of the room so as to better observe the Duke’s reactions to the lecture. Just as I was settling into my seat, everyone rose from theirs in an unprompted mark of respect for His Royal Highness. Wow, I hadn’t realised we still did that. I suppose he is the RI’s President, which warrants its own respect.
Anyhow, back to the lecture. Barrow’s an old hand at this kind of thing, a stalwart of the science communication business for two decades and a regular purveyor of public lectures via his role in Gresham College. He settled in to his talk with consummate ease, despite his high-profile onlooker.
What followed was an hour and a half of relatively high-level cosmology. We started with Einstein’s relativity equations and the various possible universes that have been derived from them. Barrow explained the three cases laid out by Friedmann – an ever-expanding universe (“somewhat agoraphobic”), an expanding then collapsing universe (“somewhat claustrophobic”), and the finely balanced “British compromise” universe (here a rare chuckle from the Duke).
From there, Barrow regaled us with many possible universes (Swiss cheese, rotating, multi-beginning, multi-ending…), touching on recent (though debated) evidence for other universes and speculating about what we might discover in the near future from experiments such as Planck and the LHC.
I’ve maintained a keen amateur interest in cosmology, but found the level of assumed knowledge a little tough for a public lecture. His HRH sat impassive for most of the session, so it’s hard to know whether he grasped the full expansion principles of an anisotropic homogeneous universe. I feared for the younger members of the audience, until a teenager at the back asked an advanced question about radially heterogeneous universes. Again, wow. My physics extended to burning peanuts at that age.
Still, good to brush up on the history of the cosmos, and learn more about the various multiverse models. Barrow’s new tome, the Book of Universes, explains more. I’ve already read and understood the whole thing; just not in this universe.