1 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:09,640 The 20th century witnessed an astonishing revolution in physics. 2 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:16,840 From unlocking the secrets of the atom... 3 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,600 ..to working out the origins of the universe... 4 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:27,120 ..physics took us places we'd never dreamt possible. 5 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:35,720 This was also a century when we were for the first time 6 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,640 able to see and hear scientists in their own words. 7 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:44,920 I began to notice there was something slightly curious on the records. 8 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,600 I didn't take it in, because I was probably daydreaming, and... 9 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,320 I can't stop! I mean, I could talk forever. 10 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,840 So we began to learn not just about the science, 11 00:00:56,840 --> 00:00:58,280 but the men and women behind it. 12 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:02,880 And the more we learnt about these scientists, 13 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:04,640 the more it became clear 14 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:06,840 that their personalities... 15 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:08,480 eccentricities... 16 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:10,160 and rivalries... 17 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,080 It was that he was too sure too quickly. 18 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,640 ..were all fundamental to their discoveries. 19 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:19,440 In fact, it's impossible truly to understand 20 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:21,840 the 20th century revolution in physics 21 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,720 without first knowing who these men and women really were. 22 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,240 I see. And your idea is to find out what nature COULD be. 23 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:50,760 8:15am. 24 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,440 The 6th August 1945. 25 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:55,000 Hiroshima. 26 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,200 And the world witnessed the power of physics. 27 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,600 A catastrophic explosion 28 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,880 sent a shock wave that flattened the city... 29 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,560 sparked a huge firestorm 30 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,760 and bathed every living thing in deadly radiation. 31 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:35,480 Over 60,000 people died immediately. 32 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,120 The atomic bomb shocked the world, 33 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:43,600 causing a scale of destruction never before witnessed. 34 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:51,560 It also broke the heart of the world's most famous scientist - 35 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,480 the man who had launched the 20th century revolution in physics, 36 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,960 and dedicated his life to world peace and equality. 37 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,240 Hiroshima devastated Albert Einstein - 38 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,400 not only because it tested his ideals, 39 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:39,840 but also because he felt he had played a role 40 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:41,480 in the development of the bomb. 41 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:48,440 What weighed heaviest on Einstein's conscience 42 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,640 was a letter he had signed in 1939. 43 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,120 It was addressed to the US President, Roosevelt, 44 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,080 and written to encourage the Americans to build the bomb 45 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:00,640 to deter the Nazis. 46 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:04,680 Einstein knew that his signature 47 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,240 would have carried more weight than any other. 48 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,160 After all, by then he was the most famous 49 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,640 scientist in the world - a scientific superstar. 50 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:25,280 Einstein never worked on the Manhattan Project 51 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:26,800 that built the bomb, 52 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,160 but from the moment he learnt about the death 53 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:32,280 of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Hiroshima, 54 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:35,080 he deeply regretted ever having signed the letter. 55 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,080 Yet there was also another, more fundamental way 56 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:46,400 in which Hiroshima lay on Einstein's conscience. 57 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:48,840 Because the equation that made him famous, 58 00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:53,000 the equation that symbolised the scientific revolution he created, 59 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,440 was the very same equation that underpinned the atomic bomb - 60 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,800 E = mc2. 61 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:28,560 In this simple and beautiful equation, 62 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,120 Einstein had rewritten the laws of physics. 63 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,280 But he had also unwittingly handed the world 64 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:36,800 the key to the atomic bomb. 65 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,320 It was an outcome he could never have foreseen 66 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:45,600 when he began his scientific studies at the start of the 20th century. 67 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,200 Einstein had crafted E = mc2 when he was in his 20s. 68 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,280 At the time, he was just a young man working in obscurity 69 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:03,680 in a patent office in Bern, Switzerland. 70 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,000 But he had a fascination for light, space and time. 71 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,440 He read a lot while he was at the patent office. 72 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:15,120 He read a lot in the evening and weekends, 73 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:19,200 and there was an informal group of scientists in Bern. 74 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,200 He was very much engaged in discussion about science, 75 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:26,440 even though he was spending his time at work assessing patents. 76 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:33,800 Despite the group, Einstein did his best work alone. 77 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:37,040 His method was to create thought experiments 78 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:39,840 that asked some simple, profound questions. 79 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,320 Questions like, "If I'm travelling on a tram, 80 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:48,200 "does time run differently for me 81 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,040 "inside the tram compared to people standing on the street outside?" 82 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,880 And, "If I was travelling away from a clock tower on a beam of light, 83 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,960 "would my wristwatch and the clock read the same time?" 84 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,080 Whichever area he was looking at, 85 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:09,600 he would find the little inconsistencies, 86 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,040 the things that didn't quite make sense, 87 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,080 the things that in retrospect seem like a bit of a fudge 88 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,080 when you got different explanations for the same phenomenon. 89 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:23,320 And he would focus in on those little rough corners 90 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:26,200 and completely cut them away and bring in something new, 91 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:28,160 and bring clarity to the situation. 92 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,440 And that was very characteristic, I think, 93 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,000 of the way he operated in all those different fields. 94 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,440 Einstein spent time deep in concentration 95 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,320 considering the outcomes of his thought experiments... 96 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,080 ..which would culminate in two ground-breaking theories 97 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,080 that would lay the foundations for modern physics. 98 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:54,240 First there was his special theory of relativity. 99 00:07:56,320 --> 00:08:00,120 This proposed a radical new concept of space and time, 100 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,760 suggesting that neither are absolutes, 101 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:04,960 but can change depending on the relative motion 102 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:06,400 of objects and observers. 103 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:11,920 A set of ideas that also led to E = mc2. 104 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:18,400 And then his general theory of relativity, 105 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:21,760 which gave physicists a new understanding of gravity. 106 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:23,840 Rather than being a force, 107 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:27,760 it was now a property of the curvature of space and time. 108 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,080 They were ground-breaking new theories, 109 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:33,200 products of Einstein's vivid imagination, creativity 110 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:34,400 and ambition. 111 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,120 The freedom and independence he enjoyed in Bern, 112 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:43,960 away from the formality of academia, allowed him the space 113 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:47,280 to formulate some of the most original ideas in science. 114 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,320 And as other scientists began to provide support for these theories, 115 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:55,360 Einstein was rocketed into world fame. 116 00:08:55,360 --> 00:09:01,040 Einstein had the reputation, before all these results were announced, 117 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:03,680 of being very mild-mannered, of being shy - 118 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:06,800 but he absolutely rose to the occasion. 119 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,120 He just basked in the glory, and he really loved it. 120 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,000 And he went on tours and he talked to audiences. 121 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,760 His lectures weren't always very good, 122 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,520 and there's a report from Oxford by a student, 123 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,000 and he said, when Professor Einstein came in, 124 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:25,840 he was shuffling along and he looked quite dejected and low-spirited, 125 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,840 and then the audience rose to its feet and clapped, 126 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:32,520 and suddenly Einstein came alive and his whole face lit up - 127 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:36,000 and he obviously really needed that public adulation. 128 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,760 MAN: Can you kill the lights, fellas? 129 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:39,400 Can you kill the lights? 130 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:42,920 Shake hands with me... 131 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,400 The public latched on to Einstein's playful image, 132 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,800 rather than trying to understand his complicated theories. 133 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,880 The intellectual elite treated him like a god. 134 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:14,080 LAUGHTER 135 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:23,000 After Einstein, 136 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,120 the story of 20th-century physics 137 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,080 became the story of men and women who either built on Einstein's work, 138 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,520 attacked it, or filled in the gaps of what it could not explain. 139 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:37,400 And the first big development after relativity 140 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:41,800 concerned the one part of the universe that seemed to defy it. 141 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:43,720 The world of the subatomic particle. 142 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,200 This was a strange new world, 143 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,200 and it led to an entirely new branch of physics. 144 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,080 It was called quantum theory, 145 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,240 and became characterised by both bizarre ideas 146 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:06,960 and rather bizarre people. 147 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:18,760 Few were more strange than British mathematician Paul Dirac. 148 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:21,160 His intellect rivalled that of Albert Einstein, 149 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,600 but in character Dirac could not have been more different. 150 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:30,480 Talking about the history of quantum mechanics, 151 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:32,720 the English physicist Paul Dirac. 152 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:39,320 Quantum mechanics was discovered 40 years ago by Heisenberg. 153 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:44,280 Shortly afterwards it was discovered again, 154 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:48,640 independently, in a rather different form by Schrodinger. 155 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:56,160 Heisenberg and Schrodinger gave us a very wonderful theory. 156 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:01,360 Many people took it up and proceeded to develop it. 157 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:03,120 I was one of them. 158 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,320 Well, he was certainly a very strange man. 159 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:09,920 He was very quiet - people call him shy. 160 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:11,760 I guess he was shy. 161 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:13,760 He took things very literally. 162 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:16,880 Also, it might be something that seemed a bit rude. 163 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:19,280 I know that somebody asked him 164 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,240 whether he had seen any good films recently, or something - 165 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:24,160 sitting next to him, probably, at High Table, 166 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:26,400 at St John's College, Cambridge, 167 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,000 and he said, "Well, why do you want to know?" 168 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:33,000 Dirac would later attribute his silence 169 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:35,280 to being bullied as a child by his father. 170 00:12:36,680 --> 00:12:39,440 he was brought up by this very strict father 171 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:43,160 who insisted that at dinner time - or at home, I think - 172 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,880 his son should only speak in French. 173 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,920 And Dirac didn't like to speak in French, 174 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:53,080 and so, the preferable option, he just didn't speak at all. 175 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,400 Others claimed Dirac's social awkwardness 176 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,200 was because he was autistic. 177 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:00,720 Whatever the reason, 178 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:02,920 it didn't hold him back in the pursuit of a career 179 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:04,440 in mathematics at Cambridge. 180 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:11,000 Professor Dirac, we heard before from Professor Heisenberg 181 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,560 about his visit to the Kapitza Club in Cambridge. 182 00:13:13,560 --> 00:13:15,880 Can you tell us something about that club? 183 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:19,440 Kapitza was a young Russian physicist who came to Cambridge 184 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:21,240 to work with Rutherford. 185 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:25,920 He organised a club, about 20 members, physicists, 186 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,560 who would meet every Tuesday evening, 187 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:33,840 and someone would then read a paper on some question of physics, 188 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,320 and there would be a lot of discussion afterwards. 189 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,720 There was a minute book that was kept of this club, 190 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,720 which is very fortunate, and we can look in the records of that 191 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:44,600 and see just the subject that Heisenberg talked on. 192 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:50,080 I don't remember whether he spoke about his new theory at that time. 193 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:54,320 I... If he did, I didn't take it in, because... 194 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:56,440 I was probably daydreaming, 195 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,200 and I don't take in everything a lecturer says. 196 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:03,160 Despite his daydreaming, 197 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,000 Dirac was singled out as a brilliant and fresh new talent 198 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,120 in the new field of quantum theory. 199 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:11,520 He was invited to speak 200 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,240 at the most prestigious international physics event - 201 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:16,040 the Solvay Conference. 202 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,400 Only a few months later, he published an equation 203 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,040 which would solve one of the biggest problems in physics 204 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:26,160 and become his most seminal work. 205 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:31,040 I suppose the thing that Dirac's best known for 206 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:32,960 is the Dirac equation. 207 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,960 And I remember going to lectures where people would say, 208 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:37,280 "Well, the Dirac equation 209 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,760 "is the most accurate equation known in science." 210 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:41,680 I don't know if you'd say that now, 211 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,320 but it's the equation of the electron. 212 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,720 It was partly to solve a problem which people found 213 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:51,840 that they couldn't describe particles 214 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:53,640 in accordance with relativity. 215 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:01,800 Dirac had done what no-one else could. 216 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,800 He had crafted an equation to describe how electrons behave 217 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,200 that was consistent with both quantum theory 218 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:11,760 and special relativity. 219 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:15,880 A union that had yet to be proved possible. 220 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,040 It was certainly highly original, 221 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,880 but I think this was driven, maybe, 222 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:27,360 by the fact that there was a barrier between him and the outside world, 223 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,640 and that he was internally driven 224 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,280 and therefore found that this was the way he understood things, 225 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,800 and he would quite often, therefore, understand things in a different way 226 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:40,440 from the way other people did, and it might be a better way, 227 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,160 because he'd thought it all through in his own terms. 228 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,240 As well as explaining how electrons behave, 229 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,440 he developed a theory of quantum electrodynamics 230 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,800 which described the interactions between electrons and light. 231 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:05,640 Dirac's unique understanding of subatomic particles 232 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,400 won him a Nobel prize 233 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,600 and led to a series of breakthroughs in quantum physics. 234 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:14,440 But despite all of his successes, 235 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,440 Dirac would never become a household name. 236 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:21,160 Unlike Einstein, attention made him uncomfortable, 237 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,080 so he avoided the limelight whenever he could. 238 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,440 He was interested in other things than science, 239 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:28,840 but a little bit surprising - 240 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,080 for instance he was interested in cartoon movies, 241 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,040 Mickey Mouse, and things like that. 242 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:34,840 He was interested in things 243 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,480 where the emotional content was not a major part of it. 244 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,160 But then there was also this story about either a play or a book, 245 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:42,800 I can't quite remember which now, 246 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:44,760 by a Russian author - maybe Dostoevsky. 247 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:48,760 In it, somebody asks him, "Well, what did you make of it? 248 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:50,320 "Did you enjoy it?" 249 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:55,160 And he said, "Well, at one point the author made a mistake 250 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,280 "and he said the sun rose twice in the same day." 251 00:16:58,280 --> 00:16:59,840 HE CHUCKLES 252 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,200 So this is the sort of thing he would point out 253 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,440 about some literary classic, 254 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:10,760 rather than commenting on its emotional impact. 255 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:20,120 Dirac only ever let a few people into his world. 256 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:28,840 His wife was the sister of a very distinguish quantum physicist - 257 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:31,280 or a mathematical physicist, Eugene Wigner, 258 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,000 who was a very important figure, also, in the early days 259 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:35,280 of quantum mechanics, 260 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,600 and so she must have known that community 261 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:42,720 and known how Dirac was respected within that community, 262 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,880 which I expect had something to do with their getting together. 263 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,040 And she probably felt that he was somebody who needed protection, 264 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:51,680 needed attention, 265 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:55,040 and somebody who would be very worthwhile 266 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:57,680 and interesting to be with. 267 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,640 While Dirac was developing the foundations of quantum mechanics, 268 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:17,600 explaining the world of the very small, 269 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,240 other scientists were working at the opposite scale, 270 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:22,960 exploring the boundaries of the known universe. 271 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:27,160 General relativity had led to the idea 272 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,480 that we live in an expanding universe, 273 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:31,680 and observations had confirmed it. 274 00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:36,520 But this led to a fundamental question. 275 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:40,520 Did the universe have a beginning? 276 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,080 It was a question that would cause 277 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:50,480 one of the bitterest rivalries in science - 278 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:53,760 a conflict that consumed two brilliant physicists, 279 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:55,680 but would ultimately lead us 280 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,240 to a deeper understanding of the universe. 281 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,440 As you probably know, there are two forms of cosmology - 282 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:09,840 what has been spoken of as the Big Bang, and the Steady State. 283 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,200 The one that I've been associated with... 284 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,520 ..the galaxies must be forming the whole time. 285 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:20,360 Fred Hoyle was the son of a wool merchant, 286 00:19:20,360 --> 00:19:22,160 and brusque Yorkshireman, 287 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:25,600 who believed that the universe had no beginning and has no end. 288 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,200 In the explosion theory, 289 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,760 we suppose that the matter 290 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,880 in the universe was originally in a highly condensed state 291 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:40,720 which then expanded. 292 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:45,680 And the galaxies which we now see are fragments of this explosion. 293 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,040 Martin Ryle was a volatile yet sensitive man 294 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:54,240 who, unlike Hoyle, believed the universe did have a beginning. 295 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:00,920 Both worked at Cambridge University. 296 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,200 And in the 1950s, neither man had enough evidence to prove 297 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:06,400 one way or the other who was right. 298 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:15,080 PROFESSOR MARTIN REES: I only got to know Fred Hoyle after 1965, 299 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:16,160 when I was a student, 300 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,800 but I already became aware that he had been a great figure 301 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,360 in the history of the subject. 302 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:26,200 Indeed between 1945 and 1965 it's fair to say that he contributed more 303 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:30,280 to astronomy on the theoretical side than anyone else in the world. 304 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,280 He was an extraordinarily inventive and versatile person. 305 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:38,600 And his greatest achievement, in retrospect, was to realise 306 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,400 that all the atoms that we are made of were forged inside stars. 307 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:50,000 Hoyle was a confident man whose great achievements were, 308 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,360 in part, because he wasn't afraid to go it alone 309 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,680 FRED HOYLE: One of the things that one has to, um, think about 310 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:01,960 is you have to have a sense of obstinacy in science. 311 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:07,320 Because if you don't, you're not going to go against the crowd. 312 00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:09,080 And if you don't go against the crowd, 313 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,240 you're not going to have any real successes. 314 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:17,480 But the question then is, can it interfere with one's judgment? 315 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,720 Well, um, let me make it absolutely clear 316 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,480 that a sense of obstinacy is only of value 317 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:28,160 insofar as it allows you to discount the opinions of other humans. 318 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:31,800 At the time, Hoyle was an atheist. 319 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:33,840 So perhaps it wasn't surprising 320 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,400 that his Steady State theory avoided any hint of a genesis. 321 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,640 He said that the universe had always looked the same, 322 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:44,720 that new galaxies formed 323 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,560 in the spaces made by the universe's expansion. 324 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:54,560 And as a practised populariser of science, 325 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:58,320 Hoyle took to the airwaves to promote his point of view. 326 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,200 The BBC presents The Nature Of The Universe. 327 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,480 'The speaker is Fred Hoyle - 328 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:06,440 'a Cambridge mathematician and Fellow of St John's College.' 329 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,880 'Perhaps like me, you grew up with a notion 330 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,680 'that the whole of the matter in the universe 331 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:17,880 'was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past. 332 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,920 'What I'm now going to tell you is that this is wrong.' 333 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,400 EXPLOSION 334 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,960 Hoyle was the first person to refer to the explosion theory 335 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:29,280 as a "big bang". 336 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,120 EXPLOSIVE RUMBLING 337 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:33,480 And although he didn't intend it to, the phrase 338 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:35,400 captured the public's imagination 339 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:38,160 and became a brilliant marketing tool for his opponents. 340 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:46,400 Perhaps his greatest opponent was Ryle - 341 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,160 different in almost every way. 342 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:55,120 Unlike Hoyle he was a practical scientist, an engineer, 343 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:58,000 who sought to observe the secrets of the universe, 344 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,400 mapping the faintest, furthest things in the universe 345 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:02,840 with a radio telescope - 346 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,120 the newest and most exciting instrument in astronomy. 347 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:10,840 MUSIC: Raymond Baxter Reports Theme 348 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:19,440 RAYMOND BAXTER: 'This is Martin Ryle, Fellow of The Royal Society, 349 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:23,440 'Professor of Radio Astronomy at Cambridge University.' 350 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,480 'We're receiving a naturally emitted radiation, 351 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,120 'just like the light from a star.' 352 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:30,600 And if we listen to these radio waves, 353 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,800 as in the case of the distant source, in Cygnus, 354 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,120 what we hear is a rushing noise. 355 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,560 WHOOSHING 356 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,400 PROFESSOR REES: Martin Ryle was above all a brilliant technician 357 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,080 and engineer, but also he combined that 358 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,600 with being someone who understood the theory of what he was doing 359 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,000 and the importance of it. 360 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,880 And it's important to realise 361 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:57,640 that having invested many years of effort 362 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,640 in developing a pioneering new telescope, 363 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:02,720 and actually built it 364 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,360 and made the effort to get the money for it et cetera, 365 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:08,440 then, clearly, he had a huge stake 366 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,040 in ensuring that it did important work 367 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:17,040 and was naturally rather sensitive at criticism of the output. 368 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,000 So when theorist Fred Hoyle publically questioned the accuracy 369 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,640 of the first data set produced by his telescope, 370 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,480 Ryle was devastated. 371 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,040 I think he took criticism rather deeply. 372 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,960 It's partly because of his personality. 373 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,560 Unlike Fred Hoyle, he was not robust in argument - 374 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,040 he got genuinely upset - 375 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,640 and he didn't really like taking part in debate. 376 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,720 He didn't go to many conferences - he didn't enjoy them. 377 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,280 And so he therefore took very deeply any criticism - 378 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,120 it meant a lot to him. 379 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:51,520 In front of the media, 380 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,120 Ryle was very self-controlled and diplomatic. 381 00:24:55,120 --> 00:24:58,320 But those who knew him well often saw a different side to him. 382 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,320 PROFESSOR CRAIG MACKAY: Martin Ryle did have 383 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,160 a bit of a temper, there's no doubt about it. 384 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,040 He would very easily fly into a rage about something. 385 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,200 And I ended up getting on extremely 386 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,000 well with him by writing down 387 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,920 what my argument was and giving it to him. 388 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,360 I would then get that back after a day or two, 389 00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:16,680 with Biro markings which were often 390 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,480 so fierce as to go right through the paper. 391 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,320 And that would be his view of the whole thing and I would reply. 392 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:23,920 So we had this correspondence 393 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:26,560 and it's my great regret that I've kept none of that. 394 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,720 Many of those bits of paper were pretty transparent 395 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:29,880 after he'd had a go at them. 396 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,960 Ryle's fury with Hoyle fuelled his determination 397 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,360 to use his radio telescope to destroy the Steady State theory. 398 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,480 Can you explain exactly what you've been doing? 399 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,560 Well, I think we'd better have a diagram here. 400 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:49,440 And perhaps we could look at the board. 401 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,120 According to the theory of continuous creation, 402 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:57,720 the density of galaxies would be the same 403 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:01,560 in the neighbourhood of the Earth, here, 404 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,360 right out to the edges of the observable universe. 405 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:12,360 One way in which one could test the two theories is to make a measurement 406 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:14,280 of the variation of the density of 407 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:16,120 galaxies with distance from us. 408 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,920 If the Steady State theory was right then the more distant galaxies, 409 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,840 which are older, would be distributed just as they are now, 410 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:27,760 because it says the universe has always been the same. 411 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:32,120 EXPLOSION 412 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:34,000 If the Big Bang theory was right, 413 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:35,920 then the more distant galaxies 414 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:37,920 would be more densely packed, 415 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,720 because the early universe would have been crammed full of matter 416 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,600 before expanding and evolving. 417 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,720 It's very easy for someone in the public to look at this 418 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,520 and think, "It's two astronomers arguing about something." 419 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,320 They're not. They're very different. 420 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,600 A mathematician and an engineer are really rather different animals, 421 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,280 they do look at the universe in a completely different way, 422 00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:00,600 they see different things - that was the fundamental problem, I think. 423 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:02,840 There was very little attempt on either side, 424 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,080 I believe, to understand the other - 425 00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,920 how they worked, how they ticked. 426 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,560 Unlike Ryle, Hoyle was a performer 427 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,440 and wasn't one to keep his opinions to himself. 428 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:15,920 Do you reject this Big Bang theory? 429 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,200 This concept of a beginning, an evolution and a going on? 430 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,600 Well, I do and I always have done. 431 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:28,200 One doesn't impress on the universe its properties in the start. 432 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,320 I think my objection to Ryle was he was too sure too quickly. 433 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,280 PROFESSOR MACKAY: Martin Ryle also found it very difficult 434 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:37,400 with Fred Hoyle being 435 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:39,560 extremely negative about the work of the group, 436 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,720 but it's also true that Martin Ryle really made 437 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,800 no serious attempt to build bridges with Hoyle and his people. 438 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,840 And I think that that was very unfortunate. 439 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,160 The two groups were working maybe as far as 200yds apart 440 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,320 in the same town - an easy walk from one to the other - 441 00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,160 and the contact between the two groups was minimal. 442 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:03,440 Collecting radio telescope data was a slow process. 443 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,880 But in 1961, Martin Ryle presented a comprehensive catalogue 444 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,080 that showed the furthest observable galaxies 445 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,400 were more densely distributed. 446 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,080 Finally he could settle the matter. 447 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:18,760 RYLE ON TAPE: 'The first and most remarkable result of all, 448 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:19,840 'as you proceed outwards 449 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:21,160 'from the most intense 450 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,120 'and presumably nearest sources, 451 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:25,240 'we find a great excess of fainter ones. 452 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,800 'The universe must have changed radically within the time span 453 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,120 'accessible to our radio telescopes. 454 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:36,560 'This result seems to show quite clearly that the Steady State - 455 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:38,120 'the continuous creation - 456 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,440 'theory of the universe cannot be correct. 457 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,480 'The results imply that the universe is changing with time.' 458 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,880 The rivalry between these two men had finally yielded a result - 459 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,600 evidence for the Big Bang theory. 460 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:55,400 Most of it comes from a body much larger... 461 00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:57,880 For most astronomers, the proof was now stacked against 462 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,000 Hoyle and his theory. 463 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,520 Although Hoyle himself wouldn't accept it. 464 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:05,840 You have here in Cambridge Professor Ryle, 465 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,320 who is a radio astronomer and, as I understand it, 466 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:12,440 he made a study of the radio stars and claims to have proved 467 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,800 your Steady State theory wrong. 468 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,640 I still take the same view today. 469 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:20,280 I think we cannot know whether there is a contradiction with the theory 470 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,840 until we know exactly what these radio sources are. 471 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,080 BIRDSONG 472 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,080 Even when the rest of the scientific community 473 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:36,600 embraced the Big Bang theory, 474 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,640 Hoyle refused to join them. 475 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,840 In the early 1970s, Hoyle felt forced out of Cambridge. 476 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,920 He moved to the Cumbrian countryside, 477 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,920 where he pursued his love for science fiction writing. 478 00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:58,880 Tea's ready. 479 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,240 Here, he also had more time to spend with friends. 480 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,280 Including a man who was revolutionising 481 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:11,000 the other great branch of 20th-century physics - 482 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,400 the quantum world of subatomic particles. 483 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,960 Despite their very different specialisms, 484 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,160 they found they had a lot in common. 485 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,440 'Have you had a moment in a complicated problem,' 486 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,200 where quite suddenly the thing comes into your head 487 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,160 and you're almost sure you've got to be right? 488 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:30,360 Oh, yes. That's... 489 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:32,560 This is great. Oh, God, yeah. 490 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,760 Richard Feynman was the ultimate showman, 491 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,200 an American who became everybody's favourite physicist. 492 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,240 # In a spell That old black magic 493 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:42,840 # That you weave so well... # 494 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,480 He was a brilliant mathematician... 495 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:47,800 enamoured by the smallest, 496 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,600 most fundamental building blocks of the universe. 497 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,960 # ..Always glad when your eyes meet mine 498 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:57,120 # That same old tingle That I feel inside... # 499 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:01,320 Suppose little things behave very differently 500 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,440 than ANYTHING that was big. 501 00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,080 The behaviour of things on a small scale is so fantastic, 502 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,520 it's so wonderfully...different. 503 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,640 I get a kick out of thinking... 504 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:17,920 about these things. 505 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,880 Uh, I can't stop. I mean, I could talk for ever. 506 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,520 He was charismatic, engaging and enthusiastic. 507 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,440 A bongo-playing prankster who approached both life 508 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,640 and science with a sense of playfulness. 509 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,480 Atoms do not behave like weights hanging on a spring 510 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,120 and oscillating, 511 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:40,160 nor do they behave like miniature representations 512 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,800 of the solar system with little planets going around in orbit. 513 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:44,800 It behaves like nothing 514 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:46,200 that you've seen before. 515 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,520 Well, there's one simplification. 516 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,040 At least electrons behave 517 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,640 exactly the same in this respect as photons, 518 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,880 that is they are both screwy - but in exactly the same way. 519 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,520 As a quantum man, Feynman was inspired by the great Paul Dirac. 520 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,360 PROFESSOR ROGER PENROSE: There's this wonderful picture 521 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,000 at the Warsaw conference of Feynman talking to Dirac - 522 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,600 Dirac leaning back and Feynman being very... 523 00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,520 very demonstrative. They were very different characters, 524 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,360 completely different characters. 525 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,200 Dirac being this introverted... 526 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,000 afraid to say things 527 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,600 unless they're absolutely right. 528 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,040 Feynman saying anything that comes to his mind - 529 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:27,960 they usually were right nevertheless. 530 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,720 Despite the differences in their characters, 531 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,640 they were both fascinated by the same things. 532 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,160 In fact Feynman was especially interested in unlocking 533 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,160 a riddle that lay at heart of 534 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,400 Dirac's own work on quantum electrodynamics. 535 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:48,440 I read Dirac's book and he had these 536 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,080 problems that nobody knew how to solve that were described there. 537 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,680 I couldn't understand the book very well because I wasn't up to it. 538 00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:57,520 But there in the last paragraph 539 00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,320 at the end of the book it said, 540 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:01,720 "Some new ideas are here needed." 541 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,760 And so there I was, "Some new ideas are needed? OK." 542 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:06,760 So I started to think of new ideas. 543 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,200 Although Dirac's mathematical description 544 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,000 of how electrons and photons interact 545 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,240 was undeniably correct, the equations themselves 546 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:19,680 confused physicists 547 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,960 because they sometimes produced crazy answers like infinity. 548 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:27,360 PROFESSOR PENROSE: Feynman went his own route 549 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,280 and he said, "Look we don't have to have all this complicated stuff, 550 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,720 "all these formulas and fancy mathematics. 551 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,720 "Let's get right down to the root of what we're trying to do." 552 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,640 Feynman's confidence, creativity and direct approach led to 553 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:43,840 a radical solution to Dirac's riddle. 554 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,360 It's like building those houses of cards, 555 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,160 and each of the cards is shaky. 556 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,080 If you forget one of them, 557 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:56,480 the whole thing collapses again. and you have to build them up again. 558 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:02,160 Feynman's answer came in the form of diagrams. 559 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,720 Little pictures that represented each step of the equations. 560 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:11,360 They could be manipulated, 561 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,200 used to simplify the complicated calculations, remove the infinities, 562 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:17,760 and produce useful answers 563 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,200 to make accurate predictions about the world. 564 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:26,520 Physicists all over the world started using the diagrams. 565 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,400 Feynman had unlocked the potential of Dirac's electrodynamics. 566 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:36,000 FANFARE PLAYS 567 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:43,920 In 1965, Feynman was given the Nobel prize to recognise the impact 568 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,560 of his diagrams, although he wasn't the most grateful receiver of it. 569 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:53,040 I don't like honours. 570 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,280 I'm appreciated for the work that I did 571 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,040 and the people who appreciate it, 572 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,400 and I notice that other physicists use my work. 573 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,200 I don't NEED anything else, 574 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,320 I don't think there's any sense to anything else. 575 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,800 I don't see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy 576 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,680 decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. 577 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:16,080 I've already got the prize, 578 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,680 the prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, 579 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:20,920 the kick in the discovery, 580 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,760 the observation that other people use it. 581 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,400 Those are the REAL things. 582 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,320 The honours are unreal to me. 583 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:32,680 For Feynman, the real reward 584 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:34,400 was communicating his passion 585 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:36,400 to others, and he was very good at it. 586 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,080 The things that are solid are made of atoms, 587 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,080 which, although they're jiggling, they never get out of place. 588 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,160 If you took one away, the others in the right place pull them back. 589 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:47,960 You see, it's a perpetual... 590 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:49,960 check with your friend. "Are you OK?" "Yes." 591 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,680 It's like people marching in a... 592 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,320 It's like the high school band march, OK? 593 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:57,440 Nobody really knows what they're doing. 594 00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,960 They're going like this. It's OK, it holds together. 595 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:04,480 Students flocked to his lectures and would seek out his company 596 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:06,120 whenever they could. 597 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,600 I don't want to take this stuff seriously, I think 598 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,760 we should have fun imagining it and not worry about it. 599 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,480 There's no teacher going to ask you questions at the end. 600 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,240 Otherwise it's a horrible subject. 601 00:36:18,240 --> 00:36:19,480 # You gotta have my... # 602 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,680 Feynman's informal approach to science, 603 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,160 and his brilliant creativity, were instrumental in the development 604 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,360 and accessibility of quantum theory in the late-20th century. 605 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,240 YELLS 606 00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:32,680 MUSIC: Spinning Wheel by Blood Sweat & Tears 607 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,080 At the same time as the revolution in quantum physics, 608 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:48,440 scientists were also making great astronomical finds. 609 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,920 Observations that would provide robust proof of Einstein's theories. 610 00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,640 One the most significant discoveries was made in the late '60s, 611 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,000 by an extremely determined young woman 612 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,400 embarking on a career in the field of radio astronomy. 613 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,240 'The new instrument was perhaps the least glamorous telescope 614 00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:15,720 'ever built and it was to be operated full-time by one person, 615 00:37:15,720 --> 00:37:16,920 'a girl.' 616 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,840 Jocelyn Bell Burnell however was not just a girl, she was 617 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:27,560 a talented scientist who had a lifelong passion for the night sky. 618 00:37:31,720 --> 00:37:34,400 JOCELYN: I went away to boarding school at 13. 619 00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:39,080 My physics teacher that I had, Mr Tillet, was a super teacher. 620 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,400 I could well have had a physics teacher 621 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:44,880 who took the view that girls couldn't do physics 622 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,240 and what's the point of trying kind of thing. 623 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:50,200 I'm not sure where I'd have gone then, what I'd have done 624 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:52,440 but Mr Tillet was quite the opposite. 625 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,160 I went to Glasgow and I was the only woman doing physics 626 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:02,000 and every time I entered the lecture theatre, as was the tradition, 627 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:03,240 the guys whistled, 628 00:38:03,240 --> 00:38:05,720 stamped, catcalled, banged their desks. 629 00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:08,720 There was a them and me. 630 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,760 I was rather on my own the whole time. 631 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:17,040 MUSIC: Come On Everybody by Eddie Cochran 632 00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:29,560 In the early 1960s, Bell Burnell started her PhD as part 633 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,280 of Martin Ryle's radio astronomy group at Cambridge University. 634 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:37,320 She had found her spiritual home. 635 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,720 It was here that Mr Tillet's inspirational teaching 636 00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:48,280 and Glasgow University's trial by ordeal would start to bear fruit. 637 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,800 The Cambridge Radio Astronomy Group had an interest in distant objects 638 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,600 because they were interested in general 639 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:03,960 in how the universe had evolved. 640 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,040 But first we had to build the radio telescope, and actually 641 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:11,600 I spent two of my three years constructing a radio telescope. 642 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:13,920 She was outside in this muddy field, 643 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,600 literally building things that looked like a very large fence, 644 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,800 with wooden poles and wires strung between them, 645 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:21,480 and it was quite a hard business. 646 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:24,720 I think she must have become very, very fit because of all that, 647 00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:27,840 but it was a difficult, physically demanding life that she led 648 00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:30,920 when the telescope was being built. 649 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,120 But it was only once the last cables were connected 650 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,080 that the real work started. 651 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:39,120 Bell Burnell was in charge of searching 652 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:41,720 for tiny bright objects far out in the cosmos. 653 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,240 We were actually using this telescope to look for quasars, 654 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:49,960 because they twinkle, and this thing is specially designed to pick out 655 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:51,840 twinkling things. 656 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,720 And after we'd been running I suppose about a few months 657 00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:59,120 I began to notice there was something slightly curious on the records. 658 00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:02,080 They came out as paper charts, 659 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,960 and of course on these charts you could see radio sources 660 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:08,600 and unfortunately you could also see man-made interference. 661 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,240 But there was also something that didn't quite fit either bill - 662 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:15,200 it wasn't exactly a twinkling radio source 663 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,480 and it wasn't exactly interference either. 664 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:30,360 Everybody's first reactions were that it must be man-made. 665 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:35,000 Including Bell Burnell's supervisor Antony Hewish, 666 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,960 who was convinced there had to be a terrestrial explanation 667 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,720 for the anomaly on the paper chart. 668 00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:44,320 We wrote round to all the astronomical observatories in Britain 669 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,600 saying, "Have you had any programme going 670 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,200 "which might possibly cause radio interference?" 671 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,360 But the observatories wrote back with the all clear. 672 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,560 There was nothing obviously interfering with her telescope. 673 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:02,440 It's very easy when doing research, to try and 674 00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:06,800 brush over those things that don't quite fit into your view of things. 675 00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:08,720 It's much easier and much more convenient 676 00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:11,000 if it sort of fulfils your prejudices. 677 00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,880 She didn't do that - she found this thing that didn't really make sense, 678 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:16,880 and she kept at it and was concerned 679 00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:18,560 as it became more and more obvious 680 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:20,960 that it wasn't making any conventional sense. 681 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,520 So I think that approach was very important. 682 00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,600 Bell Burnell enlisted the help of another radio telescope, 683 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:30,000 to prove to all her doubters that the signal 684 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,040 was in fact coming from the cosmos. 685 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:34,680 She finally convinced Hewish 686 00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:37,000 that this was something to pay attention to. 687 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:40,400 The big mystery was: 688 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,840 what in the universe could be producing this signal? 689 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,200 It looked like a series of equally spaced pulses. 690 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:49,000 I don't know what I had expected 691 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,520 but I certainly didn't expect regular pulsations. 692 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,800 Stars and galaxies don't pulse like that. 693 00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:01,400 Hewish ruled out the possibility that it was 694 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:02,680 coming from an object, 695 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:04,680 because it pulsed too regularly and quickly 696 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,080 for any known star or galaxy. 697 00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,320 Which led them to consider another explanation. 698 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:13,440 Second reactions not really voiced very loud were: 699 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,920 perhaps it's little green men? 700 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:26,160 While the leaders of the radio astronomy group 701 00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:29,880 started considering their response to alien communication, 702 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,600 Bell Burnell remained unconvinced, and returned to her telescope. 703 00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:40,040 She was very self-contained, very self-motivated, 704 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:42,640 somebody who kept herself to herself. 705 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,000 Wasn't really a great socialite in the group. 706 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:48,600 Not that my memory is that it was particularly a social group, 707 00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:50,480 there were people who would get together - 708 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,400 but she was somebody who tended to be and preferred to be on her own. 709 00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:58,200 Sometimes in research you can know too much, 710 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:00,720 and it's the youngster who's ignorant 711 00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:02,880 or somebody coming in from outside 712 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:05,360 that says, you know, the emperor has no clothes on, 713 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:09,240 that actually is telling the truth, can see the truth. 714 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,040 I think in order to make scientific discoveries, 715 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,440 you really have to be open to the possibility of something 716 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:17,880 quite unexpected. 717 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:19,920 Jocelyn was somebody who WAS open to that, 718 00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,120 and she found something quite unexpected. 719 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:29,120 Bell Burnell was rigorous, keeping meticulous records 720 00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:31,800 and analysing them in painstaking detail. 721 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,320 She was dogged in her pursuit of an explanation. 722 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,120 I was analysing chart from another piece of sky, 723 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:43,160 and thought I saw a piece of this scruffy kind of signal. 724 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:47,280 Looked exactly like what I was seeing before 725 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,680 but from a totally different bit of the sky. 726 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,840 Right. I thought, "I'm not going to bed tonight, 727 00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,320 "I'm going out to the observatory." 728 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,320 And I switched on the high speed recorder, 729 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:02,240 in came, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip. 730 00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:06,440 Clearly the same family, the same sort of stuff. 731 00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:10,080 And that was great, that was really sweet. 732 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:12,360 Now, the people here say that 733 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:16,280 if they got three signals as exactly spaced as that, 734 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,040 it would be very unusual. 735 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:20,680 If they got four, it would be phenomenal. 736 00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:24,680 Well, they've had pulses as exactly spaced as that 24 hours of the day 737 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:26,000 since November. 738 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:29,160 It was easier with the second one, 739 00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:30,920 and that was a great relief in many ways 740 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,760 because it removed this possibility of it being little green men. 741 00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,760 Highly unlikely that several lots of little green men would be 742 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:39,560 all signalling to us, 743 00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:42,560 all at the same frequency, all at the same time. 744 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,840 With little green men ruled out, 745 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,640 this had to be a brand-new type of cosmological object, 746 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:54,840 behaving in a way that astronomers had never expected. 747 00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:00,920 The faint blips from space so nearly dismissed as error 748 00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,160 took the world by storm. 749 00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:08,320 The new objects were called pulsars, because they pulsed so regularly. 750 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:10,840 For Bell Burnell, it was a personal vindication 751 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:12,200 for her years of struggle. 752 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:21,320 Seeing the article in print was tremendous, 753 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:25,560 and I remember sending a copy of the paper to my physics teacher. 754 00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:30,520 INTERVIEWER: And that's your physics teacher at The Mount? 755 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,800 At The Mount, yes. My physics teacher at The Mount. 756 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:34,920 And how did he react to it? 757 00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:39,280 He had actually alerted the school. 758 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,160 There was a lot of publicity. 759 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,160 Mr Tillet had seen this, and told the school. 760 00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:54,920 There aren't so many people that take up physics as a profession, 761 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,720 and certainly relatively few women of my generation, 762 00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:03,320 so Mr Tillet followed with some interest my career. 763 00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:07,320 And I was really pleased that he was still around 764 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:08,920 at the time of the discovery. 765 00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:14,840 Further investigation showed 766 00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:18,240 that pulsars are the dense remains of rapidly spinning dead stars 767 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:20,560 that emit beams of radiation. 768 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,640 With each rotation, the beam sweeps 769 00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:26,120 in and out of the Earth's line of sight. 770 00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:30,400 And when they're found in pairs, 771 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,320 they gradually move closer to each other. 772 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:38,560 This behaviour indicated the existence of gravitational waves - 773 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,800 distortions in space-time produced by massive objects. 774 00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:46,080 It's a phenomenon predicted 775 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:48,600 by Einstein's theory of general relativity. 776 00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,000 It was the strongest evidence yet for the theory 777 00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:54,840 that Einstein had developed 778 00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:58,440 using just the power of maths and abstract thought. 779 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,360 APPLAUSE 780 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:08,040 'Professor Antony Hewish...' 781 00:47:08,040 --> 00:47:11,400 Antony Hewish won the 1974 Nobel prize 782 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:13,560 for his role in the discovery of pulsars. 783 00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:20,280 Controversially, Bell Burnell was not included. 784 00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:23,640 But she has remained remarkably philosophical about it. 785 00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:29,760 You can actually do extremely well out of not getting a Nobel prize. 786 00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:33,520 And I have had so many prizes and so many honours 787 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:35,400 and so many awards, 788 00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,880 that actually I think I've had far more fun 789 00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:41,160 than if I'd got a Nobel prize, which is a bit flash in the pan - 790 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,320 you get it, you have a fun week and it's all over, 791 00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:46,280 and nobody gives you anything else after that 792 00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,000 cos they feel they can't match it. 793 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,520 But Bell Burnell's discovery not only advanced 794 00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:54,920 our understanding of the universe, 795 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,000 it also forced physicists around the world 796 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:00,680 to think twice before they dismissed the unconventional. 797 00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:08,520 The scene was now set for other novel ideas in cosmology 798 00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:10,600 to be taken a little more seriously than before. 799 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,800 Good news for another Cambridge PhD student 800 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:26,640 who was not only pursing an idea rejected by other physicists, 801 00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:29,720 but was also facing his own personal struggle. 802 00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:42,000 In the early 1960s, Stephen Hawking was a normal, beer-swilling student, 803 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,560 living life to the full while his physics studies took a back seat. 804 00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,720 However, his life would change for ever 805 00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:52,480 when at the age of 21 806 00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:56,440 Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. 807 00:48:56,440 --> 00:49:00,520 I was given two and a half years to live. 808 00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:05,000 I have always wondered how they could be so precise about the half. 809 00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,040 Its first effect was to depress me. 810 00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,840 I seemed to be getting worse fairly rapidly. 811 00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:16,160 There didn't seem any point in doing anything 812 00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,640 or working on my PhD, 813 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:23,080 because I didn't know I would live long enough to finish it. 814 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,880 While he struggled to adjust to the diagnosis, 815 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:33,280 Hawking fell in love and married a family friend, Jane Wilde. 816 00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:37,840 I certainly wouldn't have managed it without her. 817 00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:44,080 Being engaged to her lifted me out of the slough of despond I was in. 818 00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:46,480 But then things started to improve - 819 00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:49,280 the condition developed more slowly 820 00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,800 and I began to make progress in my work. 821 00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:54,920 His spirits were buoyed, 822 00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:58,240 but Hawking believed he didn't have long to live. 823 00:49:58,240 --> 00:50:00,920 Motivated by a sense of his own mortality, 824 00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:04,040 he was determined to complete his PhD at Cambridge. 825 00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:11,120 In it, he applied general relativity to what we see in the universe, 826 00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:12,640 and showed that at the big bang 827 00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:16,120 there had to be what's known as a singularity - 828 00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:20,400 a infinitely small and dense point in space-time. 829 00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,560 In the 1960s, it was a thing that most physicists 830 00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:26,080 didn't believe existed. 831 00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,640 Roger Penrose was one of his examiners. 832 00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:32,760 He was very good at picking up ideas. 833 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:36,120 When he came down to London when I was giving a talk - 834 00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:38,560 this was on some cosmological thing - 835 00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:41,680 I remember him particularly asking very awkward questions! 836 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,040 So er... 837 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:48,960 OK, good questions. I had to think a bit before giving the answer. 838 00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,160 So a bit of an awkward cuss, you would say. 839 00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:54,400 Not afraid to bring out issues which 840 00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:58,080 a young student might be a little shy of bringing up, 841 00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:00,280 so he wasn't shy at all in that way. 842 00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:05,920 Hawking remained at Cambridge University, 843 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:09,560 and his career in astrophysics went from strength to strength. 844 00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,240 Although he had outlived his original diagnosis, 845 00:51:14,240 --> 00:51:16,640 his health was inevitably deteriorating. 846 00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:22,040 He could speak for quite a while, 847 00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:24,400 but largely only in ways that 848 00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,560 his close colleagues could understand him. 849 00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:31,080 HAWKING SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY 850 00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:34,640 Now, it just so happens that we have the universe here... 851 00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,280 INDISTINCT CONTRIBUTION FROM AUDIENCE 852 00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:40,800 LAUGHTER Sorry. 853 00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:43,400 I'd speak to him for a while, and... 854 00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:47,040 A fair amount of to and fro, and I could understand what he was saying 855 00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:49,360 more or less and he could understand what I was saying. 856 00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,800 But then he'd say something that... I couldn't understand a word of it. 857 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:54,960 And he'd spell it out letter by letter. 858 00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:58,080 And it would either be a joke, 859 00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:02,520 or an invitation to dinner. HE LAUGHS 860 00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:05,200 Something which was on a personal nature not technical at all, 861 00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:07,840 so technical things were much easier to understand. 862 00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:12,800 Despite his ailing physical health, 863 00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:15,320 Hawking's mind was sharp and his will strong. 864 00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:18,400 HAWKING SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY 865 00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:33,800 Stephen's lucky in that he chose one of the few fields 866 00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:36,480 in which his disability is not a serious handicap. 867 00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:37,880 HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY 868 00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:42,800 Cos most of his work is really just thinking. 869 00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:44,600 HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY 870 00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:49,960 And his disabilities don't stop him doing that. 871 00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:51,360 HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY 872 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,040 In a way, they give him more TIME to think. 873 00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:06,040 I think probably THE most determined person 874 00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:07,840 I've ever known. 875 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:09,880 I remember staying at his house 876 00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:12,320 in Little Clarendon Street, wherever it was - 877 00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:16,200 there was a three-storey, little narrow house, 878 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:17,720 much higher than it was wide. 879 00:53:17,720 --> 00:53:21,680 And when it came to the time when he wanted to go to bed 880 00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:24,240 he would crawl up the stairs - 881 00:53:24,240 --> 00:53:27,680 he refused to have anybody help him in any way - 882 00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:29,680 he would crawl up the stairs, it would 883 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:31,960 take him about a quarter of an hour to get up the stairs, 884 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,360 put himself to bed, do everything he could for himself. 885 00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,080 Hawking's determination was also evident in his science. 886 00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:47,600 Not only had his PhD shown singularities 887 00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:49,400 WERE present in the universe... 888 00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:53,720 ..along with Penrose, he proved that they also lay 889 00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:57,160 at the heart of another curiosity - black holes. 890 00:53:58,720 --> 00:54:01,480 Hawking was now used to pushing the boundaries of cosmology. 891 00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:09,680 But his greatest discovery came in 1974, 892 00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:14,320 when he showed that black holes aren't entirely black, 893 00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:15,400 but emit SOME light. 894 00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:20,960 Radiation created by the strange quantum effects 895 00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:22,880 that occur at the edge of the black hole. 896 00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:28,760 Where Dirac had previously managed to unite special relativity 897 00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:30,480 and quantum theory, 898 00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:34,000 Hawking was the first to use both general relativity and quantum 899 00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:35,320 in the same explanation. 900 00:54:37,720 --> 00:54:39,480 Where I have had success, 901 00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:43,760 it has been because I have approached problems from a different angle. 902 00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:47,600 I rely on intuition a great deal. 903 00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:50,720 I try to guess a result. 904 00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:53,600 But I then have to prove it. 905 00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:59,440 That is how I found black holes aren't completely black. 906 00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,080 I was trying to prove something else. 907 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,600 There's nothing like the eureka moment 908 00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:10,880 of discovering something that no-one knew before. 909 00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:15,840 I won't compare it to sex - but it lasts longer. 910 00:55:17,720 --> 00:55:21,040 Hawking's unifying idea was revelatory, yet complex. 911 00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:24,720 And having had a family of his own, 912 00:55:24,720 --> 00:55:27,880 he had a burning ambition now to popularize his science. 913 00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:32,200 In 1988, he published A Brief History Of Time, 914 00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:34,520 which aimed to explain the mysteries of the universe 915 00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:35,920 to non-scientists. 916 00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:41,000 It became an international bestseller. 917 00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:43,440 The contrast between his imprisoned body 918 00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:46,800 and a mind roaming the cosmos fascinated the public. 919 00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:53,280 All my life I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, 920 00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:57,480 and have tried to find scientific answers to them. 921 00:55:57,480 --> 00:56:01,000 Perhaps that's why I have sold more books on physics 922 00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:03,000 than Madonna has on sex. 923 00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,560 He was catapulted into celebrity, 924 00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:12,280 and became the most famous living scientist. 925 00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:14,960 He clearly likes his fame - 926 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,800 one can see that this is something 927 00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:20,640 he does get a lot of enjoyment out of, 928 00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:21,960 having big crowds and... 929 00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:24,400 So there's an element of showmanship about it all. 930 00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:31,280 Hawking's strength as a communicator of science 931 00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,560 has opened a window onto the cosmos, 932 00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,160 and enabled us all to marvel at its glory. 933 00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:46,720 Throughout the 20th century, 934 00:56:46,720 --> 00:56:49,000 the secrets of the universe 935 00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,400 have been unravelled by extraordinary individuals. 936 00:56:56,800 --> 00:56:58,480 Inspirational men and women, 937 00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:01,120 who have discovered fundamental new truths... 938 00:57:05,720 --> 00:57:09,880 ..about everything from the subatomic 939 00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:12,320 to the extremely massive. 940 00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,240 But today, science has changed. 941 00:57:20,680 --> 00:57:24,840 Many of the most exciting frontiers of physics are being explored 942 00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:29,280 not by individuals, but by large groups of scientists, 943 00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,200 working together in collaborative units. 944 00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,320 The subject now is much more sophisticated, 945 00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,080 in that whether you're a space astronomer, 946 00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:40,480 an optical astronomer or a particle theorist, 947 00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:44,360 you depend on very large instruments, at CERN for instance. 948 00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:46,640 You have the designers of the instruments, 949 00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:48,440 the operators of the instruments, 950 00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:50,560 those who analyse the data, the phenomenologists 951 00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:54,360 and the theorists who try to make sense of it at a deeper level. 952 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:57,360 So the story of physics in the 21st century 953 00:57:57,360 --> 00:57:59,640 is more about collective endeavour. 954 00:58:00,680 --> 00:58:03,480 And although we may miss the individual personalities, 955 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,320 it is a price we may have to pay 956 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:08,600 if we are to stand a chance of solving 957 00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:11,200 the remaining secrets of the universe.