Back to Show
PBS Space Time
Can You Observe a Typical Universe?
Season 5
Episode 40
The moment you started observing reality, you hopelessly polluted any conclusions you might make about it. The anthropic principle guarantees that you are NOT seeing the universe in most typical state. But used correctly, this highly controversial idea can be extremely powerful. So, how do you correctly use the anthropic principle?
Support Provided By
18:42
Gravitons, the particle of quantum gravity, may be impossible to detect.
25:02
2025 was the international year of quantum science, but today we examine its origins.
21:17
We’ve found lots of “habitable” worlds but we don’t know what factors are needed for life.
21:31
What is the graviton, and does it even exist?
19:52
Antimatter drives sound like science fiction, but they may not be as far as you think.
23:22
Does quantum mechanics allow the future to retroactively influence the past or not?
19:14
Life on mars could result in humanity’s destruction via Fermi Paradox.
19:01
How to build a particle collider the size of the solar system.
12:39
One of the most important reasons we go to space is to know our own planet better.
16:18
Is there evidence for the existence of an enormous number of other universes?
17:14
Can something that exists be bad science?
18:56
It may be that our very DNA inherited its twist from the underlying handedness of reality.