Skip to main content
Back to Show
PBS Space Time

The Crisis In Physics: Are We Missing 17 Layers of Reality?

Season 11 Episode 6

Big things are made of smaller things, and those smaller things are made of smaller things still. That’s reductionism in a nutshell, and digging our way to the smallest layer has been one of the primary goals of physics for ever. But what if, just before we reach the bottom, we find out that reductionism fails?

Support Provided By
Season
Dark Forest: Should We Not Contact Aliens?
14:12
What if aliens are deliberately keeping quiet for fear that they might be destroyed?
What Happens If We Nuke Space?
15:13
So what exactly is an EMP, and how dangerous are they?
What if Singularities DO NOT Exist?
14:44
The terrible singularity at the heart of the black hole may be no more.
Did JWST Solve The Mystery of Supermassive Black Hole Origin
14:33
We may have solved the mysterious origins of supermassive black holes in our universe.
Does Antimatter Create Anti-Gravity?
16:30
Does antimatter fall down, or does it fall up?
Can The Crisis in Cosmology Be Solved With Cosmic Voids?
14:29
Could cosmic voids be driving the universe?
What If There's A Black Hole Inside The Sun?
17:53
Is there a black hole hiding in the core of the Sun eating it from the inside out?
What if Humans Are Not Earth's First Civilization?
19:19
What if we aren't the first technological civilization on Earth?
Does Many Worlds Explain Quantum Probabilities?
19:03
Many World’s lack wavefunction collapse might be the key to the measurement problem.
What If Gravity is Not Quantum?
18:32
The holy grail of physics is a quantum theory of gravity. What if it’s not possible?
How Will We (Most Likely) Discover Alien Life?
18:32
Alien life will most likely be discovered by faint changes in the color of alien sunsets.
Why Did Attosecond Physics Win the Nobel Prize?
12:05
The 2023 Physics Nobel prize has been awarded to three physicists for attosecond physics.
Active loading indicator