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Who's in the Video
Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and bestselling author. He is Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and co-Director of the Cosmology Initiative, both[…]

The cosmologist describes the cosmos in 60 seconds.

Question: Could you explain the universe—past, present, and future—in one minute?

Paul Davies:  Okay, the universe is by definition everything there is, but of course we only see a small patch of it.  We see only out as far as the speed of light will let us and so we think it began, are sure it began with an explosive outburst called the Big Bang, which may have been the origin of space and time as well as matter and energy or it might just have been one bang among an infinite number scattered throughout space and time, but certainly our region in the universe had this dramatic hot explosive origin, and it’s expanding and cooling and it has become ever more enriched and complex over time, and so life and thinking beings like us have emerged who wonder what it all means, and as for its ultimate fate the best evidence at the moment is it is going to expand faster and faster and faster and become totally empty and utterly boring and it is a rather dismal fate for what is a rather glorious cosmos.

Recorded April 15, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen


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