The discussion explores dark matter's role in forming the universe. Kaku explains that dark matter clumped first and attracted ordinary matter to create galaxies, meaning the Milky Way exists because of it. Art raises the question of whether Earth continuously captures dark matter from the stream passing through it, which Kaku confirms is theoretically possible. They also discuss Lagrange points, the speed of gravity, and the cancelled U.S. supercollider that cost two billion dollars to dig a hole and fill it back up.
Kaku shares his vision of string theory as the ultimate equation uniting all forces of nature, fulfilling Einstein's dream of reading the mind of God. He explains that sparticles predicted by string theory may be identical to dark matter, and the collider could provide supporting evidence within months.
Key Moments
The Question Kaku Wishes He Could Answer: Kaku recounts how a congressman killed the Superconducting Super Collider by asking will we find God with this machine - and the physicist failed by answering Higgs boson. Kaku gives the answer he would have given: this is a Genesis machine that takes us as close as humanly possible to His greatest creation.
Dark Matter as Another Dimension: Kaku explains string theory's prediction that dark matter may literally be matter from a parallel sheet of universe just above ours - massive, gravitationally felt, but light passes underneath it, making galaxies hovering just out of sight invisible to us.
Dark Matter Built the Milky Way: Bell asks whether streaming dark matter accumulates in Earth, and Kaku says he stumbled on a great cosmological principle: dark matter clumped first, attracting ordinary matter to its gravitational nucleus, and that clumping is what condensed our entire galaxy.
Einstein's Two Gods: Kaku distinguishes the two gods Einstein recognized - the personal god of intervention and prayer that he rejected, and the god of Spinoza, of harmony, beauty, and elegance, evidenced by the improbable fact that all physical laws can be written on two sheets of paper.
Royal Society Breaks 350-Year Silence on Aliens: Kaku reports that for the first time in its 350-year history, the Royal Society of England held a conference on extraterrestrial life - catalyzed by the Kepler satellite and Paul Allen's $25 million radio telescope array, which now lets SETI eavesdrop on alien civilizations with 1,000x sensitivity.
Books by This Guest
Selected titles from the guest bibliography. Use them as context for this appearance, not required listening.
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension
1994
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