03/21/2014

Detecting the ‘Bang’ from the Big Bang

29:57 minutes

Researchers have detected a nearly 14-billion-year-old signal that helps to confirm the idea of inflation, which theorizes that the universe quickly expanded right after the Big Bang. Physicists Lawrence Krauss, John Kovac, and Alan Guth—the father of inflation—discuss what this discovery can tell us about the early universe and what it might mean for the future of physics.

Segment Guests

Alan Guth

Alan Guth is the Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lawrence Krauss

Lawrence Krauss is director and foundation professor at The ASU Origins Project at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.  His latest book is The Greatest Story Ever Told–So Far. Why Are We Here? (Atria Books, 2017).

John Kovac

John Kovac is an associate professor in astronomy and physics at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Meet the Producer

About Alexa Lim

Alexa Lim was a senior producer for Science Friday. Her favorite stories involve space, sound, and strange animal discoveries.

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