195 - Brian Keating: Cosmological Inflation and the Universe’s First Light

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7
Brian Keating is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at UC San Diego, host of the Into the Impossible Podcast, an expert on the cosmic microwave background, and the author of a number of books.  Robinson and Brian discuss the expansion and inflation of the universe, the relationship between theory and experiment in cosmology, gravitational waves, Brian’s brainchild the BICEP experiment, and a lot more. Brian’s most recent book is Into the Impossible (2021), which is a distillation of many of his conversations with Nobel Laureates and other brilliant thinkers.

Brian’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 

Into the Impossible Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/into-the-impossible 

Brian’s Mailing List: briankeating.com/list

OUTLINE
00:00 In This Episode…
01:02 Introduction
03:30 Brian the Builder
10:59 The Theory of Cosmological Expansion?
27:08 The Origins of Inflation
34:15 On Theory and Experiment in Astrophysics
44:27 On Gravitational Waves and Inflation
1:01:40 BICEP Tech Specs
1:14:54 What Did BICEP Find?
1:29:26 The Simons Array
1:32:50 On Eric Weinstein’s Theory of Everything

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between. 

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