Daniel and Jorge Explain the UniverseLearn how the Higgs-Boson could unravel the universe with Daniel and Jorge
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Hey, Daniel, I know you're probably sick of talking about this.
Uh oh, what's coming?
Are you sure the LHC, the large cavern collider that you work on, is not going to destroy the planet Earth for.
The last time. There's no chance that the LEDC will create a black hole that then gobbles up the.
Earth, not even You're not worried, even a little bit, like it's not even a possibility.
The thing is, we don't worry about small things like destroying the Earth. It gets particle physicists worried. Is things like destroying the entire universe.
Hi, I'm more Hamming cartoonist and the creator of PhD comics.
Hi I'm Daniel Whitson. I'm a particle physicist. I have not yet destroyed the universe yet.
Is how you introduce yourself every time. Hi am Daniel. I have not yet destroyed all of existence.
That's right, and that's true about everybody. And if you're listening to this podcast, and that is proof that the universe still exists.
That's right. Our every word we speak should be a word of comfort that the universe is still at least where you are still happening.
That's right. And always somebody's Internet goes out, they're going to think the universe is a danger. What's going on?
That's why somebody's listening to us, that's right.
But if folks remember that a Wi Fi interruption is not the end of the universe. You will survive.
It's the end of my universe, Daniel.
If somebody's WiFi goes out, do we stop existing because they don't hear us anymore? Well, we got deep in the philosophy all of us.
Oh, oh my goodness, Well, welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge. Do not destroy the universe yet, or at least explain how we're not destroying the universe. A production of iHeartRadio.
That's right, our podcasting which we think about things big and small, We explore the universe. We find the craziest, most mind blowing facts, and we explain them to you in a way that makes you chuckle a little bit and also come away with some deep understanding of your context of your existence.
And sometimes we talk about the really small things that can make me destroy the really big things in the universe.
One of my favorite things about physics is when you learn something new and you discover, wow, the universe is like a little more fragile than I thought. What do you mean, well, like, how old were you or what did you think the first time you learn that, Like the Earth that we live on is just this like thin crust of rock floating on a massive ocean of lava. Right, all of a sudden, the Earth doesn't feel so stable to me.
Right, Wow, I think I learned that just now, Daniel, Thank you for totally giving me anxieties now, or that I hadn't been in that before, or like that.
Our atmosphere, right is this very thin shell of gas surrounding a huge planet. It could easily just get like blown away by some cataclysmic you know, solar flare or something.
Wow, I hadn't thought about those things, but thank you.
Yeah. So, sometimes you learn something about the universe and it gives you context. It helps you understand that our situation here is maybe an accident or as a product of the particular arrangements of things. And so physics tells you, like what's stable about the universe, what's dangerous about the universe, what you should worry about, and what you shouldn't worry about.
Yeah, so it's not just the Earth that is sort of in a precarious balance. It's also I mean you're you're saying, it's also reality itself.
Possibly, Yeah, you know, as we peel back layers of reality we understand how the universe works. Sometimes we discover things like, oh, well, this seems to be sort of an accident, you know, and we never know whether things really are an accident or whether it's due to some sort of deeper understanding. Like something we've talked about before is the relationship between like the electron and the proton, Right, the charge of those two particles exactly balance, which means we can have hydrogen atoms and chemistry and physics and bananas and all sorts of good stuff. We don't know if that's an accident, right, We don't know why that's that way. It's essential for life to happen, but we don't know if it's that way for a reason or if it's a coincidence. And so sometimes we stumble across other things like that that seem essential for life to be the way we want it, but maybe accidental and may also not be permanent.
Yeah, and so one of those things is something that you might be familiar with. We're hoping if you're a listener of our podcast. And so today on the program, we'll be asking the question will the Higgs Boson destroy the universe?
And I like the way you phrase that because it means if the universe does get destroyed, it's the Higgs Boson's faulting. Our particle physicist is going to destroy the university. Blame it on the Boson.
Oh, I'm sorry, I meant I meant to blame you, right.
Is Daniel Whiteson going to destroy the universe? Now I hear government agents knocking on my door.
On new podcast from My Heart Radio, Daniel Horree destroyed the universe. Yeah, So this is a question that I think it was all over the news back when they were looking for the Higgs Boson. Everyone was worried and concerned that you guys in Geneva ascerned were maybe going to do something in your experiment that was going to cause our the demise of the Earth, Like maybe you were going to unlock something in the universe that was going to swallow us all up and destroy the planet.
That's right, there's sort of two totally different but both devastating concerns.
Right.
One is when you collide to protons, could you trigger really strong gravity and make microscopic black hole which could then eat stuff around it and grow and eat the whole Earth.
Yeah, that's what That's why people were people were trying to shut you down.
Yeah, people sued the LHC. There was like court cases. We have to like prove in court that this is something reasonable to do. And for those of you suddenly worried out there, there's no danger. These kind of collisions that we do the LHC happen all the time. Particles from space hit the Earth and hit the Sun, and they do not create black holes that gobble the Earth. So we are.
Feel like that that's a thin excuse, Daniel. You're like, look, everyone else around us has nuclear bombs, so therefore we should be able to tinker with one new problem.
Well, you know, actually when people set off the first nuclear bomb, they were worried, right, they were worried they might ignite the atmosphere and that was a serious concern, but they did it anyway. But now that they've done it, we know pretty well that blowing up a nuclear bomb doesn't ignite the atmosphere.
Well, I think they did it in secret. I think that was the key. You guys are doing it in the public public eye.
I always wonder, like DoD the physicists tell the government agents that that was a risk. You know, you have to fill out a form, you know, like, oh, if you're going to potentially ignite the atmosphere, please fill out this form first.
Please fill out this rib that's right.
Yeah, so that's a concern number one, which is not something worried about. We've thought about the physics. We are not going to create a black hole which destroys the Earth. We might create a black hole, but it would evaporate very rapidly.
Oh.
I see.
It's all sorts of fascinating insights about the universe.
Right, So you're saying the atmosphere creates black holes all the time. It's not that different than what you do and even if you do make one, it's going to evaporate.
That's right, because these tiny black holes will disappear. They'll evaporate because they'll radiate away very quickly. That's the theory at least.
And you're pretty sure about that.
I'm pretty sure about that. Yes, I mean, my family lives on Earth, so I'm risking my family by keeping the lax running. And I'm pretty confident.
Well, I've seen you say that you would risk a lot to answers about the universe.
Anyeah, that's true. Yeah, I would sacrifice a good fraction of humanity to get to talk to aliens, that's true, But not my family. The other fraction, the other nine which fraction are we talking about? But is a totally separate concern about whether not the Earth will get destroyed, but actually whether we could trigger a cataclysmic event which fundamentally changes the nature of the universe.
So it involved the Higgs boson. And so you're telling me that the Higgs boson might destroy the universe. Is this something that everyone knows? You think?
There was some press about it a while ago, But I was curious, like, are people worried that the Higgs boson might destroy the universe? Do people even remember what the Higgs is? Because it's been a little while since it got pressed, and you know, stuff has happened since then. And so I was curious, do every day people worry about whether I'm going to ruin the universe? So I went out and asked them.
So, as usual, Daniel went out and asked people on the street if they think the Higgs boson will destroy the universe. So think about it for a second. If you have maybe heard of this news item, or if you you have thought about the Higgs boson and the precariousness of nature, think about it for a second. What would you answer if you were asked, will the Higgs boson destroy the universe? Here's what people had to say.
Do you worry about the Higgs boson destroying the universe?
No, I don't have anything to back that up.
No, I don't worry about yet, maybe because the unknown one. Have you ever heard of the Higgs boson?
No?
Okay, making me.
Feel real dumb right now.
I have a lot of existential worries, but not that one nowadays.
Okay, the last name Higgs sounds familiar, but.
No, all right, So people don't seem very concerned. I think it sounds like mostly out of because they didn't know that the Higgs boson could destroy the universe.
No, and a lot of people hadn't even heard of the Higgs boson, which felt like, uh, physics has relaxed too much. We had our big thing with the Higgs boson in twenty twelve. We got to get back in the news because he has forgotten us. Okay, get on that branding, that's right. Where is the PR Department? I got to talk to them. No, people weren't really very familiar with the Higgs, and nobody was worried that the Higgs boson would destroy the universe, at least until I asked them this question, and then they started googling it, and now maybe they're a little worried.
So okay, so you're telling me, Daniel that the Higgs, something about the Higgs boson could potentially destroy the universe. So let's let's step through it. First of all, let's maybe recap for our listeners what the Higgs boson is.
Yeah, so the Higgs boson is a particle we discovered at the LHC in twenty twelve. It's the last particle ever found so far, and it completes the standard model and it answered a really interesting question, which is where does mass come from? We talked on this podcast what is a particle? And we think of them as these little dots in space, but you have to ask, like where is the mass of the particle? If something is a tiny dot, where does it get its mass?
And it's not so much about like where does it come from or what gets it? It's more like particles have this thing, and it's more like how does it manefit itself in the universe? Like how do we what gives you that feeling of mass?
Yeah, and it's also a question of patterns, like we look at all the particles and they all have different masses. You know, this one is a lot, this one is a little, but they're all the same size, so it's not like they have more stuff to them. So we are wondering, like why do these particles have this mass and this particle of the other mass. For example, we talked on another podcast about the weak nuclear force and electromagnetism, which are fundamentally the same thing. But the weak nuclear force is really weak because the particles that carry it have a lot of mass, and the photon has no mass, which is why electromagnetism is so powerful. So this is sort of the question that led to the discovery of the Higgs is why do some of these particles have mass and some of them don't. What's the mechanism there? And it turns out the answer is this Higgs field, this invisible thing that fills space and interacts with some of these particles in different ways. And the Higgs boson is a manifestation of that field. Like when parts of that field get really excited, that appears as like a ripple in that field, which we interpret as a Higgs boson. So this two physical things, the field and the boson itself, which is the particle.
Right, And they were sort of discovered at different times, right, Like people physicists came up with the idea of the Higgs field first to kind of make all the equations in the universe work. Dude named Higgs, Yeah, oh that would makes sense. How do you feel about that naming choice there? I feel like we could do better, to be honest. I mean, Peter Higgs, you know, he did this thing, He did his thing, and he deserves it. But you know, you might maybe call it the mass field.
Would that be a better name? Yeah, I think that would be probably be more instructive.
That would save you that explanation. Yea fields, the thing that gives things mad. Just called the mass field.
Massive field, the mass giving field. Yeah, the dessert fields, that's.
What people immediately associate. I'm sure.
So.
Yeah, So it is that the whole universe is premiated by this field, which is like, what would you describe a field? It's just kind of like a It's just like a aura of it out there, right, an aura? Wow, I don't know how would you describe a field to somebody?
That's a great question. But that whole episode about what is a quantum field and a field is just it's a physical thing that has a value everywhere in space. Like an electric field, right is strong here and weak there. The gravitational field is strong here and weak there, and kind of like an aura. I don't know what an aura is. I mean I read about auras and.
Make it stronger here or stronger around you kind of thing.
Or you could say an odor or an odor is stronger here and not so strong there.
Such a small difference between aura and order that's right.
But so a field is something we imagine is everywhere in the universe and has a different value at each location.
Right, it's like part of the fabric of the universe. Then would that be a good way to say it's like one of the things that make up the universe.
As long as you make that hand gesture when you say it, you know that makes it look all dramatic that our listeners can't see, Then yes, I agree, it's part of the fabric of the Yeah. Great, And the Higgs field is different from all the other fields we've ever done discovered.
Right because it's the one that makes things have mass.
Yeah, it's the one that makes things have mass. But that's not the only weird reason that it's different. It's different than the other fields because it's the only one that like can't ever totally relax, Like it's it's a little tense, it's a little like worked up. You know, it needs a miss.
Of quantum fields, is what you're saying.
I can't relax, No, though, the Higgs field can't chill. Right. We've talked about this also in other episodes, like can space ever be empty? Because you imagine some like block of space out there, what's in it? Well, there are quantum fields, and those quantum fields mostly are relaxed. Like if there's no light in that block of space, then you imagine the electromagnetic field in that block of space is sort of at its lowest level. Right, It's as empty as possible. And you can argue philosophically about whether it can actually get to zero, whether there are quantum fluctuations around zero, but on average it's zero. So most fields can get down to zero, okay.
And so you're saying that Higgs field is sort of maybe unstable, like there's a certain buzz about it, like it it's not showing out, it's like it's on a ten state.
Yeah, And so there's two questions there is is it at zero? And is it stable? Right, So the Higgs field is not at zero, like the lowest level of the Higgs field all the way through the universe, that every part in space is not at zero energy. It's sort of stuck at this decision has this internal tension to it that makes it like to hang out at a place that's not at zero. And if you think that's weird, how can something relax when it's not at zero. Imagine like a lake in a mountain. Right, water likes to flow down, but sometimes it gets stuck. Right, The configuration of the mountains around it means that water relaxes in the top of a mountain. It'd like to flow down to the sea if it could get there, but it's happy to stay there stably for a long time.
In a mountain lake, m you're stay like on a ledge, like you're happy on a ledge. You could go down further to relax, but that would be effort to get out of your lege.
That's right, exactly, you'd have to go up first. Right, So the Higgs field relaxes and it gets stuck in this local minimum, which is above zero energy. So the Higgs field is different from all the other fields in the universe in that when it relaxes, it gets stuck in this sort of local minimum. It doesn't go all the way down to zero. It's called a vacuum expectation value, and it's fascinating.
I've a issue with that name also, and that's.
The reason why the w and the z boson have mass and the photon doesn't. Because the Higgs has a non zero vacuum expectation value. So, and that's the clue that generated the whole idea for the Higgs. People are like, this is really weird. Why is this thing massive? This thing not?
Huh?
How could you explain that? Well, you'd have to have some really weird field that couldn't relax to zero. That was the genesis of the whole idea. That's why we thought of the Higgs. That's the thing about it that gave us the clue to discover it.
Right, to like explain the particles that we see, we need to come up with a field that can't relax.
Yeah, exactly. They gets suck and.
You went out and you found it. Then that's where the Higgs boson comes from. It It's like the manifestation of the field. It's like evidence that the field exists.
Its evidence that the field exists, because the field could also go up, right, It doesn't just have to stay at its lowest but non zero value. It can go up and when it gets excited because you create energy density in one spot, you can create a Higgs boson temporarily. So the Higgs boson, as you say, is evidence that the field exists.
All right, So that's the Higgs field and you're telling me that there's something about its inability to relax that might cause the universe to destroy itself, to disappear.
Yes, and I'm loving your use of the passive voice. There the universe to destroy itself rather than Daniel destroys the verse.
Yeah, well you are the universe to me, Daniels.
We are all one, We are all the universe.
Well, let's get into how that can cause the universe, how Daniel can cause the universe to destroy to be destroyed.
Better, give me what I want or I'll destroy the universe. So you've given me a lot of power here.
Bring out some discussions here. But first let's take a quick break.
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Com all right, Dan, we're talking about the Higgs field and the Higgs boson, and you're telling me that it's something that is kind of embedded in the fabric of the universe and gives things mass, but it's sort of not maybe stable, it's like maybe at a sort of heightened kind of buzzy tense.
Yeah, And we don't know very precisely sort of what the shape of this mountain that it's resting in. Like, we know that it's in a place that's stay somewhat stable because it's been sticking around and you know, things have been going on for a long time. We don't think in the last billion years the physics has changed fundamentally, right, So, but we don't have enough precise measurements about sort of parameters of the universe to know exactly the shape of that mountain. So it could be that it's in a really pretty stable spot. I mean, it might still be stuck up on a ledge, but it might be the sort of the edges of that ledge, the lip of that ledge that it would have to go over to get down to the bottom, are really tall and sharp, in which case it's basically never going to get out of it.
Like it's a lake surrounded by really really tall mountains, and so there's no way that water is going to come down to the ocean.
That's right, that's one scenario, right, Or it might be that sort of metastable that like there's a part of that ledge that's a kind of shallow, not very tall, and it might sort of like slop over the edge and flow down to the ocean. And so we're trying to figure that out.
Oh, I see, it's not in your equation models.
It's in the models, but there's uncertainty, right, the shape of that sort of potential, which is defined by various other pieces of knowledge, like the mass of the top quark and the mass of the w boson. We measure those things, and we measure them pretty precisely. And the funny thing is that it puts the shape it's like right on the edge, like and our current level of knowledge, this Higgs field is like very close to the edge between being stable and being metastable. So we're not exactly sure, right.
It's like, wait, what's the difference between stable and metastable?
Stable would mean like the lip is high enough that it's never going to get out, Okay, and metastable is like it got stuck there for a while, but it's gonna eventually bounce out to go down to the ocean. Oh, I see, not super stable. Not super stable. So we don't know very precisely the shape of that lip, and so we can't really say with great confidence how stable it is.
Okay, so I guess it is. What would happen if the Higgs field gets out of this pseudo stable state. That's when you're saying, bad news might happen. Yeah, the ultimate bad news.
The ultimate bad news. And you might be thinking, Oh, I didn't even really know the Higgs boson existed. I didn't really think about it. I don't care. Why should that affect me at all? Right, I never use Higgs bosons. I don't buy them at the store. The price is not going to change. But remember that this field underlies basically everything. I mean, the fact that the Higgs boson has the minimum it does, which is above zero, is the reason why w's and z's have mass, and it's the reason that all the fundamental particles have the mass they do. Right, So for example, so.
If anything, basically you're saying that if anything changes about it, we would have a totally different universe.
We would have a totally different universe with different basically different laws of physics. For example, the dog I would weigh less. Possibly you wouldn't even really exist anymore. I mean your particles, all the masses of all the particles would change. So the electron would have a different mass, the proton would have a different mass. Like we don't even know in that case, if quarks could confine into stable particles or if they would be free so we have protons. We don't know if we'd have stable atoms. The strengths of the forces would change, because if the W and the Z aren't massless, all of a sudden, the weak force not so weak anymore.
Well, it would be a totally different universe. But I mean, it wouldn't be better or worse. Would just be different.
We wouldn't be in it.
Or worse.
That's worse.
For us. But what the hore and Daniel and the.
Orhand Daniel prime, they would probably they're waiting to get on the stairs.
They're lighter, they're probably you know, more electric.
I don't know. No, you basically start from zero and build the universe up again, and you have totally different. I mean, it's not like we're changing the speed of light, right, We're not changing the universe. And that's in the multiverse sense. We're like picking totally new laws, but the parameters are changing. The masses are changing, which affects everything downstream. Right, how things come together, how they form bonds, how they make atoms, everything would be totally different, right.
The fabric would you're saying the fabric of the universe would unravel or it would just change where it's a totally different Cardigan.
It would be a totally we don't even know if you could make a carboguy, right, like.
What can you want?
I mean, it'd be very hard to go from here's the description of the fundamental nature of the universe as we have it now and then predict chemistry and biology like that would be hard, you know, yes, currently, and so to say let's change those laws and then try to understand what the universe would look like, that's a hard problem. We know it would look totally different.
Right, So it would be dramatic if the Higgs bos if the Higgs field change, and you're saying it is, and we don't know if it's possible, If the Higgs field can change, but there is sort of that possibility that it could, you know, jump out of those mountains and flow down to the ocean, and when we would have a totally different Cardigan List universe.
Yeah, exactly, everything that we know about the universe would be different. And that does seem like kind of a big deal. And you know, we made these measurements, we try to understand it. We're trying to make better measurements to get a better sense of how stable this is, right, And also there's the possibility that we just don't understand physics correctly.
Right.
This is our current model physics, and it could be wrong. So it could be that like, hey, you know, there's some other physics that's preventing this from happening, and that in a new theory of physics that better describes the universe, the Higgs is totally stable and this couldn't happen. But in our current understanding, the Higgs is not guaranteed to stay in its stay right, And.
You're saying that possibly maybe some of the things you're doing at the LAC could maybe accidentally cause that change. What do you what are you trying to warn us about Daniel.
I'm uncomfortable with your change to the active voice.
Here.
Can we return to the.
Passage press that button, Daniel and assume respond disibility for what happens.
Well, in the scenario where the Higgs field is not totally stable, it's metastable, then you can ask, like, what could get it over that edge and down to the ocean to change the universe into a totally different Cardigan List universe right, without any bananas or anything. And we don't really know, but there are some ideas, right. Idea number one is what about random fluctuation. You know, we talked about, you know, quantum tunneling. You know, we talked about electrons in potential wells and their trapped because they can't go over the lip, but we talked about how they could get through, right, they could tunnel through that barrier. This is sort of like water teleporting out of that lake and then flowing down the mountain. That's possible, and.
Like the field itself could in some points in the universe change, but then it would change back.
At one point in the universe would change. And the thing is if it changes at one point, then it sort of nucleates and it triggers this threshold where it makes the stuff around it unstable. So if any point in the universe does this, it spreads out sort of at the speed of light and spreads out across the universe. It's sort of like a water balloon. Right once you pop it in one spot, the rest of the spot's not going to hold the water. It's gone.
Like, if you get a little bit of the fields to relax, then that spreads like it pulls the rest of the fields to relax.
Yes, how do you know that? That's just what the math tells us. You know that these like that it would spread, It would spread. Yeah, and so you sort of kind of got to keep the field stable everywhere all the time, which is the kind of thing that makes it feel a little bit terrified. But the chances of this kind of tunneling, we've done the calculation. The chances of this kind of telling are very very small. According to our current understanding, it should happen once in about ten to the one hundred and thirty nine years. Okay, it's ten with one hundred and thirty nine zeros, which is a lot of zeros. Remember, the universe's current age is ten to the ten years, so it's it's a very very long time, which means it's basically never gonna happen. So that's not something to worry about.
Well, let's talk about kind of what would happen if it happened. So you're saying that maybe something might cause it or someone, which we'll talk about next.
Alien physicists.
That's alien Daniel Cardigan wearing Alien Daniel.
Why isn't it alien? Maybe the alien version of you as the physicist and I'm the cartoonist.
In which case it wouldn't happen because you know, all Joges are responsible and altruistic.
It was responsible, that was on deadline.
At least they show up on the for the podcast. This is all I can say. But so let's say we did something here and it started to relax here on Earth, Like what would happen, Like the universe would collapse and that point would it just be like a black hole expanding?
What?
Well, the field, the field goes through the Michael Bay movie in which this.
Happens, that's the whole movie. No, you, the field collapses, so physics changes at that point and in the field around it collapses, and the field around it collapses, and so what's happening is that the laws of physics of the universe are not fixed. They would change as the field changes.
Right, So, so like point one seconds into it, I hit pause on my Blu ray Player. What am I seeing in the special effects shot there?
You know, I have no idea what this new form of the universe would look like, right, Like, you know, what would how would light travel, what kind of other things would move? I have no conception of what it would be like to be in that universe. Sort of the new universe, like zero state Higgs field universe would spread at the speed of light. You get this pocket which grows and grows and grows, And I have no idea what it'd be like to be in that movie. Like the cast is spread at the speed of light. It spreads at the speed of light. Yeah, okay, so it'd be a quick death for us. Yes, that's right. You wouldn't have time to panic and you just start panicking now.
Pre panic.
I'm Jewish, so I know that panicking actually works, right, Worrying helps things. The universe response to your aura of panic. It's the only thing that can violate causality. Actually, Burry now you worry. Now it can change things that have already happened. Yeah, exactly. And one thing people worry about is maybe some very high density event I don't know, like colliding protons and near the speed of light might trigger might sort of like give enough energy to this thing that it slops over the edge and gets out of this metastable region and zero.
So if it happened to you're on Earth, I mean in a flash of light, basically we would be gone. Yeah, and in our place to be a totally be, totally different universe that starts from scratch, You think like it'd be like they're a big bang or something.
Well, I mean it's still so to our universe, but it's like the next version of it, right, Like Bigsfield is now a different state, and so physics is different, and so everything is different. It might be really boring universe, or might be really fascinating and complex in the way that ours is. Right, it might even be more rich, like maybe you can do all sorts of crazy new kinds of physics we never imagined. But you know, our brains rely on this kind of physics, and so we couldn't really exist in that universe. So we wouldn't ever really enjoy it. But you know, the same argument that suggests that we are not in danger of creating black holes that eat up the earth, right, the similar collisions happen all the time and have not created black holes. That same argument can be applied here.
All right, let's get into how physicists may or may not cause this Michael Bay movie to become a reality that destroys reality. But first, let's take another quick break.
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All right, So Daniel step us through. How are you going to destroy the universe?
Well, first, I'm gonna get a consulting fee from Michael Bay. I want to writing credit on the script.
Oh yeah, how much is that going to be worth when the universe no longer exists? Like, is it possible that as you're when you're colliding particles and you know, creating mini black holes that evaporate, but you know, and that's of a high energy collision, could you maybe trigger the Higgs field to start collapsing or not?
And again, remember, folks, this is a theoretical concern. We don't know if this is real. It's just sort of like we've done this calculation. We notice this thing makes us wonder. So there is the theoretical possibility that a high energy density event like that might trigger the Higgs field to relax into its true vacuum. But we have those kind of collisions all the time. Right, It's the same argument that makes us feel safe about black holes. Also makes us feel pretty confident about the Higgs field collapsing because protons are hitting protons in the atmosphere all the time.
Remember at the same energy that you were doing at the LHC.
Yes, and and at much higher energies. Remember that we have these crazy particles from space cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere at thousands of times the energy of collisions at the LHC. Really, and it's been doing that for billions of years.
You're saying that, Or if I look up at the sky out into space or at least or atmosphere, there are you know, there's like a thousand lhcs up there. Oh yeah, all doing things that are much worse than what you guys are doing.
Yeah, and remember, we don't know what's creating those particles. It's like another great mystery the universe is like what or who is creating these super high endrede particles. But they are hitting the Earth and they've been doing it a lot. There's millions of them every year at much higher energies than the LHC. So if there was a pretty good chance that one of those collisions would nucleate, a relaxation of the Higgs field, which spread at the speed of light. We're pretty sure what happened already, and we're pretty sure we're not increasing the danger by doing our little, tiny dinky collisions in a relative to the alien elied c.
I feel like you're telling me, like, oh, look everyone's vaping. If you vape, I'm sure if I vape, I'm sure that nothing bad will happen.
Yeah. Look, they you know, they set off a nuclear bomb and they didn't night the atmosphere, so I'm sure ours won't either.
You're saying. I think you're saying that the evidence tells you that this is super low probability or maybe even impossible, because you know, there's lacs happening in the sky all the time, and I'm sure in other planets as well, all across the universe.
And we are still here. We are still here. Yes, if you were listening to this podcast, then we have not yet destroyed the universe. Well, that's good that it's not that you just to freak out, all right.
So that's the question is will the Higgs boson destroyed the universe? You're saying it's theoretically possible, but so far, so good.
That's right, And I wouldn't fold it into your plants. It's more of an intellectual curiosity. It's one of these things where we've learned something totally new about the universe, right, that there's this weird field out there that has a little bit of tension in it, and that tension is what gives our universe. It's particular flavor that we're used to. And so we've learned that about the universe and learn sort of that we're like floating on this magma, right that are maybe our lives are more precarious than we thought. On the either hand, the Earth's been around a long time, right, And while there are a few volcanic eruptions now and then people get gobbled by lava. Mostly you can go around your the existence and not worry about sinking into a lake of lava. And that's basically what you need to do here, is not worry that the universe is going to get destroyed by particle physicists or cartoonists.
Or if it does happen, it'll be over at the speed of light, so why worry about that.
It won't be painful either way.
Yeah.
Also, just as a reminder that if you are curious to know that the universe has ended. There's always a website you can check, right, I.
Know that's right, it's has the LHC destroyed the world yet? Dot com? And it's always kept up to date, we promise.
All right, Well, I think it this all points to again, just the idea of how precarious our universe is. You know, how lucky and how amazing it is that we are even here able to talk about these things and explain him to you, you guys out there.
That's right. So you should enjoy that ice cream, You should take a deep breath of that fresh air. You should listen to your favorite podcast, and you should enjoy the universe because we don't know how long it'll continue. But as we keep learning more and more about the universe, we discover amazing, crazy things about it. And some of those things are a little bit scary.
So go out there and live life. Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed that. See you next time.
And please don't destroy the universe before the next podcast.
Where are you saying that to other people or to yourself?
It's sort of a mental note.
I see a sticky on your chest there. Wait until the next podcast. To destroy the universe.
But I think it applies generally, so I think it's good advice for everyone to follow. Before you still have a question after listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to hear from it. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's one word, or email us at Feedback at Danielandhorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. When you pop a piece of cheese into your mouth, you're probably not thinking about the environmental impact. But the people in the dairy industry are. That's why they're working hard every day to find new ways to reduce waste, conserve natural resources, and drive down greenhouse gas emissions. House US dairy tackling greenhouse gases. Many farms use anaerobic digestors to turn the methane from manure into renewable energy that can power farms, towns, and electric cars. Visit you as dairy dot com. Last sustainability to learn more.
There are children, friends, and families walking, riding on paths and roads every day. Remember they're real people with loved ones who need them to get home safely. Protect our cyclists and pedestrians because they're people too, Go safely, California from the California Office of Traffic Safety and Caltran's.
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