{"id":18597,"date":"2018-03-21T00:14:31","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T16:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/even-after-death-stephen-hawking-stirs-up-fresh-cosmological-tiffs-and-tributes\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T00:14:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T16:14:31","slug":"even-after-death-stephen-hawking-stirs-up-fresh-cosmological-tiffs-and-tributes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/even-after-death-stephen-hawking-stirs-up-fresh-cosmological-tiffs-and-tributes\/","title":{"rendered":"Even after death, Stephen Hawking stirs up fresh cosmological tiffs and tributes"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_406139\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406139\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-406139\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180320-hawking-cern-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180320-hawking-cern-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180320-hawking-cern-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180320-hawking-cern-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180320-hawking-cern.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-406139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Physicist Stephen Hawking visited the Large Hadron Collider\u2019s underground tunnel in 2013. (CERN Photo \/ Laurent Egli)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The ashes of the late British physicist Stephen Hawking will get a fitting resting place in Westminster Abbey, near the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.<\/p>\n<p>But you could argue that the true monuments to Hawking\u2019s memory are his books and theoretical papers, delving into the nature of black holes, the big bang and other cosmic mysteries. And as was often the case during his life, the last paper he completed is stirring up a fuss just days after his death.<\/p>\n<p>Hawking\u2019s so-called \u201cFinal Theory\u201d is a paper written with Belgian collaborator Thomas Hertog, and titled \u201cA Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation?\u201d It hasn\u2019t yet been published in a journal, but it\u2019s said to be under review and is available for inspection on the ArXiv pre-print server.<\/p>\n<p>The paper focuses on hypotheses having to do with cosmic inflation and the idea that our own cosmos is just one of many universes in a multiverse.<\/p>\n<p>Finding the evidence that other universes exist has been a puzzler for proponents of the multiverse concept, and this week some news outlets claimed that the Hawking-Hertog paper showed how those parallel universes could be detected.<\/p>\n<p>Those claims sparked a strong pushback from physicists who could actually navigate the paper\u2019s dense, math-filled arguments. In reality, Hawking and Hertog laid out their view on how many universes might exist if Hawking\u2019s cosmological perspective is correct.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Universe and Beyond, with Stephen Hawking\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TdjAJeUy0zM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not entirely uninteresting if you are into multiverse ideas, because then you need this information to calculate the probability of our universe,\u201d German theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder said in a posting to her Backreaction blog. \u201cBut it is also a very theoretical paper that does not say anything about observational consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some theories have suggested that as many as 10<sup>500<\/sup> kinds of universes could exist in the multiverse. If that\u2019s the case, it may not be worth obsessing over why our universe is the way it is. We just happen to be in a universe with the right physical properties to give rise to stars, planets, life \u2026 and intelligent creatures who wonder about the meaning of the universe.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what\u2019s called the anthropic principle.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Hawking and Hertog argue that their cosmological view is consistent with a more limited range of choices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur conjecture strengthens the intuition that holographic cosmology implies a significant reduction of the multiverse to a much more limited set of possible universes,\u201d they write. \u201cThis has important implications for anthropic reasoning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Katie Mack, a theoretical astrophysicist at North Carolina State University, provided a tweet-sized summary:<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=975902734238015489&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fstephen-hawking-cosmological-debate%2F&amp;sessionId=b5091c31642872eb67b8eb5f7c970831714501af&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"975902734238015489\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801352469285957=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">REALLY short summary of the paper: Hawking &amp; Hertog found, using some VERY preliminary calculations, that the rapid expansion in the early universe (inflation) might not always create a big mess of a multiverse, but might be more likely to make a cosmos like what we see.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 20, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=975903652597641216&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fstephen-hawking-cosmological-debate%2F&amp;sessionId=b5091c31642872eb67b8eb5f7c970831714501af&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"975903652597641216\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801352469285957=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If it holds up, it might make it possible to draw a fairly straight line between the beginning of the cosmos and today, rather than trying to explain why we&#8217;re in a Universe like ours and not one of the countless others that look totally different.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 20, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-2\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-2&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=975906693593927680&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2018%2Fstephen-hawking-cosmological-debate%2F&amp;sessionId=b5091c31642872eb67b8eb5f7c970831714501af&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"975906693593927680\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801352469285957=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I should add that the calculations in the paper, while, again, very preliminary, connect to some really cool ideas, like ways to bring gravity and quantum mechanics together.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 20, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hossenfelder wasn\u2019t quite as impressed. \u201cStephen Hawking was beloved by everyone I know, both inside and outside the scientific community,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe was a great man without doubt, but this paper is utterly unremarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For further perspectives on Hawking\u2019s \u201cfinal theory,\u201d take a look at The Register&nbsp;and Live Science. And for further perspectives on Hawking\u2019s life, check out some of the video presentations that are being released or resurfaced in his honor:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On Sunday, Smithsonian Channel will air a documentary featuring Hawking\u2019s views on space exploration, titled \u201cLeaving Earth: Or How to Colonize a Planet.\u201d&nbsp;The BBC\u2019s version of the show generated a hubbub last year, due to Hawking\u2019s claim that humanity had to populate another planet within 100 years to guarantee our species\u2019 long-term survival.<\/li>\n<li>From now through Friday, the CuriosityStream online video channel is providing free access to a three-part documentary series titled \u201cStephen Hawking\u2019s Favorite Places,\u201d in which the physicist takes viewers on cosmic tours.&nbsp;After Friday, the series will remain part of CuriosityStream\u2019s standard subscription service.<\/li>\n<li>PBS has a number of online videos featuring Hawking\u2019s life and legacy, including a documentary titled \u201cHawking\u201d and a six-part series that was hosted by the physicist, called \u201cGenius by Stephen Hawking.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>For a fictionalized version of the disabled physicist\u2019s life story, you can always fall back on \u201cThe Theory of Everything,\u201d the movie that won Eddie Redmayne an Oscar in 2015 for his portrayal of Hawking. It\u2019s available via HBO&nbsp;plus pay-per-view services such as Amazon, YouTube and iTunes.<\/li>\n<li>Discovery Channel has \u201cInto the Universe With Stephen Hawking,\u201d which focuses on big questions about time travel, extraterrestrial intelligence and, yes, the multiverse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Physicist Stephen Hawking visited the Large Hadron Collider\u2019s underground tunnel in 2013. (CERN Photo \/ Laurent Egli) The ashes of the late British physicist Stephen Hawking will get a fitting resting place in Westminster Abbey, near the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. But you could argue that the true monuments to Hawking\u2019s memory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2050,4570,21,3755,4551],"class_list":["post-18597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cosmology","tag-physics","tag-space","tag-stephen-hawking","tag-television"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}