We have found the Higgs boson. So then the next question is what's next? Well the Large
Hadron Collider, this machine that is 27 miles in circumference, costing 10 billion dollars
is big enough to create the next generation of particles. So the Higgs boson in some
sense is the last hurrah for the old physics, the old physics of what is called the standard
model, which gives us quarks and electrons. The new theory is going to take us into dark
matter. Now we know dark matter exists. Dark matter is invisible, so if I held it
in my hand you wouldn't see it. In fact, it would go right through my fingers, go right
through the rock underneath my feet and go all the way to China. It would reverse direction
and come back from China all the way here to New York City and go back and forth.
So dark matter has gravitational attraction, but it is invisible and we are clueless as
to what dark matter really is. The leading candidate for dark matter today is called
the sparticle. The sparticle is the next octave of the string. Now look around you.
Everything around you, we think, is nothing but the lowest vibration of a vibrating string,
the lowest octave in some sense, but a string of course has higher octaves, higher notes.
We think that dark matter could in fact be nothing but a higher vibration of the string.
So we think that 23% of the universe, which is the dark matter's contribution to the universe,
comes from a higher octave of the string. Now the standard model which we have ample
verification of only represents four percent of the universe. So the universe of atoms,
protons, neutrons, neutrinos - that universe only represents four percent of what there
is. 23% is dark matter, which we think is the next vibration up of the string and then
73% of the universe is dark energy. Dark energy is the energy of nothing. It's
the energy of the vacuum. Between two objects in outer space there is nothing, nothing except
dark energy, dark energy, which is pushing the galaxies apart. So when people say if
the universe is expanding they say two things, what's pushing the galaxies apart and what
is the universe expanding into. Well what's pushing the galaxies apart is dark energy,
the energy of nothing. Even vacuum has energy pushing the galaxies apart. And then what
is the universe expanding into? Well if the universe is a sphere of some sort and
we live on the skin of the sphere and the sphere is expanding what is the sphere expanding
into? Well obviously a bubble, a balloon expands into the third dimension even though
the people living on the balloon are two dimensional. So when our universe expands what does it
expand into? Hyperspace, a dimension beyond what you can see and touch. In fact, string
theory predicts that there are 11 dimensions of hyperspace, so we're nothing but a soap
bubble floating in a bubble bath of soap bubbles and so in some sense the multiverse can be
likened to a bubble bath. Our universe is nothing but one bubble, but there are other
bubbles. When two bubbles collide that could merge into a bigger bubble, which could be
the big bang. In fact, that is what probably the big bang is or perhaps a bubble fissioned
in half and split off into two bubbles. That could be the big bang. Or perhaps the
universe popped into existence out of nothing. That is also a possibility.
And so the universe could essentially be nothingness, which was unstable and created a soap bubble
Now you may say to yourself well that can't be right because that violates the conservation
of matter and energy. How can you create a universe from nothing? Well if you calculate
the total matter of the universe it is positive. If you calculate the total energy of the universe
it is negative because of gravity. Gravity has negative energy. When you add the two
together what do you get? Zero, so it takes no energy to create a universe. Universes
are for free. A universe is a free lunch. And then you may say to yourself well that
can't be right because positive and negative charges don't cancel out, therefore, how can
the universe be made out of nothing. Well if you calculate the total amount of positive
charge in the universe and calculate the total amount of negative charge in the universe
and you add it up what do you get? Zero, the universe has zero charge. Well what
about spin? Galaxies spin, right? But they spin in all directions. If you add
up all the spins of the galaxies what do you get? Zero, so in other words, the universe
has zero spin, zero charge and zero matter energy content. In other words, the universe
is for free.