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The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum: 05/05/2012 GMT

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05/05/2012 GMT

BBC World Service - The Forum, 05/05/2012 GMT

Why there is more to empty space than you might think.

In the broader scheme of things, are we, humans, just ‘cosmic pollution’?

Cosmology, particle physics, mathematics and theatrical performance all come together this week, as we try to make sense of some of the biggest questions of all by juggling what we know about the very smallest things. Lawrence Krauss explains why the seemingly empty space that takes up so much of the cosmos is full of measurable energy.
Plus theatre director Alexander Devriendt on the reasons for telling the history of the universe backwards so that it ends in … nothing, and slices of nothingness in mathematics with Ian Stewart: a glimpse of the near-magical world of infinitesimals.

Illustration by Emily Kasriel: finding everything and nothing in the realm of the infinitesimally small and the infinitely large.

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05/05/2012 GMT

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