You can witness exponential inflation right here in the UK. It's pretty scary.

I can’t help but wondering about further and further back and the question that’s always asked; why is there anything at all? And this question; Is it possible for there to be nothing? Possible for there to be no universes? Also, possible for whatever brought about the universes to not exist. My brain breaks with the infinite regress.

I like that he starts with "what we think happened". It takes more courage and confidence to admit that you don't know for sure than to insinuate that you do when its impossible to know for sure.

I am 76 and astronomy has changed so much since then. My dad was one of the original Stony Ridge Observatory members. I went to all the meeting with him over the years while it was being built guided by George Carroll. Since we have had major telescopes in space and especially now our knowledge of reality of what is really going on is incredible and far beyond what was known back then. This certainly made me think again. Thanks. As Steve Morris, of high horsepower engines says, "Danger, Watch this and you might learn something." So glad to learn.

just the fact that were aware enough to ask these questions is amazing in its self.what a species!!!

Brian Cox is probably the best in the world in explaining physics to the general audience. I love this guy. If I had children I would force them to watch him at least once a week ;)

I’m still having a problem wrapping my mind around the idea the entire universe existed in an infinitely small point that exploded.

His voice is absolutely perfect for the stories he tells about the universe

I am always amazed when I learn of nearly incomprehensible Cosmic events like the start of our universe. It's enough to make me wonder why "intelligent" life that was gifted a planet with all the resources needed for survival could be so petty as to fight amongst ourselves the way we do. What a gift we humans were given so long ago.

I'm an open thinker, out of the box kind person, and no matter how hard I try to wrap my mind around the sheer numbers of cosmos , space and time, it's impossible. Trillions and trillions of stars, billions of galaxies, billions of light years light years, dark matter, anti-gravity, black holes, etc. It's mind all numbing, but I love it!!

This is infinitely frightening and awe inspiring all at once.

These types of videos make me start sobbing and I can’t quite explain why

How can there no end to the universe? It must go on forever up, across and down. But how? Mind,-boggling. Love Professor Brian Cox for making us so interested. In our universe.

This is the stuff that kept me up at night as a young boy. If there was a beginning of the universe then what was before, etc. Good job Brian!

So nice to going back cooking dinner after the video. Pasta, chicken, vegetables - I can see them, hold them and count them. What a relief! ))

I believe this is one of those things that will NEVER be known - and I don't say Never very often.... This kind of stuff is mind-blowing!!!

It's really weird sometimes to be sat at my computer, and be immersed in whatever I'm doing, and suddenly remember space is out there. I mean most things in day to day life you could say are fairly mundane, but space is almost cartoonishly wacky in its immensity and mystery, and its right there in the sky. We should all be going around with our eyes out on stalks over how ridiculous it is, but we just kind of get used to it and it only seems amazing every now and then when we actually think about it. Another funny thing is that most animals don't even know about space, like for example dogs, they don't think much beyond the general area that they're in, and they will never look up at the stars and question what's going on up there. It makes me wonder if we do the same, and we just don't realise it - maybe we just cannot get over the human condition enough to truly understand it, maybe there is something, that to some aliens, is obvious, and we just can't see it. I guess it's possible that AI could break through this, and figure things out that we hadn't considered.

I am so intrigued by science videos from Brian, Neil, and others that make me wonder even more about this giant floating bubble we get to ride on every day and everything surrounding it... but its like nighttime soft music to my ears and can somehow put me right to sleep. I wake up and rewatch immediately, just to have it happen again. Sometimes it takes me like 5 or 6 times to manage to get thru a whole video. I love and hate it all at the same time.

Where ever you start these theories "in the beginning" it always leads to the question - how did that come about, how did it get there and what was there before that. It's mind blowing thinking.

Love to listen to the wisdom of Brian Cox. The clue to answering this very important question he is discussing is a related question. Q: "If the Universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?" The answer to THAT question is one of the many puzzle pieces that Humankind has available about the construction of our Universe. I have a theory that I've never heard or read before but may make sense to Mathematicians and Physicists. The Theory is that that "There is a 4-Dimensional realm into which our 3-Dimensional realm is expanding into." The basis for this theory is that a "Universe" is a closed realm containing objects and energy whose behavior may be described using mathematical Constants and Formulas. The primary assumption for this theory is that a 1-dimensional universe may exist within a 2-dimensional universe but not vice versa. IOW, a 3-dimensional universe cannot exist in a 2-dimensional universe but may comfortably exist in a 4-dimensional universe. For example, the *constant* PI (3.14159..) has a meaningful value in 2-dimensional mathematical space, 3-dimensional space, and (by extension) also in 4, 5, 6, 7..N-dimensional space. Additionally, Triple Integrals, nor formulas for the Volume of an object, have any relevance in a 2-dimensional realm. By extension, in a 4-dimensional universe, not only are Triple Integrals, and constants such as PI, relevant, but there are NEW 4-dimensional constants and formulas yet to be discovered. (Note: some may consider TIME a "dimension". However, Time is NOT a mathematical dimension but instead, much like Gravity, is an *effect* that is created by the presence of mass and energy in multidimensional space). In other words, our 3-dimensional universe is expanding INTO a 4-dimensional universe that is in turn expanding into a 5-dimensional space..ad infinitum. The details of this theory are too extensive to be described here and the concept of a 4-dimensional universe may be a bit strange for most to understand, however Humans interested in the concepts of universes within universes should definitely read the book "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" (1884) by author Edwin Abbott Abbott. You will see further after reading this book. So, if we can understand what our 3-dimensional universe is expanding INTO, then that will lead us to a better understanding of the question "What was there before the Big Bang?" As a BONUS, the answer to the question "What is our Universe expanding into?" may also help us understand the nature of Black Holes and WHY they exist. I believe that our 3-dimensional universe is somewhat POROUS and there are "holes" in our universe's "outer shell/skin" that allow our 3-dimensional universe to "leak" energy and matter into a lower 2-dimensional universe. Similarly, Quasars (or other energy phenomenons) may be "holes/spouts" that "leak" energy from a higher energy 4-dimensional universe INTO our 3-dimensional universe. Something to ponder. Gnome sayin'?

As a kid I read about shadow reality/dimensions in a Dutch magazine called Kijk (Look). If remember correctly it was when collided nothing would exist (matter + anti matter). This was how the big bang was explained in the 1980's.

Professor is nice to talk about all these theories . At the end of the day you’ll never reach a definite answer . It is mind boggling to try understand the enormity of the universe . I’m an open minded person and the question keep coming up who’s is mighty this mighty force managing the whole thing .

Thanks for another great video, look forward to many more!

I think if I were to meet him I would get along with Mr Brian Cox. He seems a very humble and likeable guy. 🙏🏼

It’s amazing to think, that the overall structure of the universe that we witnessed today, began in the earliest times of the universe and has yielded beings like ourselves, who can now discover it and ponder about its existence

I have this thought that the universe is always expanding and shrinking and restarting every time. From a singularity to a very big expansion and again shrinking to a singularity that expands again. Edit: since the space and time are relative, if space started contracting (opposite of expansion) time will start going the opposite sens getting us back to origine of the universe again

Brian is a kind and peaceful person, and this is way more important than all physics. Perhaps the real exploration is in the human spirit.

Told my kid that in 200 years this theory could change substantially and to learn it, but be open to the fact it can change. Our ability to understand space is so young vs. our existence that what we know now can change in the future

I love how he explains it with what we think happened which basically means we guess.

I could listen to Prof Brian Cox for hours!

Thank you very much. You made it happen once again. My head exploded.

You blow my mind. Absolutely gorgeous video. I really appreciate how you explain things. You have a gift. Then there’s just the way you speak and articulate. It’s so pleasant. Thank you for being you.

How can Brian sleep at night with all this going on in his mind?

It’s so refreshing to hear brilliant and honest minds state that they simply don’t know some things about the universe.

Dear Prof Brian Cox First, thank you very much for the explanations all about Time, Space and Universes. ( I believe I follow step by step🙈 ) you said, we still are not capable of measuring OUR universe. You also mention once, that u might believe as well that there could be more Universes out there. Now, my thought is...if there could be more out there,.in my head 🙈 there MUST BE more than JUST 1 BIG BANG! For I always picture SPACE as infinite. C. Lady

For 40 years I've been fascinated by the Universe and the question "how can something have no end?". It hurts your brain when you first start wandering and wondering. Many years ago I bought a book called Strange Stories and Amazing Facts and Chapter 1 is titled The Enigma of Space. It says that the universe having an end or going on forever is equally hard for the human mind to grasp. I was determined to grasp it. I watched your video and, highest regard/no offense but you were supposed to give your theory of what was there before the BB and you didn't. I have a theory of my own and I will also dance around THAT WORD. Something cannot come from nothing or have no end unless there was no beginning for it to have an end. There is only one answer. So unscientific and unsolvable. Thank You Sir.

I like when scientists use words like "theoretically", "hypethetically" and "essentially" to add excitement and intrigue to their story telling

There are things the human mind is incapable of comprehending. Infinity is one of those things.

Fascinating. I remember reading a book about COBE (1989 to the 90's) some 25 years ago and the struggle to achieve the low temperature (near 0 kelvin) to measure the cosmic background radiation. It was an interesting read as it was quite technical in nature, worth checking out.

I love the way he explains things I'm a lay man but every time I listen to Dr Cox I understand what he's explaining .

I see Professor Cox, I click. Such an intelligent and well spoken human

Back in the mists of time when there was only Brian Cox.

I can only imagine the places every atom in our bodies have been and have seen. It's mind boggling to think that the stuff we're made of has been around since the infancy of our universe. Does that mean we're all 13.7 billion years old?

Accelerating expansion never really seemed confusing to me. If you have regions of space expanding, creating new regions of space that in turn are expanding, rinse and repeat, you would very quickly (in the scope of the age of the universe) end up with an exponentially compounding expansion rate that, while it’s influence on tangible matter might be minimal, the sheer volume of new space and that space expanding would conceivably push things away faster than the speed of light even though the objects themselves are still only moving through the space ahead of them, not the newly created space compounding behind them. They’re not moving faster than the speed of light, new space is being created in between us and them in all places at all times causing the illusion of faster than light travel

This fits with Roger Penrose’s idea of a cyclical universe, where the universe doesn’t know how big it is once all the matter is gone and time essentially ceases to exist. The idea that it would be expanding exponentially at that point has a nice symmetry with the concepts around the big bang.

As i approach 73 i recall that i asked this question of my dear mum, she said " there are some questions we do not ask !" I've kept the faith with that answer, as when i think about it i go blank !

I LOVE knowing that there are things we will absolutely never know. Of course I'd love to know them all but this is even better.

Maybe im being naive but I think that the human species intellectual capacity likes to deal with beginnings and endings. As far as im concerned, my brain really cannot comprehend it but the universe and existence itself may have simply always existed. There may not have been any beginning nor will there ever be an end. Infinity is itself a scary concept. I believe Brian Cox and Roger Penrose lean towards this concept

Anyone remember the scene from a MIB a movie where a universe is inside of a small marble attached to a necklace on a cat? It slowly zooms out to show the grand scale from being on a planet to showing the planet from space, then the solar system, then the universe and then shows that it was all inside the necklace. It really made me fall in love with the wonder of our known universe and made me realize just how small we actually are

People say "it began as smaller than an atom" but there must have been something in which that atom existed. This is what I find troubling. Also when did the universe begin ? When does it end and what's after the end?

The singularity theory would require graphs to explain it better but its also not a fact… from what Crash Course said, think about the distance of your thumb and all your fingers. Close your hand, then open. The distance of each finger will expand further away from your thumb or shorter, depending on the which finger you’re finding distance at. & we can now see the “wall of fire” (think of a hot, dense, soup) which is 13.8 Billion light years away (really 40 now because of expansion). That, is the Beginning of the universe. The wall of fire though is too uniform for the Big Bang to have came from a singularity, and had it came from one, we wouldn’t get the same results we have today of the universe. Awesome video !

To my mind the most interesting question. Are we in a universe that will generate life capable of fully understanding all of its secrets? All we can really conclude just now is that we are trying. But what we do know is that solar systems that are capable of supporting life have a finite life, so perhaps our single most important challenge is to work out how to find and move around such systems.

Small correction: “Infinite number of universes” is wrong. Infinity is not a number, it’s a concept. Any number, no matter how big it is, is puny compared to infinity.

Short easy answer… No one Knows. Done

Love these videos, keep them up 😁

. Another amazing video from an amazing scientist. I read someone say that Brian Cox could be the next Carl Sagan. It is clearly implied here that space and time are emergent properties. Causality does not seem to have been mentioned specifically, but if time and space are emergent, then by inference causality too is an emergent property. Also said, we might never ever know what happened “before” these emerged. But what does “before” actually mean if time started with big bang… I have heard is said - “Truth is that from which all words and languages bounce back in silence!” Thus 3 Questions that science cannot ask, leave alone answer - - What was ‘before’ time - What is ‘outside’ space - Why causality Because science can start after these three are available. (Donald Hoffman - “give us a few miracles and we scientists can prove anything”). So then, what is THAT from which these emerged? What is THAT “Ontological Primitive” ? Then again, 20th century has shown us that what we perceive as the universe is : - - Uncertain - Relative - Incomplete Thus, we have 2 Question that needs to be asked. - What is that from which Time, Space and Causality emerged? - Is there anything which is certain, absolute, complete ? People from a few thousand years ago have speculated much on these questions, and they proposed some amazing questions and claims. Like, - For something to be Real, doesn’t it need to be Certain, Absolute and Complete. - Then can an entity that is Uncertain, Relative, Incomplete be said to be Real. Thus don’t we have to say the Universe is not Real in any Absolute sense. - Then what is Real ? - Time, Space and Causality are emergent entities. Then logically there has to be that something, an ontological primitive from which these emerged. - What is That ? - That is the Real, from which time, space and causality emerged. That is the Ontological Primitive. They call it by a name which means like “Vastness”. - Universe is the consequence of the emergence of Time, Space and Causality. - If the Universe is “not Real”, then how do I experience it? Doesn’t it ‘Appear to me’ ? - Yes, it is an Appearance in the Real, which is here for some time and will dissolve back into the Real. - It is not that “the Appearance is here, and Real is something long ago or in a faraway galaxy”. Appearance is experienced in the same locus as the Real. - Real cannot be experienced as Real, because our sum total of experience is via instruments of experiences like the senses and mind. These instruments are tuned only for use in survival process. Thus as far as experiencing the Real is concerned, the instruments are limited hence defective. - Thus, only Appearance can be experienced via senses and mind. - Appearance is just the experience of the Real when experienced via the defective instruments of senses and mind. - Experience of Appearance itself is the result of the Error from the defects of the experiencing instruments. - If Real can ‘Appear once’, it can Appear infinite number of times and infinite number of places. - But once you say infinite, then ‘number of time’, ‘number of places’ becomes meaningless as you cannot count or locate infinity. Then there is only ‘Infinitude’. - Infinitude implies just One, which cannot be created / grow / change / evolve / deteriorate / destroyed. - Thus, That would be One Without a Second. - How to experience That ? It cannot be experienced by senses or inference. It can be only ‘Realised’ as a fact once the Error is understood as a consequence of defective instruments. If modern scientists agree to look beyond the conventional methods of logical positivism, at other available ideas and claims, it could help a lot for a better understanding of things. Many have done it, but I guess as persons, not as a concerted fomalised effort of the scientific community. IMHO. .

So crazy how we figured all this stuff out. Imagine how smart you need to be to think of this stuff

There had to be a beginning, and there has to be an end...but we will never know..... Embrace the life we were given, it only comes once, and it is precious.

Great vid! I have questions... We are constrained by certain limitations in our universe, such as the speed of light, at app. 300K km/s. As Brian pointed out, the inflation period lasted a mere fraction of a second, expanding from the size of an atom to the present observable universe. I am pretty sure that would be many times the speed of light... Perhaps that was because the forces in this universe weren't fully installed yet at that point in time? And that leads to more questions, such as why do the forces of nature have the properties/constraints they have, and why/how could they be different in another universe?

Brian really knows how to explain these things and with such a smooth voice

I needed this for my sanity. I keep questioning everything about creation

Some scientists have theorized that the universe was birthed by the black hole in the center of another universe, that we're the matter that got spit out of the back end. I don't know how well supported this idea is, but I like it. I mean, what IS space at all? Why IS there empty space at all, a landscape for matter and existence to grow on? Space within...what? The universe is expanding...into WHAT? Is "nothing" really, ACTUALLY nothing?

I watch these videos hoping that eventually one of them will actually give me “the answer”. The “wonder of space” is that we wonder what the answers are and will likely never know. We may not even be asking the right questions. Fascinating.

It’s pretty funny that so far the best theory we have on how the universe came about is - it just went “bang!” bigly and here we are.

I believe in the KISS Principle. Using Einstein's Theory which has yet to be disproved, to get the "Energy" of a Big Bang, there must have been a "Mass" travelling at the speed of light squared. Now even if there were two masses traveling at that speed that collided, the question that begs is WHERE DID THE MASS OR MASSES come from if there was no universe? Wouldn't a simpler explanation be that there was ALWAYS a Universe and that it just keeps changing over time.

Why is everything so beautifully balanced so that living things can exist?

I like the fact that we know next to nothing. As a species we have so much to learn and that makes me excited for future generations

At least cosmologists now acknowledge that they haven’t got any of the answers other than measuring what we can measure today. It is absolutely the right thing to do to keep looking at both the large and the small, always fascinating and one day it will fall into place, it must be deterministic and therefore will most likely arise from new discoveries in particle physics.

what song was playing at the beginning?

I've got an BSc(Hons) in Quantum mechanics and I've studied this a lot since then and this is all probably true Brians speculations!

I like your comment in the introduction that the Big Bang and its follow-on milliseconds was standard cosmology "at the moment". All too often, those words are omitted. There could be some amazing discovery this evening that completely changes this. Very, very unlikely of course, but it may.

One day I’m hoping one of these UKposts videos will actually answer the question

I feel like when people say "this universe has perfect conditions for us to exist" they take the human centric point of view. When in fact, universe is an independent "being". It wasn't ment for us, we just came along as a byproduct. There could, and maybe there are, other life forms that originated from totally different particles that we are not even aware of yet.

Its so amazing that all of this in the universe started with something that was smaller than a grain of salt and then it went BOOM and then it expanded into what is growing today. Amazing there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth. Its so amazing

Just pondering this stuff makes me feel like I'm tripping on acid....like, why does anything exist? But then again, how could there be nothingness? How would one define the beginning of infinity? ...I gotta go drink a beer and lie down for a while.

Always enjoy Brian's explanations.

Great video. What was the beginning of time? Crazy stuff

The concept of beginning or end are ultimately objects of our perception, they are mere conventions derived from it. There is no beginning, nor there is an end. There is. Same as when you try to think of the most fundamental unit of something, everything is made of something. There is a universe in everything.

Thank you Brian Cox for explaining things so people like myself can understand what is being discovered. Everything is happening so fast and new discoveries are being found all the time.

Every possible combination...exists. That's great. So if every possible universe imaginable exists, then imagine a universe where there are no other universes. That's the one we live in.

The way I like to think of multiple universes is: If you can imagine it, it's statistically possible.

Infinity is really such a hard concept to comnprehend. We are so used to having borders, edges, definitions of position within space.

Sometimes they demonstrate gravity with a heavy ball, like a bowling ball, on a rubber membrane. Then a lighter ball, like a tennis ball, is placed on the membrane and when looking down from above the balls will behave as if they had gravitational attraction. We've all seen that, right? Now imagine there is a fluid under the membrane, something that cannot change volume. The bowling ball will push the membrane down locally, but further away it will push the membrane up. Maybe dark energy, the accelerating expansion, is caused by a similar mechanism.

Prof. Brian Cox is one of the Brilliant mind Humanity given.

Prof. Cox - you're my inspiration for cosmic exploration (in my mind). Great thank you for all your hard work and efforts! SpaceMan

So the only part of this video that hints at a theory of 'What Was There Before The Big Bang' is where Brian talks of the possibility of multiple 'planes' and two of them colliding, causing what we see as the Big Bang... and that in a way, describes 'before the big bang' as there were just other planes that existed before. I adore this kind of thing. I've always taken great interest and intrigue in cosmology and have always yearned for more knowledge about where our universe came from before the Big Bang... but this video could have been around 10 seconds long. The intro shows the video title, 'What Was There Before The Big Bang'. Then Brian Cox gets to the point by saying what we already knew; "The truth is, we don't know and, while we'll continue to try and find out, we may never know." Video ends. However, that would mean the video didn't reach the '10-minute video length' rule of UKposts.

how jou can start anything whit noting?in my opunion dear was some material ,and how can jou expand fastezr than themax of c?

Before the Big bang, there was the philosopher's stone.

Multiple universess colliding together as the catalyst for the big bang/ universe expansion is a very compelling theory.

We have no idea and probably never will.

I'd love to sit here and explain to everyone, what happened before the Big Bang but sadly, there's no time.

the big bang could be simply a stage in a never ending cycle of universe after universe.

There was no “before” the Big Bang because to have a “before” you have to have time and the concept of time only exists within our universe, which only exists after the Big Bang. So you have to theorise what existed in a condition that is impossible to understand because the rules that apply to our universe did not exist.

Absolute madness! 😅 love it!! 👏

I realise that most of the images and animations accompanying the voiceovers are more cosmetic than informative, but from 4'05 there is a time-chart showing the Big Bang preceding Inflation, while at the same time Cox explains that "it is mainstream" theory that the Big Bang came after Inflation. The same thing happens near the start of the video. Can anyone explain this inconsistency?

"So just imagine you've got two universes on two different pieces of paper. They then bump into each other and that creates a new universe" Huh ???? Does anyone else not get that ? Wouldn't you think they could come up with a clearer and more realistic explanation

Fighting for answers which we may not be able to see ever, atleast in a single lifetime🤣

Brian Cox is the British Carl Sagan. A great scientist, and science communicator. I highly recommend “The infinite monkey cage”, especially the episodes concerning the life of strawberries. About this vid: Insane in the N-Brane. Insane in the brane!

Another good video, the thing about "why our universe" has life. Could simply be that life can evolve to suit the universe it's in. I.e. conditions we think are required for life may just be different in another universe.

As much as I appreciate all these theories, I have always thought the big bang from a singularity is incorrect. Extrapolation can sometimes take a chaotic turn, and the before BB is becoming questioned more, which is great! My belief is that this question will never be answered, only speculated upon. As Human Beings we have a desire to answer everything (which is brilliant) But sometimes you have to accept the limitations of the mind, and accept our perception of reality for what it is, and concentrate on making the world a better place!! Just my opinion...thanks to any one who reads this rambling message!!