We have no idea how to answer some of our biggest questions, but this book explains why it's still worth asking the questions

By Lindsey Moon,

Published June 30, 2020 at 10:00 AM CDT

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What is time? Why is the earth made of matter and not of anti-matter? Are there really just three dimensions? Are we alone in the Universe? How big is the Universe? The short answer is, "we have no idea," and that's the point of a new book by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson.

During this episode of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Cham and Whiteson about their new book "We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe."

“There could be a 4^th dimension, a 5^th dimension. There could be an 11th dimension or a 26^th dimension. We could be in a 3 dimensional part of a the universe," says Whiteson. "I like to imagine going forward 500 years and reading a textbook when we have answers to these questions. Would we even be able to comprehend the answers?”

Whiteson is a professor of experimental particle physics at the University of California Irvine and a fellow of the American Physical Society. Cham is creator of Pile Higher and Deeper, known as PHD Comics. He holds a Ph.D. in robotics from Stanford.

In writing the book, they wanted to tackle some of the most interesting existential questions we don't have answers to. Find out more about it by watching their trailer.

This program was originally produced on May 9, 2017

We have no idea how to answer some of our biggest questions, but this book explains why it's still worth asking the questions

What is time? Why is the earth made of matter and not of anti-matter? Are there really just three dimensions? Are we alone in the Universe? How big is the Universe? The short answer is, "we have no idea," and that's the point of a new book by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson.

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