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Podcast: Big Brains
Episode: Why Can’t Scientists Agree On The Age Of The Universe? with Wendy Freedman
Description: How old is the universe—and how fast is it expanding? These are part of one of the biggest—and most contested—questions in science, and the answers could change our understanding of physics.In this episode, we talk with renowned UChicago astronomer Wendy Freedman, who’s spent decades trying to solve these very questions. There are two ways to measure how fast the universe is expanding, also known as the Hubble constant; Freedman has done groundbreaking research to calculate this number using stars, but the problem is, her numbers don’t match up with scientists using a differen...